7th Fleet Vietnam Patch Ready Power For Peace

Sailors of the Seventh Fleet called themselves the Tonkin Gulf Yacht Club, and this patch puts the flag of the country they steamed off of for more than a decade right in the middle. The yellow shield with three red stripes is the flag of the Republic of Vietnam. Around it the patch reads U.S. 7TH FLEET at the top and READY POWER FOR PEACE along the bottom. The Seventh Fleet was formed on 15 March 1943 at Brisbane, Australia, under Vice Adm. Arthur S. Carpender. By the 1960s it was the Navy's striking force in the Western Pacific, headquartered today at Yokosuka, Japan.

The war at sea opened in August 1964 when USS Maddox (DD-731) and USS Turner Joy (DD-951) reported attacks in the Gulf of Tonkin. Carriers of Task Force 77 flew strikes from Yankee Station off the North and Dixie Station off the South. Marines of the amphibious force came ashore at Da Nang in March 1965, and destroyers and cruisers formed the gun line along the coast, joined by USS New Jersey (BB-62) and her 16-inch guns. Mine forces cleared Haiphong in Operation End Sweep in 1973. In April 1975, during Operation Frequent Wind, helicopters carried thousands of evacuees out to the fleet's ships offshore.

The patch is a 4.5 inch circle with a white merrowed border and a green twill field. U.S. 7TH FLEET runs around the top in white letters, with a small raised TH. A silver banner reading VIETNAM in black block letters drapes across the yellow shield, its tails folded back at each end. READY POWER FOR PEACE curves along the bottom in white. Green, gold and red, it has the look of the late 1960s.

Duty in the Gulf of Tonkin meant long line periods, flight decks running around the clock and ships far from home for months. The fleet lost aviators over the North, and on 29 July 1967 a fire on the flight deck of USS Forrestal (CVA-59) at Yankee Station killed 134 men. Destroyermen on the gun line answered call-for-fire missions from troops ashore, and supply ships kept them all fed and fueled underway. Men from every rating can point to this patch and say they were part of it.

It fits a shadow box next to a Vietnam Service Medal and a cruise book photo, or the vest you wear to a ship's reunion. It also makes a good gift for a son or grandson who wants to know where his old man spent those years. The patch has an iron-on backing and can be sewn on for a permanent hold. It belongs with the sea stories.