“We had some close calls with people...you had to be ready, you did a lot of shooting.”
Captain William H. Ewing, USNR
The United States Navy Memorial Stories of Service Program is honored to announce the May 2017 story of the month has been selected to honor the service of Captain William H. Ewing USNR.
William H. Ewing attended Vanderbilt University on a Navy ROTC scholarship and during the summer of his undergraduate studies he participated in Midshipmen cruises learning about different vessels of the United States Navy. Upon graduating, Captain Ewing was assigned to the USS Vega which was a refrigerated storage ship. Early in his service, on the USS Vega, the Tonkin Gulf Incident occurred and Captain Ewing became the navigator of the ship making six crossings of the Pacific. It was on the Vega that Ewing learned of the Navy's call for Lieutenant Junior Grade volunteers to operate small boats. Ewing volunteered and was selected to be sent to Swift Boat Training in Coronado. After receiving extensive training in s
urvivor, weapons, and Vietnamese language, he would be sent to Vietnam and assigned to Coastal Division 14.
Captain Ewing shared a detailed account of Operation Market Time Operations. Coastal Division 14 was assigned to area 4 and the top region of area 5 where he would board and search a number of Vietnamese vessels and hunt for all supplies destined for the enemy. When recalling the Market Time Operations, Ew
ing shared, “We had some close calls with people...you had to be ready, you did a lot of shooting."
Captain Ewing was then ordered to the USS Dewey to serve as the CIC Officer and his service was extended a year which totaled 5 years of sea duty. While on the Dewey, Ewing learned about opportunities to pursue a degree in law utilizing the G. I. Bill. He would then spend the next 20 years of his life in the US Navy Reserve as well as becoming an accomplished lawyer.
The United States Navy Memorial Stories of Service Program honors Captain William H. Ewing, featured within this series titled, Tales from the Navy Log, Story of the Month. Each month, this series honors a Veteran’s story recorded by the Stories of Service Program at the Navy Memorial. To learn more about this story and to explore the Navy Memorial Tales from the Navy Log archive, visit the Navy Memorial Stories of Service site at http://navylog.navymemorial.org/stories-of-service
To view this interview please visit the Vietnam Era Swift Boat Reunion Collection on the stories of service page.