Commander
Coast Guard Division 12
Box 88 NAVSUPPACT
FPO San Francisco 96695

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Release Number 23-68
March 18, 1968

REMAINS OF ENEMY TRAWLER AND CARGO RECOVERED

DANANG March 18 – The U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Point Welcome crew received an unexpected souvenir of the enemy trawler forced ashore 85 miles south of here March 1.

Closely pursuing the arms and munitions laden vessel to shore, the cutter was showered by bits of ship and cargo when the enemy craft was destroyed by her own crew to avoid capture.

The Point Welcome, a scant 500 yards away, discovered a bent enemy carbine bayonet under her small boat and a single board from one of the trawler’s hatches floating nearby following the blast.

Salvage crews and divers later recovered some 600 enemy carbines, 41 submachine guns, a heavy machine gun and an assortment of hand grenades, mortar rounds, detonators and ammunition scattered over a two-square-mile area.

The Point Welcome is one of 26 Coast Guard 82-foot patrol boats operating off the coast of South Vietnam in support of Operation Market Time. The cutters conduct frequent patrols in search of the enemy attempting to infiltrate men and supplies into South Vietnam by sea.

The Point Welcome is commanded by Lieutenant (jg) Gerald A. McGILL , USCG, from Pensacola, Florida.