The forgotten

As the Vietnam war was winding down US forces continued to patrol coastal waters of north and south Vietnam, one of the most active missions was referred to as Market time. As Destroyer Escorts like the one I was stationed on DE 1045 the USS Davidson cruised 1 to 2 miles off the coast of north and south Vietnam up and into the Gulf of Tonkin, Guns and Rockets aimed at Vietnam when cruising both north and south. I can remember it well, looking into the jungle and observing the shoreline. Although a cease fire was declared fighting continued on the continent. Unlike today there was no internet, no daily mail or newspaper at this point in time the only thing I knew about the US was there was a Watergate scandal and president Nixon was going to resign ( August 1974) and we were still at war with no declaration of the war ending. It was scary watching the shoreline wondering if somthing was going to be shot at our ship. There were many ships in the area with the largest of the fleet being out further in the Blue water .Our deployment ended the end of 1974. As history would have it operation Frequent Wind was conducted in the second quarter of 1975 with the final evacuation of military and civilians left there. The Vietnam service medal was last issued then. Unfortunately Vietnam veterans like myself and many others were not recognized as the medal was not issued to military personnel in or around Vietnam between the mid of 1973 and the second quarter of 1975. Thus the title, the hundreds of veterans, maybe thousands that served there then were not recognized with the service medal.