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The second USS ''Welch'' (PGM-93/PG-9) was a in the United States Navy during the Vietnam War. ''Welch'' was laid down on 8 May 1967 by Peterson Builders, Inc., at Sturgeon Bay, Wis.; launched on 25 July 1968; sponsored by Mrs. Roy G. Anderson; and commissioned at the Boston Naval Shipyard on 8 September 1969, Lt. Paul F. Woods in command. The gunboat completed her outfitting at Boston, Massachusetts on 13 October 1969 and sailed for her first home port, San Diego, California. She arrived there on 12 November and, after about a month of upkeep, began operations in the southern California operating area for the remainder of the year. ''Welch's'' service at San Diego proved to be brief. On 1 August 1970, she departed the continental United States and, in company with and , headed for the Marianas Islands. She paused at Pearl Harbor from 8 to 15 August and then continued on to Guam, where she arrived on the 28th. ==Vietnam Service== ''Welch'' operated from the base at Guam for the next four years. During the first two, she alternated duty patrolling the Trust Territories in the Central Pacific and with combat assignments along the coast of Vietnam. After two weeks at Guam, she departed the island on 12 September for her first tour of combat duty. En route, trouble with one of her main engines forced her to remain at Subic Bay in the Philippines until 24 October. She finally reached the coast of Vietnam on the 28th and began three months of operations with Task Force (TF) 115, the Coastal Surveillance Force. Her main mission was the interdiction of communist coastwise logistics operations—dubbed Operation Market Time. ''Welch'' completed her first Vietnam tour on 31 January 1971 and, after stops at Hong Kong and Subic Bay, reentered Apra Harbor on 20 February 1971. She began her first regular overhaul on 1 March and completed it on the last day of May. From then until early July, she completed sea trials and a restricted availability at Guam. On her way back toward Vietnam, ''Welch'' had to return to Guam to evade a typhoon. She finally reached Subic Bay on 30 July and remained there until 18 August. On the 20th, she relieved at Camranh Bay, South Vietnam, and resumed Market Time patrols with TF 115. Those operations—broken once by a visit to Bangkok, Thailand, early in October— lasted until 29 November. On that day, relieved her of Market Time duty. ''Welchs voyage back to her base took her to Singapore, to Zambpanga and Subic Bay in the Philippines, and to Koror in the Palau Islands, before she arrived in Guam on 10 January 1972. Between 18 and 22 January she and conducted a surveillance patrol in the Marshall Islands and then resumed local operations out of Guam. On 22 April, ''Welch'' departed Guam in company with and , bound initially for Subic Bay and ultimately the coast of South Vietnam. After almost two months of operations in the Philippines, the gunboat departed Subic Bay on 16 June and arrived off the coast of South Vietnam three days later. Instead of Market Time patrols, ''Welch'' spent the first 25 days on station in the Gulf of Tonkin, testing the gunboat's capabilities for sustained operations at sea. After a two-day voyage south, she resumed her Market Time assignments on 17 July. Her ensuing three months of service laboring to stop the flow of communist supplies were broken but once when she departed Vietnamese waters for a three-day visit to Bangkok. On 25 October, the gunboat departed Vietnam for visits to Singapore and Davao in the Philippines before reentering Apra Harbor on 16 November. In the following month, ''Welch'' conducted a surveillance patrol in the northern Marianas between 11 and 18 December and then ended the year in port at Apra Harbor. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「USS Welch (PG-93)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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