Monument To Honor Coast Guard's Role In Vietnam War

[darrels joy]

On Friday, July 16, 2004, a monument recognizing the U.S. Coast Guard?s participation in Southeast Asia during the Vietnam War will be unveiled and dedicated at USCG Recruit Training Center Cape May, N.J. The ceremony will be held at 2 p.m. in a newly developed historic monument area adjacent to the training center?s gymnasium and galley. This July represents the 39th anniversary of the first Coast Guard 82-foot Patrol Boats arriving for duty in Vietnam. Representatives from several veterans? organizations, reunion groups, and Coast Guard cutters and units that served in Vietnam will be in attendance. More than 8,000 USCG men served in Southeast Asia, afloat, ashore and airborne, in Operations? Market Time and Tight Reign, command and support, and special combat operations.

The large granite monument and its engraved bronze plaque will be officially presented to the Coast Guard from the Coast Guard Combat Veterans Association (CGCVA), an organization of approximately 1,700 members comprising veterans from WWII to the recent War in Iraq. A second similar Coast Guard Vietnam Monument will be unveiled and dedicated October 23, 2004 at the U.S. Coast Guard Academy in New London, Ct., during Homecoming Weekend ceremonies. Funds for both monuments were raised entirely from the CGCVA membership.

Both monuments list all Coast Guard units that served in the Southeast Asian theatre during the period 1965-1973, and the names of the seven Coast Guardsmen who were killed in theatre during that period. Family members of the deceased Coast Guard personnel will be among the attendees.

Keynote speaker for the unveiling and dedication ceremony at Cape May will be CGCVA Historian, Chief Warrant Officer Paul C. Scotti, USCG (Ret.), a Vietnam veteran and author of the book ?Coast Guard Action in Vietnam: Stories of Those Who Served,? which describes, through first-hand accounts, the daring activities of the Coast Guard in Vietnam. Keynote speaker for the unveiling and dedication ceremonies at the Coast Guard Academy will be CGCVA Member Captain Alex J. Larzelere, USCG (Ret.) who is also a Vietnam veteran and author of the book ?The Coast Guard at War: Vietnam, 1965-1975.?

Serving as emcee for the Cape May dedication ceremony will be CGCVA Trustee Mr. Robert MacLeod, a Vietnam veteran who coordinated the fund-raising activities for both monuments and spearheaded both projects.

The CGCVA participates is many veterans-related activities and most recently saw an engineering building at Coast Guard Training Center Yorktown, Va., named in honor of Distinguished CGCVA Life Member Larry Villarreal, who earned the Silver Star for heroism in Vietnam in 1965. The armory at USCG Training Center Cape May is named for Distinguished CGCVA Life Member Jerry Goff, who received the Silver Star for the same combat situation in Vietnam. The CGCVA also played a significant role when the remains of Lieutenant Jack Columbus Rittichier, previously listed as the Coast Guard?s sole MIA from Vietnam, were found and returned to the U.S. for interment at Arlington National Cemetery in November 2003.

For more information, contact Robert MacLeod at 704-455-6868 or e-mail: rgbysheast@aol.com.