Gary Sherman
(Storekeeper 2nd Class (Short-timer)
Coast Guard Combat Veterans Association
National Secretary/Treasurer
Gary Sherman is a former U. S. Coast Guard Storekeeper and served from 1969 to 1973. He was elected as the Association's National Secretary at the 2009 convention in Reno, NV and National Secretary/Treasurer at the 2011 convention at Herndon, Virginia.
In 1969 he joined the USCG and was assigned to Recruit Company Papa 76, in Cape May, NJ. In 1970, his first assignment following graduation from Storekeeper "A" School was to the USCGC CASTLE ROCK (WHEC 383). He sailed with the Castle Rock in a 1971 SQUADRON THREE deployment and remained on board until the turnover of "The Rock" to the South Vietnamese Navy on 21 December, 1971, in Saigon, Republic of Vietnam.
Gary claims three reasons for joining the Coast Guard:
1. To get the GI Bill for college.
2. To get stationed close to home on Lake Erie.
3. To stay the "hell out of Vietnam". He got the GI Bill, "Never got to Lake Erie" and got an all expenses paid trip to Vietnam"!
Gary had three cousins who were serving in the the Coast Guard prior to his enlistment. His cousin Mike Sherman, left the Navy and joined the Coast Guard and was sent to S.E.R.E training and then assigned to the CGC Pt. Welcome, immediately after the friendly fire incident in 1966. His twin cousins Steve and Wayne Sherman entered the Coast Guard in 1968 and served primarily in the CG 9th District (Lake Erie, by the way). All three cousins retired from the Coast Guard.
Since his Coast Guard Service, Gary earned a BA in Business Administration (Accounting) from Capital University at Columbus, Ohio in 1977, and earned a Master of Business Administration (MBA) also from Capital University in 1982. Until his recent retirement, in 2018, he had been self-employed, for the past thirty years, as a Principal Agent and Registered Representative for Nationwide Mutual Insurance Co. He now lives in Lansdale, Pennsylvania, with his wife, Janie and has two grandsons who live nearby. In 2021 Gary received the CGCVA Don Kneip Award for Distinguished Effort from National President Stephen H. Petersen, MKCM USCG (Ret.)
To contact him , please email cgcva@comcast.net or call the Association at 410-690-8000