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WPB - "Point
Class" USCG Cutter |
WPB - Point Class Cutter
Displacement: 67 (A series)
Length: 82 feet
Beam: 17.25 feet
Draft: 6.0 feet
Propulsion: 2 diesels. @ shafts BHP: 1200
Speed: 35+ kts
Crew: 4 + 20
Weapons: single 20mm.
Compliment: 10 |
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Rated as 82 ft Cutters. Designed and built at
Coast Guard Yard, Curtis Bay, MD, for law enforcement, search and rescue. Steel
hulls, unmanned engine room controlled from the bridge, power steering and air
conditioning. "C" Class modifications (also 82318) include an increase in
BHP to 1600 and speeds to 23kts. In addition to diesels, CG82314 is fitted with
2 Saturn gas turbines with 1100 HP each, manufactured by Solar Aircraft Co.,
giving a speed of over 20kts. Controllable pitch propellers. CG 82301 to 82344
were assigned "Point" names Jan 1964, and re-designated patrol craft instead of
patrol boats. Fifty three Cutters were commissioned between 1960 and 1970..
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Click
Here for: The US Coast Guard in the Vietnam War
Additional photos can be found at:
http://www.fredsplace.org/cgi-bin/psearch.cgi and enter
WPB-82.
Click
here
for other USCG boats on this
website. If you know of others, lets add them. We are trying to
get a complete list of 83XXX and their existing conditions.
| 04/23/04 Here are a couple
of shots the the 82329 15 miles south of DaNang taken from the
USS
Stoddard by me, on August 3rd, 1965. We were both
dispatched to this location to look for a downed aircraft. All
I remember seeing is a oil slick. - Dan Withers your
webmaster. |
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01-19-04 -
Never was in DaNang, so can't contribute there.
Yesterday, I said that there were 4 Coastal Zones. I
should have elaborated. CG was set up in 3 divisions: 11 in
DaNang, 12 in An Thoi and 13 at Cat Lo. Each division had a
Commodore, who was a LCDR. Each had repair and support
facilities. The whole shebang was under Coast Guard
Activities, Saigon. Our operational commander was the
Commander of the Coastal Zone that we operated in. Commander
Coastal Zone IV was a CG three striper. When that zone was
turned over to the VN (mid '69); Command of Coastal Zone III
went to CG. The collective organization was RONONE.
RONTHREE was major cutters, who ran barrier patrol and
fire support. Coastal Zone II was pretty much patrolled by
Navy PCFs, But on occasions we took some of their patrols,
and vice versa. The Swifts were limited in duration, so
usually stayed relatively close to home. Our patrols lasted
from 5 to 10 days (depending on transit time. Once in a
while we would be extended, if our relief boat was disabled,
or if the base area was under attack.
While the Zone III Commander was located on a hill
overlooking Vung Tau, the boats were 8 miles up the Song
Din, at Cat Lo. The base there was shared by USN, CG and VN
Navy.
There are a couple of excellent book on the subject, both
written by old Coasties.: " Coast Guard Action in Viet
Nam", by Paul Scotti and " The Coast Guard at War"
by Alex Laraelere. Jerry Echols
agroundaz@joimail.com
Just looked at the new page. GREAT!
Thought I would give you a little info on the
crews.
The typical war crew differed greatly from stateside
SAR duty.:
2 officers (usually both LTjg, but some LTs as CO)
1 each -BMC,ENC,BM1,GM1,EN2,CS2,ET3, SN,FN. Also 1 VN
liaison. At one point, we carried a VN Ensign, in
training.
We mounted an 81MM, trigger fired mortar, five 50MM
machine guns (one on each quarter, one in each waist
and one, piggy-back on the mortar. Also had M60 light
machine gun, M79 and assorted small arms.
The squadron was divided into 4 Coastal Zones (later
reduced to 3, when Viets took over the southern most
zone. My boat was in the 3rd Coastal Zone
(headquarters in Vung Tau); boats were based in Cat
Lo. We patrolled areas (roughly) 25 miles long, and
extending to 20 miles off shore; where our mission was
the suppression of smuggling. However, we also
patrolled the rivers in our area, provided naval
gunfire support and conducted SEALORDS missions.
"Coast Guard" can be a misnomer, as we were
sometimes 30-35 miles into the delta.
Jerry Echols
agroundaz@joimail.com
[Well, we did something about that Grove,
here is the new WPB section - Dan]
09-15-03
Hi Dan, I was in the
Coast Guard in Vietnam and was stationed on an 82'
patrol boat (USCG 82320) the Point Hudson. I don't
see anything about these patrol boats on your site.
we were stationed out of Vung Toa (Spelling is
wrong).
Grove G Gipple
[gggip5@comcast.net]
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