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May 22nd, 2009, 02:48 PM
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#1 | | Old Salt
Join Date: Aug 2004 Location: Pennsylvania
Posts: 1,961
|  'Only' in the Coast Guard?
Saw a good show on the Military Channel the other night. Caught it after it started , but it was most informative. It show the Coast Guard roll in Viet Nam , mainly in riverine forces. Yep , the Coasties piloted PBRs and other small boats with the best of the brown water Navy boys. Like Rodney Dangerfield , the CG sailors get no respect. Talked with a few in country vets , and they say when they talk to other vets , most brush them off saying "You were 'only' in the Coast Guard!" But a lot of spec ops guys (LLRPs , Rangers , Green Berets , SEALs) had their butts saved by CG-crewed PBRs , who came into shallow waters to extract them under heavy fire.
Bravo Zulu , Coast Guard!
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May 22nd, 2009, 02:54 PM
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#2 | | Designated Marksman
Join Date: Nov 2004 Location: Epping, NH
Posts: 624
| Coast Guard
I saw what the Coast Guard did when the TWA flight went down. i had a friend who was called in and handled what can only be described as gruesome.
Want to see someone who has a great deal of respect for the CG? Talk to the fisherman up in the Gloucester area. They know if they call, the CG will come in any weather.
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May 22nd, 2009, 06:03 PM
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#3 | | Platoon Sergeant
Join Date: May 2008 Location: grenada ms.
Posts: 322
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The other branches know what "peace time" means these guys go in harms way every day.with drug interdiction and everything else,these guys catch it. 
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May 22nd, 2009, 07:40 PM
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#4 | | Old Salt
Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: People's Republic of Kalifornia
Posts: 1,510
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Quote:
Originally Posted by rscalzo 
Want to see someone who has a great deal of respect for the CG? Talk to the fisherman up in the Gloucester area. They know if they call, the CG will come in any weather.
| you got that right.... 
I was born and raised in Gloucester and have family and friends who fished for a living.
Myself, brothers, and cousins were in the Sea Scouts as youngsters. We got to spend alot of time at the CG station learning basic seamanship - knots, navigation, etc....if we were lucky some of us got to out on the 41s if it was routine duty.
I would've signed up with the Coast Guard if I didn't enlist in the Marine Corps.
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May 22nd, 2009, 08:14 PM
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#5 | | Fire Team Leader
Join Date: Sep 2007 Location: NC
Posts: 216
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I saw that show too about a week or two ago. I've always had respect for the USCG but now I have a lot more. At one time I wanted to get out the Army and join the USCG. They wouldn't let me keep my rank though, I would have started out as an E3 
Anyways, I also seen that the USCG plays a role in port security in Iraq.
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May 24th, 2009, 06:35 AM
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#6 | | Platoon Sergeant
Join Date: Aug 2006 Location: Southern Indiana
Posts: 327
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Served with an officer who was in the CG PBR's in VN. Little stumpy guy who always tried to run with us Marines, never made it very far. Got to talking to him one day and he brought out a photo album. You never know people sometimes, he was probably one of the most bada***d guys I've ever met.
Don
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May 26th, 2009, 10:57 AM
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#7 | | Grunt
Join Date: Jan 2009 Location: Midwest
Posts: 98
| Here's a link to a photo history of
the Coast Guard's involvement during Viet Nam: Coast Guard in Viet Nam
I spent 26 of my 30 years of active duty in the Coast Guard. I enlisted in 1975, just after Viet Nam (I was Navy from 70-74 and served 2 years on a carrier off shore of Viet Nam); and met a few, but far between, Coastie VN Vets. Many served on cutters patrolling the Tonkin Gulf - and a few who were on the 82' patrol boats.
The Coast Guard's wartime service, unknown to some, involves the Coast Guard in every war that the US has been in...including Desert Shield/Desert Storm and Iraq. One Coastie was killed as his boarding team approached a suspect boat that the crew blew up as the boarding team was closing...
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December 27th, 2009, 10:26 PM
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#8 | | Rifleman
Join Date: Dec 2009 Location: Wisconsin
Posts: 42
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I have a lot of respect for USCG members. I sometimes cannot believe the weather that these people will go through to get someone. A whole helicopter crew flying through pitch black ice storms to save one fisherman's life! Unbelievable, but they do it. Same with their role in Hurricane Katrina.
They do amazing things.
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December 30th, 2009, 03:35 PM
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#9 | | Scout Sniper
Join Date: Jan 2004 Location: WALKER CO. AL.
Posts: 791
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I was active duty USCG from 87-94, reserve from 98-02. I learned a great deal in the USCG, and look back on my tour with a smile.
Semper Paratus
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December 31st, 2009, 09:11 AM
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#10 | | Snappin In
Join Date: Nov 2009 Location: Coastal Georgia
Posts: 20
| Quote:
Originally Posted by Lamey I was active duty USCG from 87-94, reserve from 98-02. I learned a great deal in the USCG, and look back on my tour with a smile.
Semper Paratus | Semper Paratus Lamey
I was in the ranks from 81-86
I have always been Very Very Proud of USCG, the USCG
has always stood on its own, for those in the know and those
who have been on the recieving end.
I always Enjoy Inter-Service/Agency rivalry with brothers in other uniforms. The line has always been drawn at Disprespect, will not give it, will not take it!
Salute to the USCG and all Services, proud to be part of the
Past, Present and the Future.
Happy 2010
DEROSA 
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January 1st, 2010, 09:15 AM
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#11 | | Designated Marksman
Join Date: Sep 2004 Location: Illinois
Posts: 579
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I cannot imagine anyone showing disrespect for the Knee Deep Navy............they had a tougher time holding down their chow while riding in their smaller craft when we operated in rough seas. We hit some of the same bars in port and were thrown out of the same bars with equal aplomb.
Anytime I could eat with the Coasties, the chow was first rate! That's the way to keep morale high, that's for sure.
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January 2nd, 2010, 07:14 AM
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#12 | | Automatic Rifleman
Join Date: May 2008 Location: Washington
Posts: 171
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My late father was a coastie for 27 years starting out as a snipe on the old cutter Humbolt for a year in the North Atlantic and then transfering to aviation for the remainder of his career.
He was involved in countless rescues during his service. Pilots back then didn't have anything near the high tech equipment that's available today. They flew with a watch, compass, flashlight, and a handheld slide rule aviation computer. Nor did they have rescue swimmers back then. If you were aircrew, like my father, you just went in the water to effect the rescue. My youngest son serves in the Coast Guard on a 110. The Coast Guard is a first rate organization filled with some of the bravest men and women that I have ever known. My hats off to them.  
Last edited by wifetrained; January 2nd, 2010 at 05:38 PM.
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January 2nd, 2010, 11:10 PM
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#13 | | Lifer
Join Date: Jul 2005
Posts: 3,163
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'Only in the Coast Guard'?
IIRC the Coast Guard is practically always operational and the other services are commonly in some sort of training, combat and fleet excluded.
Coasties don't have to take a second seat to anybody.
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February 7th, 2010, 09:18 PM
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#14 | | Snappin In
Join Date: Dec 2005 Location: Livermore, CA
Posts: 38
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I grew up as a Coast Guard brat, my dad was a 30 year CG aviator (an AP, enlisted pilot, in WW2) who retired in 1970 as a CMDR. Always impressed that the CG always had a job, war or peace! My second tour in 'Nam I was the Senior Advisor to an ARVN batallion in the delta. Our ARVN Division NILO (Naval Intellegence Liason Officer) was a Coast'y! Coordinated all the joint ops with the Brown Water Navy.
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February 14th, 2010, 06:21 PM
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#15 | | Platoon Sergeant
Join Date: Feb 2006 Location: Michigan
Posts: 380
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Having grown up right on the shore of Lake Erie and having spent a great amount of time out on the lake, I have seen the Coast Guard in action many times. They have the respect of myself and anyone else who has seen them in in action, whether that be by tending bouys, rescuing sinking vessels, patrolling the coasts, or protecting drunken boaters from themselves by getting them off the water or by ticketing them.
Motown out
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