"… before we left to go on to Bangkok, we read in the Stars and Stripes that the last Coast Guard people had left. I always considered that an inaccuracy in reporting. … I was there reading it."
Description of Interview:
During his first tour in Vietnam in 1969, Ensign Creech supervised the USCGC Mendota’s Combat Information Center, overseeing radarmen and sonarmen. The ship provided fire support for South Vietnamese special operations, and also boarded and searched junks to interdict smuggling operations, just like the Coast Guard did at home. On his second tour, 1972 to 1973, he was assigned to the US Army as an adviser to a South Vietnamese army ordnance company. He describes living on a SEAL base and traveling extensively between five ports to assist the South Vietnamese explosive loading details (ELDs). He also discusses Operation SEA LORDS, and remembers being “huddled up against a tree in the middle of a 123 rocket barrage” 15 minutes after the ceasefire went into effect, and laughingly recalls thinking, “This is a nice cease fire.”
Key Words: Operation MARKET TIME, Operation SEA LORDS, Sat Cong, ordnance company, Cam Ranh Bay, Vung Tao, Da Nang, Tan My, Swift Boats, 82-footers
Key Names: Admiral Bill Leahy, Master Chief Peterson, Colonel Viet, Commander Yost, John Kerry, Bob Hope, Randy Gayles
Unit:
US Coast Guard Cutter Mendota (WHEC-69)
Specialty:
Combat operations center officer
Service Location:
Gulf of Thailand, Mekong Delta, Cat Lai
Read the Complete Transcript of this Interview.