B8 | THE FLAGSHIP | JUN 25, 2015 | FLAGSHIPNEWS.COM
U.S. COAST GUARD PHOTO While assigned to U.S. Coast Guard Squadron 3, at South Vietnam, the 255-foot Cutter OWASCO (WHEC-39) is seen with USS GUADALUPE (AO-32), after refueling from the Navy tanker during Market Time patrol.
1965
U.S. Coast Guard sends 26 82-foot cutters to Vietnam
5 USCG high endurance cutters are commissioned as Coast Guard Squadron Three at Pearl Harbor
1967
1967
20 YEARS IN VIETNAM: THE COAST GUARD STORY BY CARRIE ANDERSON From providing coastal surveillance to supervising the offloading of live ammunition and explosives, the U.S. Coast Guard played a surprisingly large role in supporting the Vietnam War effort. Lacking the capability to patrol shallower waters, the Navy needed assistance with inshore patrols. Beginning in 1965, the U.S. Coast Guard sent 26 82-foot cutters to Vietnam to inspect junks for contraband, intercept and destroy North Vietnamese and Viet Cong craft, and provide fire support for friendly forces. In addition to the regular mission of preventing the transmission of support and weapons to the Viet Cong, the cutters frequently provided emergency support for U.S. Special Forces including the transportation of personnel, medevacs and naval gunfire support missions. During the first year of operations, the three divisions of Coast Guard Squadron 1, steamed more than half million miles, stayed underway more than 70 percent of the time, detected 15,000 junks, inspected 30,000 junks, boarded 35,000 junks, accounted for 75 Viet Cong KIA/ WIA/CIA, arrested several hundred Viet Cong, destroyed 16 junks and one steel hull boat, and captured more than 100 tons of enemy weapons and supplies. After the success of the Coast Guard patrol boats in disrupting the Viet Cong’s supplies in coastal waters, the Navy requested additional help in the form of five high-endurance cutters to supplement the Coastal
U.S. NAVY PHOTO Boatswain’s Mate 2nd Class Steve Jimmerfield of Prineville, Oregon, races from beneath the big Navy helicopter after hooking up the cargo net for return to the supply ship. [Photo taken from on board USCGC Taney.]
Surveillance Forces as a part of Operation Market Time. In April 1967, Coast Guard Squadron 3, was formed at Pearl Harbor. Two days later, the squadron sailed from Pearl Harbor and arrived at Subic Bay on May 10. The Navy assigned the cutters to the Gulf of Thailand for gunfire support of Ong Doc, as well as logistic support to other patrol boats in the area. By the end of Squadron Three’s time in Vietnam, 30 high endurance cutters served in a time period spanning April, 1967 through January, 1972. Navy operations support was not the only wartime activity that Coast Guard cutters were used for in Vietnam. The Coast Guard also provided needed maintenance to navigational aids off the coast of Vietnam. With the explosion of naval activity that came with the stepping up of naval warfare, the South Vietnamese aids to navigation team, with only one buoy tender, was not up to the task of maintaining the navigational aids needed to keep the passageways safe for naval traffic. Coast Guard buoy tenders in the Pacific made periodic trips to Vietnam installing and maintaining buoys. A Coast Guard Aids to Navigation Detail was eventually set up in Saigon to coordinate workloads for these visits, as well as keeping buoys and range markers lit. Another operation that fell to the Coast Guard was providing security at ports including Nha Be, Cam Ranh Bay and Da Nang. The Coast Guard sent multiple 8-man teams which were responsible for overseeing the
USCG PHOTO BY SN M. E. BEACH USCGC GRESHAM ON MARKET TIME: Two of her ‘charges’ approach Gresham to receive food, ammunition and fresh crews. The speedy little swift boats help cover the Market Time patrol areas in closer to shore, but depend upon the larger ships for support.
TELL US YOUR VIETNAM STORY If you have a story or photos you would like to share, please contact Carrie Anderson at carrie.anderson@militarynews.com or 757-222-3983.
Coast Guard Squadron Three begins MARKET TIME patrolling
USCG helicopter pilots arrive to fly combat SAR missions with the Air Force.
1968
The cutters frequently provided emergency support for U.S. Special Forces including the transportation of personnel, medevacs and Naval Gunfire Support missions. safe unloading of explosives and ensuring ports were secure. The teams were also responsible for ensuring that explosives were handled safely at all points during their storage, a task that proved difficult with the high number of smokers in the military and barges that carried families who cooked over open flames. Additionally, the teams were responsible for training other detachments responsible for port security. They taught U.S. Army and Vietnamese boat coxswains how to handle small boats and perform maintenance on outboard motors. They gave instructions in port fire fighting and pier inspections and taught Vietnamese army stevedores how to block and brace cargo. The Coast Guard also provided search and rescue helicopter pilots to assist the U.S. Air Force and merchant marine details, to ensure necessary cargo made it safely to Vietnam, assisted the Vietnamese in coordinating a law library of pertinent Vietnamese maritime laws, regulations and obtain suitable law enforcement boats, and assisted in the turnover of two cutters to the Vietnamese near the end of the war.