USCGC Point White (WPB-82308) was an 82-foot Point-class cutter constructed at the Coast Guard Yard

United States Coast Guard Yard

The United States Coast Guard Yard or just Coast Guard Yard is a United States Coast Guard operated shipyard located on Curtis Bay in northern Anne Arundel County, Maryland, just south of the Baltimore city limits. It is the coast guard's sole shipbuilding and major repair facility, and part of the...

 at Curtis Bay, Maryland in 1961 for use as a law enforcement and search and rescue patrol boat. Since the Coast Guard policy in 1961 was not to name cutters

United States Coast Guard Cutter

Cutter is the term used by the United States Coast Guard for its commissioned vessels. A Cutter is or greater in length, has a permanently assigned crew, and has accommodations for the crew to live aboard...

 under 100 feet (30.5 m) in length, it was designated as WPB-82308 when commissioned and acquired the name Point White in January 1964 when the Coast Guard started naming all cutters longer than 65 feet (19.8 m).

Construction details

Point White was built with a mild steel hull and an aluminum superstructure that could accommodate an 8 man crew. She was powered by two 600 horsepower VT600 Cummins diesel main drive engines and had two five bladed 42 inch propellers. The main drive engines were later replaced by 800 horsepower VT800 Cummins engines. Longitudinally framed construction was used to save weight. Water tank capacity was 1550 gal and fuel tank capacity was 1840 gal at 95% full. Frozen food storage was 23 ft3. Accommodations for a 13 man crew were installed for Vietnam service.

History

After delivery in 1961, Point White was assigned a homeport of New London, Connecticut

New London, Connecticut

New London is a seaport city and a port of entry on the northeast coast of the United States.It is located at the mouth of the Thames River in New London County, southeastern Connecticut....

, where she served as a law enforcement and search and rescue patrol boat.

At the request of the United States Navy

United States Navy

The United States Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven uniformed services of the United States. The U.S. Navy is the largest in the world; its battle fleet tonnage is greater than that of the next 13 largest navies combined. The U.S...

, in October 1965, she was alerted for service in Vietnam

Vietnam

Vietnam – sometimes spelled Viet Nam , officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam – is the easternmost country on the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia. It is bordered by China to the north, Laos to the northwest, Cambodia to the southwest, and the South China Sea –...

 and assigned to Coast Guard Squadron One in support of Operation Market Time

Operation Market Time

Operation Market Time was the United States Navy’s effort to stop troops and supplies from flowing by sea from North Vietnam to South Vietnam during the Vietnam War...

 along with 8 other Point class cutters. While the crew completed overseas training and weapons qualifications at Coast Guard Island

Coast Guard Island

Coast Guard Island is in the Oakland Estuary between Oakland and Alameda, California. The island is situated in the historic Brooklyn Basin, now known as Embarcadero Cove. It is within the Alameda city limits, but is accessible, by car, only via a bridge to Dennison Street in Oakland.The Island...

 and Camp Parks, California

Parks Reserve Forces Training Area

Parks Reserve Forces Training Area is a United States Army facility located in Dublin, California that is currently a semi-active mobilization and training center for Army Reserve Component personnel to be used in case of war or natural disaster....

, Point White was loaded onto a merchant ship, and transported to Subic Bay

Subic Bay

Subic Bay is a bay forming part of Luzon Sea on the west coast of the island of Luzon in Zambales, Philippines, about 100 kilometers northwest of Manila Bay. Its shores were formerly the site of a major United States Navy facility named U.S...

, Philippines

Philippines

The Philippines , officially known as the Republic of the Philippines , is a country in Southeast Asia in the western Pacific Ocean. To its north across the Luzon Strait lies Taiwan. West across the South China Sea sits Vietnam...

 arriving in January 1966 where she was refit for combat service. Shipyard modifications included installation of new single-sideband radio equipment, additional floodlights, small arms lockers, bunks, additional sound-powered phone circuits, and the addition of 4 M-2 machine guns. The original Oerlikon 20 mm cannon

Oerlikon 20 mm cannon

The Oerlikon 20 mm cannon is a series of autocannons, based on an original design by Reinhold Becker of Germany, very early in World War I, and widely produced by Oerlikon Contraves and others...

 was replaced with a combination over-under 50 caliber machine gun/81mm trigger fired mortar that had been developed by the Coast Guard for service in Vietnam. For service in Vietnam, two officers were added to the crew complement to add seniority to the crew in the mission of interdicting vessels at sea.

Point White was assigned to Division 13 of Squadron One to be based at Cat Lo Navy Base near Vung Tau

Vung Tàu

Vũng Tàu is a city in southern Vietnam. Its population in 2005 was 240,000. The city area is including 13 urban wards and one village. It is the capital of Ba Ria-Vung Tau province, and is the crude oil extraction center of Vietnam. It is also known as one of the most beautiful cities of tourism...

, along with , , , , , , and . After sea trials, the Division left Subic Bay for Cat Lo on 19 February 1966 in the company of , their temporary support ship. They arrived at their new duty station on 23 February and began patrolling the coastal waters near the Rung Sat Special Zone

Rung Sat Special Zone

Rung Sat Special Zone, also known as the "Forest of Assassins" was an area of approximately 1256 square km of tidal mangrove swamp including over 4800 km of interlocking streams located approximately 36 km south-southeast of Saigon...

. Duty consisted of boarding Vietnamese junks to search for contraband weapons and ammunition and check the identification papers of persons on board.

On the night of 9 March 1966 Point White was patrolling the Soài Rạp River in the Rung Sat Special Zone and surprised a Viet Cong junk crossing the river. Upon receiving machine gun fire from the junk, Point White returned fire and rammed the junk, causing it to explode and partially sinking it. After rescuing four of the Viet Cong crew from drowning, it was determined that one of the survivors was the commanding officer of the local training camp. After recovering from extensive burns the man later provided valuable intelligence about Viet Cong operations in the Rung Sat.

While assisting with the refloating of two Navy Swift boat

Swift Boat

Swift Boat may refer to:*a Patrol Craft Fast*Swift Vets and POWs for Truth, originally named Swift Boat Veterans For Truth*Swiftboating, political jargon for a particular form of character assassination as a smear tactic...

s (PCF) that were aground near Hà Tiên

Hà Tiên

Hà Tiên or Ha Tien is a town in Kien Giang Province, Tay Nam Bo of Vietnam. Area: 8,851.5 ha, population : 39,957. The town borders Cambodia to the west....

 , the crew of Point White repaired an evaporator used for the fresh water supply at the Navy base at Hà Tiên

As a part of the Vietnamization

Vietnamization

Vietnamization was a policy of the Richard M. Nixon administration during the Vietnam War, as a result of the Viet Cong's Tet Offensive, to "expand, equip, and train South Vietnam's forces and assign to them an ever-increasing combat role, at the same time steadily reducing the number of U.S....

 Program South Vietnamese Navy crewmen were assigned to the cutter for training purposes beginning in February 1969. After the crew of Point White trained a Vietnamese replacement crew, she was turned over to the Republic of Vietnam Navy

Republic of Vietnam Navy

The Republic of Vietnam Navy was the naval force of the former Republic of Vietnam from 1955 to 1975. The early fleet consisted of boats from France. After 1955 and the transfer of the armed forces to Vietnamese control, the fleet was supplied from the United States...

as a part of the Vietnamization Program and recommissioned as RVNS Lê Đình Hùng (HQ-708), 12 January 1970.

External links

• "Point" Class 82-foot WPBs Coast Guard Historian's website