U. S. Coast Guard Squadron Three - Fifth Deployment.

USCGC Hamilton (WHEC 715)

USCGC Dallas (WHEC 716)

USCGC Chase (WHEC 718)

USCGC Mellon (WHEC 717)

USCGC Pontchartrain (WHEC 70)

Chase-ing About in Vietnam. Former TT3 Clarence Croxall, Jr, USCG,. loans us some photos of his Vietnam tour on Chase. He also provides the Chase patch.
The CGC Hamilton seen from Chase.	Part of the Chase's deck force relaxes on the fantail and signals their greetings with the "Hawaiian Salute."

USCGC Mellon (WHEC 717) at Hawaii before her deployment to Vietnam.

On the line. By 1970 interdicition from the sea had been all but closed to North Vietnam. The WHEC's were being used as gunfire support ships as can be seen on this June 4, 1970 fire mission. Listen to an actual Naval Gunfire Support (NGFS) mission. [This tape is copyrighted and is used with permission of the owner. Windows Media Audio file. Approximately 29 minutes]
If you shoot it, you have to clean it. Left to Right: SA(GM striker) "Muddy" Waters, GM3 Vern Whittaker, GM3 Stan Robbins, and SN (GM striker) Steve Myers.	The use of palm tree logo designed as a method to count fire missions is obvious. Left to Right: GM2 Bob Becker, GMCS Donnie G. Biehl (deceased) and GM3 Stan Robbins following the Mellon's first fire mission.	The Director.
The Brown water guys get some rest. A U. S. Navy ASPB - Assualt Support Patrol Boat crew gets some rest along side.	As does Vietnamese patrol boat (100-foot) PG 605.	A LCM from An Thoi Island return some of Mellon's crew after a brief 'liberty ' at the SeaBee base.
There is no description possible for this scene.

CWO Robert B. McDole, USCG (ret) gives us an excellent portrayl of his first sea duty and 1970 Vietnam Deployment aboard CGC Pontchartrain (WHEC-70) as an RM2. He took the photos and sent them home to his new bride to help her understand the things he wrote about. (Photos donated by CWO Robert B. McDole, USCG (ret) ©)			RM2 Bob McDole poses for a photo home next to a well used 5"/38 gun mount. Not the burned paint on the barrel -- a sure sign of work.
"In tow, bound Guam. Note towing chain." Bob McDole wrote on the photos back. The "Ponch" had an inauspicious beginning ffor her deployment. Following a major engineroom fire she sat dead in the water for two days. Here she is being towed to Guam for repairs by the CGC Basswood (WLB-388).	The Pontchratrain approaches the CGC Klamath (WHEC-66) in Da Nang Harbor. The Ponch arrived with only five days left on her first patrol period. The Klamath had been detained on station and, according the McDole, felt she should be given the Ponch's port visit at Bankok. The idea was disapproved and five days later the Ponch was in Bankok enjoying their first oriental liberty.	A boarding party searches a coastal junk on August 11, 1970. In the background is one of the many beautiful beaches found in Vietnam.	The boarding party returns to the Pontchartrain following the search of a coastal junk on August 11, 1970.

	Meeting up with CGC Mellon (WHEC 717) off Area 2 in May 1970. This is an excellent view of the once outstanding lines of the Hamilton Class cutters. Subsequent alterations ruined these lines of this class of cutters.	Rearming at sea is an exhausting evolution. The calls for gunfire support quickly emptied the magazines and it was not uncommon for these cutters to rearm daily. Ironically this same class cutter during World War II had a twin-5" gun mount. The shortage of magazine space was probably because some of these had been converted to non-ordnance store rooms over the years.	To keep up with the flow of ammunition the fantail was converted into makeshift ammunition supply point. On the left, wearing sunglasses, is FT1 Robert "Pappy" Taylor. Right, in the white T-shirt is SK3 David Feist
A Navy SH-46 (No. 150938) from USS Niagara Falls provides VERTREP service in June 1970. The safety problems are evident but the fantail was probably still loaded with ammunition making the bow the only space left. The gutsy "hookman" on top of the gun mount is matched in courage by the nearly unseen aircrew man reaching downward for the retreivel gear.	"INREP at AnThoi. Unrep ship is anchored and we pulled alongside and tied up to her. First patrol Area 9" writes Bob McDole to his wife. It was probably difficut trying to explain all the different ways of resupplying the ship.	1 July, UNREP with USS Caliente. Seaman Albert Espinosa, USCG, coming across the high line. A SN Espinosa had smashed some teeth during our previous port call in Subic.
The Raft Incident. Bob McDole wrote: "On 27 JUL 70, for unknown reasons, one of the 12-man rafts forward on the starboard side let go and inflated on the main deck. Inspecting the raft are, left to right, the CO, CDR LeRoy Reinburg, Jr., BMC(P) James Shue, and BM2 Jerry Jones. The pose is typical Jonesy. CDR Harold W. Parker, Jr., relieved CDR Reinburg during the deployment, and he wanted the "Jr." omitted from his signature. He told me "I haven't been a junior since my daddy died." So all messages were typed for "H. W. PARKER, CDR, USCG."		Swim call. Left to right: CSCM Jess Nicholson and GMC(P) John Drummond. Although difficult to see, to the right in the middle of the picture is smoke coming from bombing missions being conducted on the Vietnamese coast and inshore. All this while the Ponch was holding swim call. McDole noted the "juxtaposition of the two events struck me as rather surreal at the time."	Swim Call.	The Shark Guard. The old joke aboard ships was the shark guard was there to put you out of your misery if a shark got you.
Photo of SN Russell Gibson, USCG. SN Gibson was a gunner's mate striker. The photo is annotated "Our fearless sentry. We have our own Henry Gibson... with his M-16 off Song Ong Doc."	"4th of July." Left to right, foreground: SD1 Benjamin Rodrigo,USCG, unidentified, CWO Charlie Cox, USCG, and an unidentified Vietnamese ship rider.		These "cooks outs" are a welcome respite from the daily routine. Also note this the same area used to store ammunition.
Bob McDole describes what happened. "One of our daytime firing missions took us up a river. I don't remember, or never knew, the name of it. The CO wanted to get as far as he could up the river to maximize the range of our gun. So, up we went just as the tide was coming in. As I recall, we went so far up the river that there as only 12" - 13" of water under our keel. We had a boatswain in the chains with a lead line calling out the depths as we went up the river. When the tide began to turn, we began to back down the river as we were unable to turn around. Near as we could tell, when we reversed the prop and applied power, we stirred up something substantial off the bottom, probably a big log, and broke about 13" off one blade of the prop. (We know that our prop had one blade that was cracked when we left Long Beach, but it wasn't thought that it would be a problem, and we didn't have time to go in the yards and have it replaced.) When we reached the open ocean and applied full power (16 knots, top end), the fantail jumped mightily with each revolution. After experimenting, 10 knots was the maximum we could make without the fantail jumping. So back to Subic Bay and into drydock to have the screw replaced. We were put in a drydock capable of handling a battleship and the PONTCH was dwarfed in it. The PONTCH was also placed at the far end of the drydock. Our gangplank was placed on our port side. The ladder in the drydock to get down to the bottom of the dock and thence to shore, was midway down the starboard side of the drydock. To go ashore, you had to walk all the way down the top of the portside of the drydock, across a catwalk to the other side of the drydock, then halfway along the starboard side of the dock to the ladder. Then climb down to the deck of the dock, then make your way to the dock's gangway. Needless to say, the evening and midwatches had to retrieve more than one sailor experiencing high winds and mountainous seas while trying to get back to the ship. "
. What it was all about. Gunfire support near Song Ong Doc. McDole remembers this was the only Vietnamese Controlled area in territory otherwise considered enemy controlled. The ship was stationed at anchor just 6000 yards from shore, ready to provide assistance at a moment's notice. On four separate patrols, the PONTCH was assigned the task of providing support to the village and the American forces camp near by. Despite what would have seemed adequate security measures, the village and camp were overrun just one month after these pictures were taken.The American Special Forces camp near the village book , had various types of sensors spread out around the camp. The most prevalent were Red Haze sensors and Dufflebag sensor. The location of each sensor was precisely plotted, and whenever one was activated, a call would be sent to the PONTCH or whoever was on station, with the coordinates and we would put five rounds on it. This would go on all night as the sensors couldn't determine between a human and a water buffalo. It usually meant a rearm mission the next morning in order to shoot our next firing mission. If we also had a daytime firing mission, we would rearm again that day in order to have ammo for that night. Some long days.			. Relief at Last. " Nov 3, 1970 CGC Rush (WHEC-723), pulling into Subic Bay, PI, to relieve the Pontchatrain McDole called it a "Beautiful sight."

Alexander Would Be Proud. The CGC Hamilton (WHEC 715) waits to take the CGC Point Glover (WPB 82307) alongside during hte summer 1969 in Market Time Patrol Area 2D. GM2 Bill Wells was the OOD on the Point Glover. The Hamilton was an excellent help to the Market Time WPBs and SWIFTS.(Photo by Bill Wells, GMCM, USCG (ret)

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