Vietnam War Service 1964-1966
On 21 July 1964, Windham County got underway for operations in Okinawan waters. While these exercises were still in progress, the Gulf of Tonkin Incident occurred in early August 1964, resulting in a rapid buildup of American forces in South Vietnam and in nearby waters. Windham County loaded Marines and proceeded to the South China Sea, where she remained on station from 16 August 1964 to 28 September 1964 and spent 56 continuous days at sea. Windham County returned to Yokosuka on 19 October 1964. She visited Beppu, Japan, from 19 November 1964 to 23 November 1964 and participated in a variety of People-to-People Program activities. She proceeded to Iwakuni, Japan, for special operations which kept her busy until the latter part of December 1964, when she returned to Yokosuka for upkeep.
During January 1965, Windham County was in Yokosuka for upkeep and type training. On 6 February 1965, she left for training at Pohang, South Korea, but was diverted to Okinawa on 8 February 1965 in a general alert of United States Seventh Fleet forces. From March through May 1965, she was involved in shuttles of personnel and cargo from Okinawa to Danang, South Vietnam. On 31 May 1965, she returned to Yokosuka for upkeep. Windham, County departed Yokosuka on 23 June 1965 and participated in various lift operations between Okinawa and South Vietnam. Beginning on 5 September 1965, she commenced an overhaul at Yokosuka. Leaving the shipyard on 12 October 1965, Windham County was engaged in personnel- and cargo-carrying missions along the coast of South Vietnam before returning to Yokosuka on 10 December 1965 for upkeep.
Windham County departed on 6 January 1966 for Naha, Okinawa, and carried out numerous shuttles along the South Vietnamese coast. She arrived in Yokosuka on 5 June 1966 for hull repairs and, on 1 August 1966, commenced regular yard overhaul in Yokosuka. She began sea trials on 7 December 1966 and ended 1966 with type training and upkeep.
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Famous quotes containing the words vietnam war, vietnam, war and/or service:
“No event in American history is more misunderstood than the Vietnam War. It was misreported then, and it is misremembered now.”
—Richard M. Nixon (b. 1913)
“I was proud of the youths who opposed the war in Vietnam because they were my babies.”
—Benjamin Spock (b. 1903)
“Their bodies are buried in peace; but their name liveth for evermore.”
—Apocrypha. Ecclesiasticus, 44:14.
The line “their name liveth for evermore” was chosen by Rudyard Kipling on behalf of the Imperial War Graves Commission as an epitaph to be used in Commonwealth War Cemeteries. Kipling had himself lost a son in the fighting.
“Whatever events in progress shall disgust men with cities, and infuse into them the passion for country life, and country pleasures, will render a service to the whole face of this continent, and will further the most poetic of all the occupations of real life, the bringing out by art the native but hidden graces of the landscape.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)