USS Wilhoite (DE-397) - Supporting Vietnam Crisis Operations

Supporting Vietnam Crisis Operations

By the mid-1960s, however, further changes were in store for the veteran warship. The growing pace of incursions by North Vietnamese-backed Viet Cong communist guerrillas against South Vietnam had resulted in escalating American support of the latter. Wilhoite accordingly was deployed to the Western Pacific (WestPac) in the spring of 1965, beginning a cycle of WestPac tours that lasted into 1969.

Wilhoite conducted intermittent WestPac deployments, with corresponding "Market Time" patrols off the coast of Vietnam, into January 1969. Hers was unsung duty—long hours of ceaseless patrol, aiding the fledging South Vietnamese Navy in detecting and preventing supplies, weapons, and other materials from being infiltrated into South Vietnam by the Viet Cong and the North Vietnamese. Often assisted by only two small boats, a Coast Guard patrol boat and aircraft, Wilhoite upon occasion had the responsibility for patrol over 2,750 square miles (7,100 km2) of ocean—an ample assignment for a ship with the size and range of a radar picket destroyer escort.

Occasionally, there were periods of excitement to enliven an otherwise tedious duty. On 19 June 1967, Wilhoite relieved Kretschmer on Operation Market Time station and assumed the duties of "mother ship" to two Navy "Swift" (PCF) boats, providing berthing accommodations for extra crew members and supplying them with food, fuel, and fresh water.

At approximately 2000 on 11 July, a "Market Time" patrol aircraft detected a steel-hulled trawler running darkened some 55 miles (89 km) from the coast of South Vietnam, on a westerly heading. Wilhoite, notified by radio of the trawler's course, set hers to close and identify the ship, commencing covert surveillance as soon as she picked up radar contact. The next morning, 12 July, Wilhoite closed for identification purposes but later opened the range.

By that point, the trawler had changed course, heading away from the coast; Wilhoite accordingly maintained surveillance for three more days. Entering the "Market Time" area, the trawler drew more pursuers – Gallup, Point Orient, and PCF-79 -- all under the command of Comdr. C. R. Stephan, embarked in Wilhoite. On 15 July, Wilhoite intercepted the unidentified trawler five miles (8 km) from the beach. Ignoring calls to surrender broadcast by a psychological warfare unit embarked in Point Orient, the trawler was soon taken under fire, running aground in flames on a sandbar at the mouth of the River De Say Ky in Quang Ngai province.