the second world war cost 15 million lives. 2,000 of them u.s. coast guardsmen who died fighting for our freedom. two decades later their services would be called upon again in a place called vietnam. their unwavering esprit de corps would carry them through ten years of war. many would serve in the struggle for democracy in vietnam. one was paul scotty from new york. you came in the coast guard in 1965. >> and the build-up started in march when i joined the coast guard, i wanted to go to vietnam and i thought the coast guard would be a way to get there. >> but just before he shipped out he fell in love. >> i was go going to get ready for the war. i was getting in shape, chasing

girls with one exception. an english teacher i had met wanted me to go out with this girl. so i figured i'd date her, take her out and that would be the end of that. well, 32 days later i married her. we went off to reno and then i left for vietnam. we were together for 14 days. >> he arrived in country on 1 may 1967. as a gunner's mate, he looked for infiltrators. >> they would come down the coast. they were using trawlers. they were 88 feet to 150 feet. they could take on 95 tons of weapons and they'd try to get through us, reach the coast. hit a river inlet. the v.c. would be waiting for them and then they'd off load. >> were they armed?

>> yes. with weapons similar to our machine guns. >> to take that on the coast guard has what? >> well, we had machine guns and a crew of 11. >> versus a crew of 20 or more? >> yeah. >> after only three weeks in country, he was hand picked to support a special naval mission code named operation bo charger. >> i was charged with going into the dmz to clean out the north vietnamese. we were running force protections with the naval ships involved. we were working with the navy boat to get to the craft. vietnam to tiger island. we went to chase down a contact, turned out to be a small chopper with three people on board. we go to general -- yeah. we're chasing four contacts close to the north vietnam coast. i'm on the starboard side. you hear the rat tat tat of the

enemy boats. >> when you look back on that engagement is that something you had anticipated, the kind of thing you were going through training for? >> yes. just before the engagement happened, i was a little apprehensive. a little scared. but once the fighting started, training took over. >> over 2,000 pilots were lost in vietnam. the number of downed airmen was so overwhelming that more rescue helicopter pilots were needed. >> the air force is not prepared to rescue pilots and they come to the coast guard fairly early in the war and asked if they can fly rescue helicopters. >> the coast guard it turns out is the expert in search and rescue. >> the coast guard was the pioneer in rescue techniques starting in world war ii. >> 35-year-old lieutenant from akron, ohio, was a coast guard legend. he flew the combat choppers

nicknamed jolly green giants. he had already saved 13 lives. >> one of the first three that went over there, relentless life saver. >> 12 may 1968. 29 service men were stranded on the side of the mountain near denang. he received the second distinguished flying cross. you're listening to his after action report. >> on that night, the jolly greens were able to bring out 29 survivors, all but four were brought out in the dead of night. under flairs from an extremely hazardous flying area. >> it took every rescue mission as a personal challenge. always referred to them as mr. coast guard. >> people asked to fly with him. he was extremely well liked. he had an animal magnetism to his personality. i'm telling you, he was nothing but fun to be around.

>> david's younger brother -- >> he talked about flying helicopters. i've got to look into this. the nature of the whole organization was different than the army or the air force. it was more personal. he said these people depended on each other. it was more like family. >> a month later on 9 june 1968, a marine sky hawk went down 37 miles west of wei in the valley. the pilot was lieutenant walter schmidt. >> parachuted and we landed near a north vietnamese bivouac area. the pilot had a broken leg and couldn't move. >> the viet cong knew that the helicopters were coming after them and when you get so low you're subject to handheld missiles fired at you or the heavy 50 calibers can hurt you pretty quick. >> it was driven back by heavy

enemy fire. >> and got into the hover above the downed aviator. and finally got too intense, he had to pull off. the second attempt richard goes in again. he gets close, he got the pair of rescue men getting ready to go down. heavy artillery, heavy fire. over the radio, one of the air controllers yelled out, the left side is on fire, jolly green, get out of there. >> he said i'm losing altitude, i'm going to have to set it down. by the time he got to the clearing he hadn't -- he had a touchdown and it exploded into a ball of fire. they told us he was missing in action, presumed dead. >> after the crash, the remains of coast guard lieutenant jack and his three men air force crew couldn't be recovered. >> there was no doubt that he

had been killed in action, but because the remains or anything were covered he fell into the m.i.a., mising in action status. >> he was the only coast guardsmen from the vietna war to be listed -- >> rht. >> then 35 years after his chopper went down, remains of jack and his three-man crew were found at the crash site. >> they have his remains positively identified. they said we're bringing him back home. that was such a tremendous, tremendous relief to the family. we finally got closure. >> on 6 october 2003, he was laid to rest on coast guard hill at arlington national cemetery. >> all hands are now accounted for. may god bless the lieutenant and his family and may god bless the united states of america. >> next on "war stories" we join the front lines of homeland

security on patrol with coast guard station in new york, protecting our shores from those who would do us harm.

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tuesday, september 11, 2001, a new day of infamy. 19 terrorists hijacked four airliners and attacked the american homeland. the smoke and chaos engulfed lower manhattan and frantic new yorkers tried to escape. >> i never thought i'd see that in my lifetime. >> 29-year-old petty officer robin shipley was on duty that

fateful morning. she was one of the first on scene and later recognized for her efforts by secretary of transportation, norman mow netta. >> we had a 4 an bar and a 21 foot rhi. we were going to start to evacuate the battery because people were running in all the smoke and everything. a lot of people got evacuated by good samaritans and they got transported to ellis island. once the second plane hit, i think everybody on board the vessel seemed to know we were under attack, but it was pretty much -- nobody wanted to say it was -- i think shock. >> the world changed on 9/11 and so did the u.s. coast guard. >> america has entrusted another critical mission to the united states coast guard. >> on 1 march 2003, they were

formally transferred to the department of homeland under secretary tom ridge. >> a change in how things worked? >> 100%. local state agencies, nypd, the park police, everybody together under one umbrella is providing a service doing the same job and we get to the same objective. >> roger, we'll check out the ownership on this vessel. >> lieutenant mcclenen, describe a typical day in the coast guard then as versus now. >> it was search and rescue and law enforcement. today with the homeland security, you now have the additional mission. we're stopping boaters to see who it is on the boats. we run i.d. checks and background and so forth. we're still doing the boating safety and the education. >> located an staten island,

station new york is one of the busiest coast guard facilities in the country. their area of responsibility stretches from sandy hook, new jersey, all the way up the hudson river to albany, new york. manned by 72 coasties they performed 500 search and rescues and over 1,000 boardings a year. >> if there's a ship in distress out in new york harbor or on the way out into the atlantic, how do you get the word? >> the operational center of activities new york, it's called, or it goes through a lot of times through the 911 system in new york and they'll in turn get ahold of us. >> you radio the nearest coast guard vessel? >> yes, sir. >> how do you know where it is? >> we keep a plotted position every 15 or 30 minutes of where all the vessels are. and if the weather gets worse, then we increase that plotted position. >> on a cold, overcast day -- >> bring them in. >> "war stories" went on patrol with coast guard station new

york. >> that big container ship right there. you guys are ready to go aboard that ship if necessary to investigate what might or might not be in the containers being off loaded? >> yes, sir. what we do, colonel, every ship that calls into the port of new york tries to give us 96 hours notice. we know the cargo, we know the people that are aboard the crew, all that is run through a security check. then of course we do boardings out at sea. before the ship arrives into the port. >> put them up alongside. >> yes, sir. >> let's see if -- >> and this particular day, lieutenant mack and his crew stopped a boat for failing to show the registration numbers. >> we stopped a 50-foot cabin cruiser. >> so what did you find? >> they have all the information inside. so it doesn't -- it hasn't been named of anything yet. >> has all the receipts?

what happens, he can transfer it back over there. he's strictly transferring to the marina. >> the owner is actually the marina. >> he got a visit from the united states coast guard. >> the skies over new york harbor are protected by helicopters like this one from coast guard air station atlantic city, new jersey. we rode along with commander joe kelly, lieutenant commander and petty officer in their twin engine helicopter. >> safety is paramount. >> speaking of safety we're all dressed in these all-weather survival suits. >> yes, sir. >> what will these allow us to do? >> this will keep you alive for probably eight to ten hours in this water temperature and hopefully we'd be getting out of there long before then. we'll fly out over new york harbor. work with one of the coast guard 41 footers for training. we'll do a full hoist training session so you get to view what

it's like from the aircraft and the boat crew. what it looks like when we come in behind a boat to pull a survivor off the boat or off the water if we had to drop a swimmer. >> what kind of baskets they use -- one that's not severely injured that can move on his own. or one that's in the water. that type of basket can be dropped in the water. most of the basket will go in the water and the person will roll inside of it. then it can be hoisted up to the hilo. >> continuous training like this helps keep the coast guard true to its motto. always ready. lieutenant mcclenen had this to say about his 25 years of service. >> you served, it was an honor. when you save a life, it's nothing better. nothing better. >> coming up, we join the newest member of the coast guard family. don't miss it.

ten months after the attack of september 11, the coast guard introduced its newest weapon against terror. these highly versatile units are called mssps. what's that? >> it's a maritime safety security team. it's a maritime s.w.a.t. team. >> hailing from california, the

lieutenant commander is the commanding officer of the sixth mmst commissioned. he's been in the coast guard for 12 years. >> i was actually the officer in charge of the delta in guantanamo bay, cuba. i was down there 4 1/2 months providing for the detainees in the camp down there. i got the question about this here and i said yes. >> created in fall of september of 2003, designated 91106 is home port here in coast guard station new york. >> we're established around the country. there are currently eight. we'll have 12 to 15 total when we're done. we're mobile. so wherever the threat exists we'll respond to those appropriately. >> how many guys you got? >> 79 active duty and currently 79 on board. >> and the equipment is some of the boats right here? >> yeah, we have six 25-foot home land security boats. very, very rapid.

225 horsepower engines on the back. very nimble and rapid boat. twin marine guns, fore and aft, to address any threats. >> this can be transported in the c-130. >> which we had to do down to south florida. there was a call from haiti. >> you guys left here and went overland -- >> to southern florida, yes, sir. >> that kind of mobility is expected. >> absolutely. if you look at the map and the established places in new york, chesapeake, seattle, los angeles, san diego, they start to overlap. as more come on line the distances we have to travel will shrink down. >> i see the weapons. >> each msst member receives two weeks of training at camp lejeune, north carolina. this is followed by a week of intense simulated terror attack scenarios designed to prepare them for chemical and biological

threats. >> and the coxswains, they're not so focused on the search and the rescue and the other myriad of missions that the coast guard does, but a lot more aggressive with the boat. >> commission to the united states coast guard, hasn't really changed. but there's a new emphasis within the mission on issues like counterterrorism. >> some people think it's a brand new mission for the coast guard and it's not. they were doing this in world war ii. they did it in vietnam. when the country needs change, we change with it, we keep pushing along. >> you're watching "war stories" on the fox news channel. all hands on deck.

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any given day the coast guard saves ten lives, answers 192 calls for help, and seizes about $10 million worth of illegal drugs. today they protect our 95,000 miles of coastline, and they serve overseas ensuring the safety and freedom of others. and they sometimes make the ultimate sacrifice like petty officer who died in iraq. the first coast guard combat death since vietnam. with honor, respect and devotion to duty, the most unique branch of our armed forces. for those who serve and continue to serve in the united states coast guard, their motto always ready, is as appropriate today as it ever was. theirs is a war story that deserves to be told. i'm oliver north. good night.

house republicans tonight call for another fbi investigation into hillary clinton e-mail scandal, and this time, they want to know whether hillary clinton lied under oath when she testified she did not send or receive classified e-mails or her private server. one stopped to learn the fbi did not take into consideration hillary clinton speaking to congress when she talk about her handling of e-mails. >> did