“Fighting Fletcher”

It is June 1968, my first year of war. I am Ensign Don Smith, 22, a brand new shiny penny junior naval officer aboard an old World War II destroyer, USS FLETCHER (DD 445), home ported at the U.S. Naval Station in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.

A few days ago, I graduated from college in Minnesota, was commissioned an officer in the United States Naval Reserve, took my oath of office, and prepared to begin my active duty naval service.

“Fighting Fletcher” deploys to WESTPAC (Western Pacific) to conduct combat operations in Vietnam.

At first, Fletcher operates in the South China Sea providing naval gunfire support for friendly forces ashore in South Vietnam.

Fletcher later moves north to the Gulf of Tonkin to provide force protection for the carrier strike group of USS HANCOCK (CVA-19) off the coast of North Vietnam.

Eventually, Fletcher returns to “the world” (the United States of America) where it is decommissioned in San Diego. I volunteer for the U.S. Naval Advisory Group Vietnam.