Mon. U president speaks at Vietnam veterans' lecture WEST LONG BRANCH - The New Jersey VietnamVeterans'Memorial Foundation hosted a lecture and oral-history discussion this month titled "In the Navy, in Vietnam," delivered by retired U.S. Navy Vice Adm. Paul G. Gaffney II, president of Monmouth University. Gaffney, a Vietnam veteran, spoke about his role in coastal naval operations during theVietnamWar. The programwas held at the VietnamEra Educational Center inHolmdel. The eventwas cosponsored by the Eastern Monmouth Area Chamber of Commerce. In 1970, Lt. j.g. Gaffney was an operations officer aboard theUSSWhippoorwill, a 140-foot wooden coastal minesweeper with homeport in Japan. The ship was deployed to Vietnam as part of Operation MarketTime, where it patrolled coastal Vietnam and intercepted suspicious crafts sailing along the coast. He returned to Vietnam in 1971 as the staff oceanographer to the commander of U.S. Naval Forces Vietnam (NAVFORV) and as the American adviser to the Vietnamese Combat Hydrographic Survey Team. The yearlong assignment included advising the admiral in charge of U.S. Naval Forces in Vietnam on ocean tides, currents, mapping, charting and weather. Gaffney helped establish the jointU.S.- Vietnamese Navy Chart and Map Center. He worked with Vietnamese officers and enlisted men to conduct land and hydrographic surveys and make charts of area waterways. Gaffney received a Bronze Star for his role in the capture of severalVietCongwho attempted to cross through an area being surveyed in Ca Mau Bay. His other military awards include the Defense Distinguished Service Medal, Naval Distinguished Service Medal, Defense Superior Service Medal, Legion of Merit and the Naval War College's J. William Middendorf Prize for Strategic Research. Gaffney's naval career spanned more than three decades, including duty at sea, overseas, and ashore in executive and command positions. He served in Japan, Vietnam, Spain and Indonesia. While a military officer, his career focused on oceanography, research administration, and education. As the chief of naval research from 1996 to 2000, he was responsible for overseeing $1.5 billion in federal science and technology funding, a substantial part of which supported basic research inAmerican universities. He was president of the National Defense University before assuming the post as president of Monmouth University in 2003.