As part of its ongoing Vietnam War program, the Northfield historical Society has invited local Vietnam Veterans present their experiences in the war.

President Richard Schneider of Norwich University, a retired Coast Guard Admiral, discussed his experiences in Vietnam as a young Coast Guard officer. He divided his presentation into two segments first discussing the role of the Coast Guard in Vietnam and then describing his personal experiences.

The Coast Guard is the oldest sea service working for our country since 1790. It was formed to collect tariffs and prevent smuggling in the harbors and ports of our emerging country. The responsibilities of the Coast Guard have changed since that time. As a part of the Department of the Treasury it can enforce laws at sea, enforce treaties, and oversee fisheries. It is also responsible for regulating merchant shipping, policing waterways and rivers, Maintaining aids to navigation including lighthouses and buoys and conducting search and rescue missions.

In times of war, or at the direction of the President, the Coast Guard serves under the Navy Department.

The Navy is responsible for bringing necessary supplies into the area by water. During the Vietnam War the Coast Guard supported the Army as it constructed ports.. They depended on the smaller boats used by the Coast Guard to bring the supplies to the troops. Coast Guard helicopter pilots supplemented Air Force pilots. The Marines depended on the Coast Guard to protect them as they unloaded their equipment before starting their work. In short, the Coast Guard was used to supplement the needs of the other services and its part in the war effort was made invisible.

One of the main concerns was to have safe ports. The ports in Vietnam were a disaster from this point of view. Much time was spent marking the channels for the larger ships. Part of the work of the Coast Guard was to establish and teach the Vietnamese about safety procedures. In this role the men of the Coast Guard acted as consultants. The ports were important because 98% of the gear needed for an operation came by sea.

Much of the supply to the Viet Cong (VC) was brought south along the coast from North Vietnam in junks and similar small craft hugging the coastline. A part of the mission of the Coast Guard was to interdict this resupply, which involved stopping the coastwise craft and boarding them to examine their papers and cargo. Since the Navy did not have the requisite small craft to perform this mission, they called on the Coast Guard to do so. The Coast Guard would stop, search and seize contraband goods and materials whenever necessary. The Coast Guard would use their smaller ships to go deeper into the rivers on patrol. An officer and a petty officer would board a suspicious junk and search it.

Ensign Richard Schneider was a 1968 graduate of the Coast Guard Academy. He was a gunnery officer soon assigned to go to Vietnam as part of the China Sea Fleet. His patrol craft was 82 feet long with a crew of nine including two officers and two Vietnamese. It was lightly armored and replaced after a year, as it was not strong enough to deal with metal boats. They later used high endurance cutters

that had been designed before World War I to bring in food, fuel and ammunition to the forces in Vietnam.

The men of the Coast Guard have the luxury of staying with their own ships. Schneider told about the voyage to Vietnam. His ship sailed through the Panama Canal to Hawaii. While they were traveling he practiced his celestial navigation skills, using the sun or stars to establish their exact location. This was an activity that he truly enjoyed.

He said that receiving mail was difficult as it was dropped from a helicopter every three weeks. Certainly this is different from the communication available today. Resupplying the ship often resulted in his ship and the supply ship floating side by side held in place by steel cables. There was great danger if the two ships pulled away from each other and the cables snapped.

Schneider joked that his ship was a "floating Hilton" as it was equipped with air conditioning. He explained that they used a system called "hot bunking" to provide beds for the Navy Seals and medical personnel who worked from their ship. When one man was on duty a second would rest in his vacant warm rack. Their ship provided a place for injured people, including the injured Vietnamese citizens to be given first aid before they were medivaced to a hospital facility. The Coast Guard was also involved in Civil Action Work doing "humanitarian stuff" such as building schools and clinics.

Another part of their mission was to bombard the coastline making it safer for the men on the land to do their jobs. They shot high-density 5 inch 38 caliber ammunition to break the bunkers on shore. This has a range of 10 miles. The Viet Cong simply moved 11 miles from the shore. Then Coast Guard received some rocket-assisted ammunition which had a range of 18 miles. This was a big surprise to the VC, at least until they moved 19 miles from the coast.

After a year of duty he returned home to Governor's Island in New York. Water boats sprayed streams of water to salute and greet them. This was a joyous homecoming. It was then that he was reunited with his wife and met his daughter for the first time.

He reflected, "I was doing what I was trained to do and I loved it. I would have been happy to stay there if I had not been married."