By Gerald A. McGill
At the time of the first combat encounters in Vietnam, Coast Guard cutters had white hulls. This had always been true of Coast Guard vessels, large and small. The main reason for having white hulls is that the primary mission of the Coast Guard is search and rescue of vessels in distress. In these missions, visibility is desirable.
Soon after the initial combat engagements, however, an order came from Market Time Headquarters that all the WPBs* were to be painted gray. In retrospect the order made sense but Guardsmen take great pride in their white hulled vessels and at the time many were displeased. Some felt that if they had wanted to go to sea on gray ships, they would have joined the Navy. But there was no choice given.
Ever resourceful, Coast Guardsmen soon discovered that by adding a couple of tablespoons of black paint to each gallon of Navy gray paint they created a black-gray shade giving the cutter a more menacing appearance and a lot less visibility. This ended most of the grumbling.
In the United States, the 82s had white hulls and their hull numbers were painted in black for contrast. All hull numbers consisted of five numbers with the first two numbers 82. The Point Welcome was 82329. When the Vietnam cutters were painted “Coast Guard” gray, the numbers were painted the lighter “Navy” gray for contrast.
*WPB – General term for all Coast Guard patrol boats
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