I served with Clay Drexler when he was a Lieutenant Commander in my Coast Guard Reserve Unit (CGRU Miami IV) at USCG Base Miami Beach in the mid-1970's. Clay was originally an enlisted man rising to Petty Officer First Class (E-6), a Boatswain's Mate as I recall, and he then went to Officer Candidate School to become an officer.

As a Lieutenant, Clay served on active duty as the Acting Executive Officer on the USCGC ANDROSCOGGIN (WHEC-68), a 255-foot Owasco Class High Endurance Cutter based at Miami Beach when the "Andy" was deployed to a tour of duty with Coast Guard Squadron Three from December 4, 1967 to August 4, 1968 off the coast of Vietnam during the height of the Vietnam War. The Coast Guard had 5 High Endurance Cutters stationed offshore to aid in bombardment of Viet Cong positions near the coast and 26 82-foot cutters closer to the coast performing coastal and river patrols and engaging the Viet Cong in firefights. The 82-footers were sent there permanently but the High Endurance Cutters were rotated in and out from their normal home ports for one-year tours of duty. The ANDROSCOGGIN assisted in the destruction of an enemy steel trawler on March 1, 1968, in a gun battle at the mouth of the Song Cau River. In May 1968, she rescued 27 Vietnamese from the South China Sea.

Clay and I served together in our reserve unit under CDR John T. Mason, who also served as a Coast Guard civilian employee in the engineering division at the Seventh Coast Guard District. As the unit's Executive Officer, Clay was a demanding taskmaster and he was as gung-ho for the Coast Guard as they come. I thought I was fairly "Charlie Gulf" (gung-ho for the Coast Guard) but Clay lived and breathed the Coast Guard. One time I had to drop off some documents at his home at the time in Kendall, just west of the Palmetto Expressway, and he had a large Coast Guard ensign hanging in the front windows and port and starboard lights running up his driveway. I remember that I used to aggravate him tremendously, often intentionally, by making humorous critical comments during our reserve drills and at times he wanted to kill me but somehow we both survived.

I last saw Clay at BMCM Paul Debold's retirement ceremony at the Gator Den on USCG Base Miami Beach on May 20, 2006. After the ceremony he and I went down to the south end of the base and found the CGC GENTIAN in port and we were invited aboard. Some photos of that evening are below.

Commander Clay Drexler passed away on September 14, 2014, after a long illness. Please click on his name image to read his eloquent obituary from the Miami Herald. In the future, I will add more photos of him that I believe I have in numerous boxes of photo prints that I haven't seen since the 1980's. In addition, there is a very interesting article about Clay's uncle and father at this location: http://bethany-beach.com/tag/henry-clay-drexler/

Rest in Peace, Commander Clay Drexler, it was an honor to serve with you so many years ago!