Vietnam Operations
One month later, Kretchmer joined other vessels off the South Vietnam coast in Operation Market Time, keeping coastal traffic under surveillance to prevent the shipment of Communist arms and supply to South Vietnam by sea. Her motor whaleboat came under heavy small arms fire during a roundup operation in November. No American casualties resulted and Krctchmer's search party seized a large number of suspected guerrilla infiltrators.
By the end of a year of patrol, the ship had investigated some 17,000 contacts, and boarded over 1,000 small craft. On 10 December Kretchmer steamed into Apra Harbor, Guam, where she remained until her departure 22 February 1966 for a 7-month deployment with the 7th Fleet. She continued "Market Time" patrol off the northwest coast of Vietnam and provided gunfire support for the Marines and Army on shore. She left Subic Bay 29 September for her homeport, Guam, where she remained through part of October. Kretchmer then departed for further radar picket escort duties off Vietnam through 1966 into 1967. Her continued presence on the South China seacoasts delineated the commitment of the United States to the preservation of the independence of South Vietnam.
She was decommissioned 1 October 1973 and stricken 30 September 1973. She was sold for scrapping 14 May 1974.
Read more about this topic: USS Kretchmer (DE-329)
Famous quotes containing the words vietnam and/or operations:
“Let us understand: North Vietnam cannot defeat or humiliate the United States. Only Americans can do that.”
—Richard M. Nixon (1913–1992)
“Plot, rules, nor even poetry, are not half so great beauties in tragedy or comedy as a just imitation of nature, of character, of the passions and their operations in diversified situations.”
—Horace Walpole (1717–1797)