USCGC Point Welcome (WPB-82329) was an 82-foot (25 m) Point-class cutter constructed at the Coast Guard Yard at Curtis Bay, Maryland in 1961 for use as a law enforcement and search and rescue patrol boat.

[5][7] Engine exhaust was ported through the transom rather than through a conventional stack permitting a 360 degree view from the bridge a useful feature in search and rescue work.

[9] Interior access was through a watertight door on the starboard side aft of the deckhouse, which contained the cabin for the officer-in-charge and the executive officer, [9] a small arms locker, scuttlebutt, desk and head.

A watertight door at the front of the mess bulkhead led to the crew quarters which was ten feet long with six stowable bunks, three on each side.

[5][6][10][11] After delivery in 1962, Point Welcome was assigned a homeport of Everett, Washington, where she served as law enforcement and search and rescue patrol boat.

[5] In April 1965, at the request of the United States Navy, she was tasked for service in South Vietnam and assigned to Coast Guard Squadron One in support of Operation Market Time, along with 16 others of her class.

[12][13] While the crew completed overseas training and weapons qualifications at Coast Guard Island and Camp Parks, California, Point Welcome was loaded onto a merchant ship, and transported to Subic Bay, Philippines in May 1965.

[4][5][14][15] For service in Vietnam, two additional commissioned officers were added to the crew to add seniority in the mission of interdicting vessels at sea.

After sea trials, the Division left Subic Bay for Da Nang on 16 July 1965 in the company of USS Snohomish County, as a temporary support ship.

[18][19] Point Welcome was about three-quarters of a mile south of the 17th parallel, in the limits of the Vietnamese Demilitarized Zone (DMZ),[20] when she was attacked in the pre-dawn hours of 11 August 1966 by three U.S. Air Force aircraft while on patrol in the waters near the mouth of the Cửa Việt River.

When it became apparent that he could not successfully evade the attacking aircraft, he ran the cutter close ashore and directed the crew to abandon ship.

"On 29 February and 1 March 1968, Point Welcome assisted in the destruction of an SL-class North Vietnamese trawler near Cu Lao Re island,[33] 70 miles (110 km) southeast of Da Nang.

[34] On the afternoon of 29 February, the USCGC Androscoggin took the trawler under surveillance after it was detected by a P-2 Neptune aircraft 150 miles (240 km) south of the DMZ.