USS Badger (FF-1071) - 1970s

1970s

On the following evening, Badger stood out of Subic bound for the Vietnam War zone. She arrived in Danang, South Vietnam, two days later and, after a four-hour layover, again got underway, bound for the northern gunline near the mouth of the Cua Viet River. She began gunfire support missions on the 11th and, on the 13th, received her first counterbattery fire. Two days later, she suffered superficial damage from a communist shore battery after her five-inch gun had been put out of action by a fouled bore and an overheated barrel. Later that day, the ship headed back to Danang to have her five-inch (127 mm) gun barrel replaced by the repair ship USS Hector (AR-7). She returned to sea on the 16th and soon arrived back on the gunline. On the 19th, Badger was switched to plane guard duty for the aircraft carrier USS Constellation (CV-64) in the Gulf of Tonkin. That assignment lasted two days short of a month. On 17 May, destroyer escort USS Albert David (FF-1050) relieved her, and Badger shaped a course for Sasebo, Japan.