Vietnam War
Late in 1964, when the American presence in South Vietnam began to increase, Tillamook also began to visit the ports of that country. However, her missions in Vietnamese waters in 1964 were brief port visits to deliver tows at such places as Da Nang and Vung Tau, South Vietnam.
Shortly after the Gulf of Tonkin incident in August 1964, the US Navy developed a training exercise to simulate firing on small, high-speed targets at night and Tillamook was assigned to participate off Subic Bay. Tillmook would tow the sled in one direction at top speed—just over 11 knots—while a destroyer steamed in the opposite direction at something close to top speed—something close to 30 knots—creating a relative closing speed of about 40 knots. On the first two nights, the destroyers illuminated the tow with their star shells, locked the turrets on the two, but did not fire. On several occasions, the star shells illuminated Tillamook. On the third night, a destroyer commenced a live exercise, but also placed the star shells over Tillamook rather than over the tow. Shortly thereafter, the crew on Tillamook heard the destroyer radioman announced "Shot, out"—it was on the way. A few second later, a salvo of fire shattered about 50-100 yards short of Tillamook and then before the crew could react, a second salvo was on the way that landed about 50-100 yards long. Although the salvos missed, shrapnel hit the side of Tillamook, and the crew collected them in a box and gave them to the destroyer as a present the following day while delivering the mail to the fleet.
In February 1965, she assisted the disabled United States Coast Guard Cutter USCGC Chautauqua into Yokosuka for repairs. Chatauqua was at Ocean Station Victor, approximately 1100 miles east of Yokosuka and was adrift, having lost its main bearing. Tillamook had been providing gunnery sled services, and had her lightweight 1" wire on the towing reel. Rather than take the time to replace the lightweight wire with the standard 2" towing wire, the skipper left immediately leaving the liberty section ashore. Because of the lightweight wire, Tillamook was unable to use full power and it was a long slog back to Yokosuka into a gale. During one 24-hour period, Tillamook actually averaged negative nautical miles for the day.
In April 1965, she was assigned to Operation Market Time along the coast of Vietnam, that was designed to interdict enemy infiltration and coastwise logistics operations. A Republic of Vietnam Navy patrol boat, RVNS PC-04, had caught an enemy "trawler" unloading weapons at Vung Ro Bay, South Vietnam and there was growing concern with enemy coastal traffic. In July 1965, Tillamook entered Vung Ro Bay about midnight based on reports from her Vietnamese liaison that a RVN outpost had been captured by the Viet Cong, the idea being to use Tillamook's 3 inch 50 single gun to attack the outpost. After slinking quietly in the cove, the Captain ordered the First Lieutenant to anchor, whereupon the First lieutenant opened the wrong pelican hook, sending the spare anchor splashing into the sea. With that, Tillamook departed the cove without firing.
In August 1965, she resumed operations towing district and landing craft between various East Asian bases and did not return to Vietnamese waters until December 1965 when she towed the large covered lighter USS YFNB-2 and the floating workshop USS YR-71 from Subic Bay to Danang. She visited South Vietnam again in January 1966 when she towed a barge into Cam Ranh Bay.
After another period of towing operations outside the combat zone, Tillamook rejoined the American naval forces in Vietnam in August 1966. She provided gunfire support for forces operating on the Long Tau branch of the Saigon River.
In December 1966, while attempting to retrieve a drifting barge, four of Tillamook's crew became separated from the ship. In the night, the barge drifted ashore, and Tillamook provided covering fire through the night to protect the four sailors from nearby enemy troops. The following morning, a small landing craft rescued the men. Tillamook returned to Subic Bay soon thereafter.
While at Subic Bay, Tillamook answered a call for a rescue mission with only the duty section embarked. The call came in around 22:00 one evening, and she got underway immediately to rendezvous with the merchant ship SS Enid Victory, which was unable to return to port because of a damaged engine. Tillamook brought Enid Victory safely back to Subic Bay.
During 1967, Tillamook made three short visits to South Vietnam, one to Vung Tau in mid-March, another to Da Nang in late June, and the third to Vung Tau again early in December. However, she spent most of 1967 occupied with routine operations in Japanese and Philippine waters.
Tillamook also spent 1968 in much the same way, though highlighted by a visit to Da Nang in January, to Singapore and to Da Nang in June and to Da Nang in September.
In 1969 and 1970, Tillamook made only four brief stops in Vietnam, at either Vung Tau or Da Nang. Her routine of tows between Japan and the Philippines was broken only by an escort mission to Keelung, Taiwan, in mid-September 1970.
Honors and awards
Tillamook received nine campaign stars for her Vietnam War service, for:
- Vietnam Defense, 18 to 25 August 1965, 7 to 15 September 1965, and 24 December 1965
- Vietnam Counteroffensive, 25 to 26 December 1965 and 8 to 20 April 1966
- Vietnam Counteroffensive - Phase II, 6 to 8 August 1966
- Vietnam Counteroffensive - Phase IV, 25 May to 2 June 1968 and 8 to 23 June 1968
- Vietnam Counteroffensive - Phase V, 21 July to 26 September 1968 and 3 to 7 October 1968
- Vietnam Counteroffensive - Phase VI, 21 to 22 February 1969
- Tet 69/Counteroffensive, 23 to 28 February 1969
- Vietnam Summer-Fall 1969, 6 to 14 July 1969 and 17 to 24 July 1969
- Vietnam Counteroffensive - Phase VII, 16 to 25 November 1970
United States
