Created on 20 May 1968 as a ribbon-only decoration, the Merchant Marine Vietnam Service award was augmented with a medal in 1992 when the U.S. Department of Transportation announced that medals were being issued to supplement war zone and service bars from previous conflicts. A dragon, traditional symbol of Vietnam, is the focal point of the medal and is superimposed on the anchor used to denote maritime service, while the shoreline in the background emphasizes how much work was done in the coastal waters of Vietnam. The award is presented to merchant mariners who served in those waters between 3 July 1965 and 15 August 1973.
Merchant Marine vessels fell under the command of the Military Sea Transportation Service during the Vietnam War, and it was up to the MSTS to deliver war materiel and other supplies to its four “cusomters:” Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marine Corps. The ships of the MSTS were staffed with civilians, but delivered critical supplies including ordnance and ammunition into live combat zones; to protect them in case they were captured, the Navy assigned these mariners Navy grades and rank information. And the record proves that the Navy was not acting out of an abundance of “overcaution”—between May 1964 and November 1972, there were almost 140 enemy actions against ships either chartered or owned by MSTS, resulting in 16 deaths and almost four dozen wounded casualties.