HALF MOON'S 'NAM Tour, The

The discovery of an old cruise book rekindles fond memories of a veteran Coast Guard cutter's Vietnam deployment

Since writing two earlier articles on AVP's - "Whatever Became of the Coast Guard's Casco-class Cutters" in May 2002 and "Whatever Became of Those AVPs?" in February 2003 - I have received numerous communications from fellow AVP sailors. Most recently, I was honored to receive a copy of the USCGC Half Moon's (WHEC-378) 1967 cruise book documenting the ship's deployment to Vietnam during 1967. It came from one of the ship's former crew members, David Lockwood, via his brother John Lockwood, also an AVP sailor on the USCGC Rockaway. What a wonderful time capsule!

In reading it, I was so impressed with its contents that I was inspired to write this article and share some of the story. An interview with the former Lt. Bill Barry, USCG, engineering officer on the Half Moon during 1967, provided me with some additional first-person insights into the Half Moon experience. Bill also happened to be my classmate at the US Coast Guard Academy, and is affectionately referred to as "Bos'n Bill" by the class of 1961.

The story starts in early 1967, when decisions were made to form a Coast Guard squadron to carry out a coastal surveillance mission in waters off the coast of South Vietnam. Although the Coast Guard had already started a building program to modernize its High Endurance Cutter fleet, the current work-horses of the time were still the venerable AVP class of cutters. The 311's, affectionately known as the "White Elephants" by many of their CG crews, had already served two lives of active service: First as sea plane tenders (AVPs) for the Navy during WWII, and next as weather ships (WAVPs) for the USCG from the late 1940s through the late 60s. The High Endurance Cutters WHEC (designation changed in 1966) were called upon to assume a third role during the Vietnam conflict where they would carry out the assignment of coastal surveillance/interdiction, in-shore gunfire support, and logistical support for the numerous smaller craft that were actively engaged in the theater of war.Historically the USS Half Moon (AVP-26), a Barnegat-class sea plane tender, was built by the Lake Washington Shipyard in Houghton, Washington. Her keel was laid down on 15 August 1941. Launching followed on 7 December 1942, and she was finally placed in commission on 15 June 1943 where she was deployed on various assignments throughout the Pacific during the war.

She was deactivated on 1 December 1945 and was again reactivated on 14 August 1948, placed on loan to the US Coast Guard and commissioned as USCGC Half Moon (WAVP-378) where she served in the North Atlantic as an Ocean Station Weather Ship for the next 20-plus years. On 1 May 1966 she was designated as a AVHEC High Endurance Cutter. She was returned to the US Navy on 15 July 1969 for decommissioning and ultimately sold to Italy for scrap on 18 June 1970.

Because of their relatively shallow draft (approximatly 13-ft) and their high-endurance diesel propulsion plant (25,000-miles without refueling at 10-knots) they were ideal platforms for the assignment in spite of their age (some were built in the late 1930s and most in the early 1940s).

The first hint of a new assignment for the Half Moon's crew came when she was ordered to have an air conditioning system installed onboard. This was a rare luxury for the crew, who at once suspected that a "free lunch" courtesy of the CG's Commandant was certainly not being served up. Something big was in the air and scuttlebutt was rampant.

By early March, orders were at last received to make preparation for deployment to the South China Sea off the coast of South Vietnam and become part of the newly-formed CG Squadron Three under the command of Capt. John E. Day, USCG. Four other cutters were assigned to the Squadron. They were the US Coast Guard Cutters Yakutat (WHEC-380), Gresham (WHEC-387), Barataria (WHEC-381) and the Bering Straits (WHEC-382).