On Admiral Paul Yost's watch, the USCGC Mellon (WHEC-717) gained distinction as the only Coast Guard cutter to fire a Harpoon antiship missile.
Admiral Paul A. Yost Jr. graduated from the Coast Guard Academy in 1951 and rose in an action-packed career to serve as Coast Guard Commandant from 1986 to 1990. He believed deeply—as he underlined in his Naval Institute oral history—in the Coast Guard’s role as “a military outfit.”
During a 1968-69 tour in Vietnam, he received the Silver Star for his role as commanding officer of a fast patrol craft (PCF) squadron in fierce-fighting river operations. The citation reads, in part:
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