Tonkin Gulf Yacht Club Embroidered Patch Vietnam War Navy 2.5 Inch

Nobody ever paid dues to the Tonkin Gulf Yacht Club, and nobody who steamed off Yankee Station ever needed the joke explained. The name was the Seventh Fleet's own tongue-in-cheek title for itself during the Vietnam War, and it stuck because it was so far from the truth. Membership took in everyone the fleet put in those waters: carrier crews and their air wings, the destroyers and cruisers on the gun line, riverine sailors and the Marines ashore. A 1966 USS Enterprise CVAN-65 command history used it plainly, describing the ships "on the line at the Tonkin Gulf Yacht Club." A nickname that makes it into a command history has gone well past a wardroom joke.

Carrier task groups took up position at Yankee Station in the Gulf of Tonkin in May 1964, flying reconnaissance before the strike missions began. From there the air wings sent F-4 Phantom IIs, A-4 Skyhawks, A-6 Intruders and F-8 Crusaders over North Vietnam, through Operation Rolling Thunder and later Linebacker and Linebacker II in 1972. Farther south, Dixie Station put carriers in position to support the fighting in South Vietnam. Destroyers worked the gun line close inshore, and cruisers answered naval gunfire calls up and down the coast. WESTPAC cruises ran long, and plenty of ships came back to the gulf deployment after deployment.

The patch is a 2.5 inch circle with a dark navy merrowed border rolled around the edge. The field is golden yellow crossed by three red horizontal stripes, the yellow and red of the Republic of Vietnam flag. A Vietnamese junk sails across the stripes in black thread, its battened sail lined with five white bars and a single stay running from the masthead down to the hull. "TONKIN GULF" arcs over the top in heavy black block letters, and "YACHT CLUB" curves along the bottom. It is small, but the colors read clearly from across a room.

The name outlived the war because the men who used it kept it going. The title and the junk logo are still popular with Seventh Fleet veterans, and they turn up at ship reunions and on veterans' jackets more than fifty years later. The humor belongs to people who stood long watches in hot water far from home and did the job anyway. Every ship that served there was a member, from the big-deck carriers to the smallest tin can on the gun line. For the sailors and Marines who came home, the name still says exactly where they were.

Mount it in a shadow box with carrier air wing patches, a ship's patch and a Vietnam Service Medal, or put it on the vest worn to ship reunions. It is also a pointed gift for a Navy or Marine Corps veteran who served off Vietnam, the kind that shows you know where he was. The iron-on backing presses on, and a few stitches make it permanent. One small circle, one long cruise.