79 Fall 2024 Proceedings The crew of the Coast Guard cutter Heriberto Hernandez salute for a photo off the coast of Key West, Florida, on September 10, 2015. Coast Guard photo by Petty Officer 2nd Class Mark Barney man suffered severe bullet wounds. Hernandez was hit near the chest and slumped into the bow of the whaler, while the officers received gunshot wounds to the head, back, shoulders, arms, and legs. Blaha radioed Point Cypress that they had been shot up and were motoring toward the mouth of the Rach Nang. As they proceeded toward the river’s mouth, the whaler received more incoming fire from shore. Blaha did his best to suppress it with bursts from his M16, but the enemy fire held no tracer rounds, so he failed to pinpoint the enemy positions on shore. As they approached the rendezvous point with Point Cypress, Blaha and Gillies grew faint from blood loss and Hernandez remained slumped in the bow, alive but groaning in pain from his wounds. After Point Cypress had received the message from Blaha, Collom had sounded general quarters and sped the WPB toward a rendezvous point at the mouth of the river. Once on scene, the 82-footer brought on board the smallboat and wounded men. Next, Collom radioed a request for a medevac from the Navy’s floating support base onboard the anchored landing ship, USS Washoe County. During the half-hour transit to the LST (landing ship, tank), Point Cypress’s crew did their best to stabilize the wounded in preparation for the helicopter medevac from the Washoe County to a local field hospital. When Hernandez was brought on board Point Cypress, he was still conscious, but the bullet that struck him passed through his upper torso caused heavy internal bleeding. His wounds proved too grave to treat with the limited medical supplies on board Point Cypress and he died just as the WPB approached the Washoe County to take on mooring lines. Eddie’s body was flown back to Travis Air Force Base in California and then returned with a Coast Guard escort to his family in San Antonio. On Saturday, December 14, 1968, he was interred at San Fernando Cemetery with full military honors. Hernandez posthumously received the Purple Heart Medal and Bronze Star Medal with “V” device for valor. His Bronze Star citation read, “Fireman Hernandez’s professional skill, courage under enemy fire, and devo- tion to duty reflected great credit upon himself, and were in keeping with the highest traditions of the United States Naval Service.” In addition, the Coast Guard later named the fast- response cutter Heriberto Hernandez in his honor. He was a member of the long blue line and the first Hispanic American cutter namesake recognized for Coast Guard combat service. Author the author: William H. Thiesen, Ph.D., is the Atlantic area historian for the Coast Guard. He earned an M.A. from East Carolina University’s program in maritime history, and a Ph.D. in the history of technology from the Uni- versity of Delaware’s Hagley Program. His books include Industrial- izing American Shipbuilding: The Transformation of Ship Design and Construction, 1820–1920, and Cruise of the Dashing Wave: Rounding Cape Horn in 1860. His articles appear frequently in naval, maritime, and Coast Guard publications and the online history series, The Long Blue Line, featured weekly on the My Coast Guard website. The Long Blue Line blog series has published Coast Guard history essays for over 15 years. To access hundreds of these service stories, visit the www.history.uscg.mil/Research/THE-LONG-BLUE-LINE.
