Coast Guard News

HONOLULU — Recent U.S. Coast Guard Commandants have used the phrase “military, multi-mission, and maritime” to describe the essence of the service. Nowhere was this moniker better demonstrated than in the waters and steaming jungles of Southeast Asia during the Vietnam War. The Coast Guard was involved in many facets of the war including maritime interdiction of Viet Cong infiltrators and weapons, combat search and rescue, port security, advising South Vietnamese officials, and aids to navigation. The latter, a rather innocuous sounding mission, included the highly classified Operation Tight Reign, a joint operation which had great impact on the high-tech prosecution of the war.

Operation Market Time was the Coast Guard’s entrée into Vietnam. The U.S. Navy was trying to stop North Vietnamese infiltration of personnel and weapons into South Vietnam, and turned to the U.S. Coast Guard to assist. The first forces, 17 Point-class patrol boats arrived in Vietnam in July 1965. They were based in Da Nang, An Thoi, and Vung Tau. From 1967 to 1971 they were joined by a string of their larger sisters, high endurance cutters that packed greater surface warfare and naval gunfire support punch with their 5-inch and 76mm naval guns. By the end of the maritime interdiction operations, 26 patrol boats and 30 high endurance cutters served in the war.

Eleven Coast Guard aviators served with the U.S. Air Force 37th Aerospace Rescue and Recovery Squadron in Southeast Asia. They earned four silver stars, 16 distinguished flying crosses, and 86 air medals rescuing downed pilots in combat conditions. One pilot, LT Jack Rittichier lost his life on June 9, 1968. His body remained missing until 2002 when it was found in Laos by Joint Task Force - Full Accounting personnel.

In addition to direct combat, the Coast Guard had many personnel serving in key support missions in Southeast Asia. Coast Guard advisors and buoy tender crews planned, established, and maintained an enhanced system of visual aids to navigation (ATON) in Vietnam’s overtaxed harbors. Five Coast Guard Explosive Loading Detachments were established in Vietnam to ease the U.S. Army Logistics Command’s concerns over the lax safety and security practices of the Vietnamese who were offloading the tons of ammunition and explosives. The patrol boat, ATON, and port safety personnel formed the bulk of the U.S. Coast Guard military advisory group in the Republic of Vietnam. They performed important duties during the “Vietnamization” phase of the war.

Some Coast Guardsmen participated in a formerly SECRET operation dubbed Tight Reign. The Air Force and Navy needed a reliable, all-weather, navigation system to support combat operations. The Coast Guard’s Long Range Radio Aid to Navigation , better known as LORAN-C, was at the cutting edge of electronic navigation before the age of GPS. Therefore, the Coast Guard supervised the construction and manned a chain of LORAN stations in Thailand and Vietnam. These units were protected by the elite Air Force Security Police and augmented by Army infantry units. During the Easter Offensive in 1972, the Coast Guardsmen of LORAN Station Tan My witnessed the bitter fighting near Quang Tri.

About 8,000 Coast Guardsmen participated in the war in Southeast Asia from July 1965 to Feb. 11, 1973. Seven U.S. Coast Guard personnel made the ultimate sacrifice, and 53 others were wounded in action. The Coast Guard is credited with destroying 2,000 vessels and killing 1,827 of the enemy. At the end of the war, all 26 patrol boats and four of the 311-foot high endurance cutters that participated during Operation Market Time were transferred to the Republic of Vietnam Navy. All of these cutters fell into enemy hands in 1975.

This article is one of a series of historical vignettes written to bring attention to the Coast Guard Pacific Veteran’s Memorial Project. You can find out more detailed information on how you can support this project by visiting the CGPVMP website.

Sources: USCG Aviation Hall of Fame, USCG Website, “Guardians of the Sea” by Robert Erwin Johnson, “The Coast Guard at War” by Alex Larzelere.

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