Coast Guard Squadron Three Vietnam - Market Time 1967-1971

[Salvage Sailor]

Coast Guard Squadron Three Begins Supporting Operation MARKET TIME

May 15, 1967

 

"COAST GUARD IN VIETNAM: Five white 311-foot cutters of the recently established Coast Guard Squadron Three assigned to "Market Time" coastal surveillance in South Vietnam are tied up alongside Navy repair ship USS JASON (AR-8) after arriving at Subic Bay, P.I.  From the left are the USCGC HALF MOON, USCGC YAKUTAT, USCGC GRESHAM, USCGC BARATARIA, and USCGC BERING STRAIT."  Coast Guard Photo Rel. No. 6201; 4 August 1967; photo by CDR Richard Morse, USCG, commanding officer of Barataria.

 

Coast Guard Squadron Three, newly arrived in Vietnam, begins to support the U.S. Navy in Operation MARKET TIME. Squadron Three is equipped with five 311-foot, high-endurance cutters. In addition to providing fire support, Squadron Three interdicts enemy supply vessels and engages in medical and civic action programs. USCG Cutter Barataria conducts the first fire-support mission for Squadron Three on May 22.

Eugene N. Tulich, “The United States Coast Guard in Southeast Asia during the Vietnam Conflict,” “Chapter 3,” http://www.uscg.mil/history/articles/h_tulichvietnam.asp(link is external) (accessed 8/4/14); “U.S. Coast Guard in Vietnam: A Gallery of Historic Photographs: Coast Guard Squadron Three,”

 

USCGC GRESHAM (WHEC-387)

Market Time High Endurance Cutter, Flagship of USCGC Squadron Three, "The White Dragon of the Sea"

 

Intended to be a Barnegat class Seaplane Tender in 1943 USS WILLOUGHBY (AVP-57), she was reclassified and commissioned as a Motor Torpedo Boat Tender USS WILLOUGHBY (AGP-9) in 1944. She tended her PT boat squadrons in New Guinea, Palau, Leyte, Luzon, Palawan, Borneo and Mindoro.

 

In 1947 she was loaned to the US Coast Guard and commissioned as USCGC GRESHAM (AVP-57) serving as an Oceanographic ship and cutter until 1966 when she was reclassified as a high endurance cutter and redesignated WHEC-387

 

 

She spent 1967 and 1968 in Vietnam with Coast Guard Squadron Three employed on Market Time missions

 

Gresham departed San Francisco for Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on 16 April 1967 under the command of Commander Norman L. Scherer, USCG. Upon her arrival in Hawaii, Gresham became flagship of Coast Guard Squadron Three, which was designated Task Unit 70.8.6. Captain John E. Day, commander of the squadron, hoisted his flag aboard Gresham upon activation of the squadron on 24 April 1967.

 

Coast Guard Squadron Three was tasked to operate in conjunction with U.S. Navy forces in Operation Market Time, the interdiction of communist coastal arms and munitions traffic along the coastline of Vietnam during the Vietnam War. The squadron's other Vietnam War duties included fire support for ground forces, resupplying Coast Guard and Navy patrol boats, and search-and-rescue operations. Serving in the squadron with Gresham were the cutters USCGC Yakutat (WHEC-380), USCGC Bering Strait (WHEC-382), USCGC Barataria (WHEC-381), and USCGC Half Moon (WHEC-378); like Gresham, they all were Casco-clas cutters and former Navy Barnegat-class ships. They departed Pearl Harbor on 26 April 1967 and reported to Commander, United States Seventh Fleet, for Market Time duty on 4 May 1967. They were joined by U.S. Navy radar picket destroyer escorts (DERs) of Escort Squadrons 5 and 7.

 

 

The ten Market Time ships arrived at Subic Bay in the Philippines on 10 May 1967. The five Coast Guard cutters and five Navy destroyer escorts continuously manned four Market Time stations off Vietnam, while only Navy warships served on two Taiwan patrol stations. One ship rotated duty as the station ship in Hong Kong. Gresham remained in the Western Pacific until 28 January 1968 and arrived home at Alameda on 10 February 1968.

 

 

She continued her service in Pacific waters through 1969 and then in the Atlantic when in February 1970 she was reclassified as a meteorological cutter and redesignated WAGW-387

 

USCGC GRESHAM was finally decommissioned in April 1973 after a long life at sea with both the USN and USCG

 

 

 

 

COAST GUARD SQUADRON THREE in Vietnam

(WHEC) High Endurance Cutters Assigned to Market Time Service

 

FIRST DEPLOYMENT

Barataria (WHEC 381) 4 May 67 - 25 Dec 67

Half Moon (WHEC 3 )  4 May 67 - 29 Dec 67

Yakutat (WHEC 380)   4 May 67 - 1 Jan 68

Gresham  (WHEC 387)  4 May 67 - 28 Jan. 68

Bering Strait (WHEC 382) 4 May 67 - 18 Feb. 68

 

SECOND DEPLOYMENT

Duane (WHEC 33) 4 Dec 67 - 28 July 68

Androscoggin  (WHEC 68) 4 Dec. 67 - 4 Aug 68

Campbell (WHEC 32) 14 Dec 67 - 12 Aug 68

Minnetonka (WHEC 67) 5 Jan. 68 - 29 Sep. 68

Winona (WHEC 65) 25 Jan. 68 - 17 Oct. 67

 

THIRD DEPLOYMENT

Bibb (WHEC 31) 4 July 68 - 28 Feb 69

Ingham  (WHEC 35) 16 July 68 - 3 Apr 69

Owasco (WHEC 39) 23 July 68 - 21 Mar 69

Wachusett (WHEC 44) 10 Sep 68 - 1 June  69

Winnebago (WHEC 40) 20 Sep 68 - 19 July  69

 

FOURTH DEPLOYMENT

Spencer (WHEC 36) 11 Feb 69 - 30 Sep 69

Mendota  (WHEC 69) 28 Feb 69 - 3 Nov 69

Sebago (WHEC 42) 2 March 69 - 16 Nov 69

Taney (WHEC 37) 14 May   69 - 31 Jan 70

Klamath (WHEC 66) 7 July 69 - 3 April 70

 

FIFTH DEPLOYMENT

Hamilton (WHEC 715) 1 Nov 69 - 25 Nov 70

Dallas (WHEC 716) 3 Nov 69 - 19 June 70

Chase (WHEC 718) 6 Dec 69 - 28 May  70

Mellon  (WHEC 717) 31 Mar 70 - 2 July 70

Pontchartrain (WHEC 70) 9 May 70 - 3 Sep 70

 

SIXTH DEPLOYMENT

Sherman (WHEC 720) 22 Apr 70 - 25 Dec 70

Bering Strait (WHEC 382) 17 May 70 -  31 Dec 70  +

Yakutat (WHEC 380) 17 May 70 - 31 Dec 70    +

 

SEVENTH DEPLOYMENT

Rush (WHEC 723)  28 Oct 70 - 15 July 71

Morgenthau  (WHEC 722) 6 Dec. 70 - 31 July 71

 

EIGHTH DEPLOYMENT

Castle Rock  (WHEC 383) 9 July 71 - 21 Dec 71  +

Cook Inlet (WHEC 384) 2 Jul. 71  - 21 Dec. 71  +

 

+ Turned over to the South Vietnamese Navy.

 

Buoy Tenders:

Basswood  (WLB 388)  

Blackhaw (WLB 390) 

Ironwood (WLB  297)

Planetree (WLB 307)

 

Cargo Vessel:

Nettle (WLB 169)