History of the United States Coast Guard
Encyclopedia
The history of the United States Coast Guard
goes back to the Revenue Cutter Service, which was founded on August 4, 1790 as part of the Department of the Treasury
. The Revenue Cutter Service and the United States Life-Saving Service
were merged to become the Coast Guard per which states: "The Coast Guard as established January 28, 1915, shall be a military service and a branch of the armed forces of the United States at all times." In 1939, the United States Lighthouse Service
was merged into the Coast Guard. The Coast Guard itself was moved to the Department of Transportation
in 1967, and on February 25, 2003 it became part of the Department of Homeland Security
. However, under as amended by section 211 of the Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation Act of 2006, upon the declaration of war and when Congress
so directs in the declaration, or when the President
directs, the Coast Guard operates as a service in the Department of the Navy
.
was disbanded, to 1798, when the United States Navy
was created, the Revenue Cutter Service provided the only armed American presence on the sea. Revenue Marine cutters were involved in the Quasi-War
with France
from 1798 to 1799, the War of 1812
, and the Mexican-American War.
Another predecessor service, the U.S. Lighthouse Service
, was organized by statute in 1911. The predecessor to the Lighthouse Service was the United States Lighthouse Board
established in 1852.
In 1794, the Revenue Cutter Service was given the mission of preventing trading in slaves from Africa to the United States. Between 1794 and 1865, the Service captured approximately 500 slave ships. In 1808, the Service was responsible for enforcing President Thomas Jefferson
's embargo closing U.S. ports to European trade.
The Coast Guard's role in environmental protection dates back more than 185 years to the 1822 Timber Act that tasked the Revenue Cutter Service with protecting government timber from poachers.
During the American Civil War
, the Revenue Service cutter Harriet Lane
fired the first shots of the war at sea at the steamer Nashville during the siege of Fort Sumter
. A Confederate Revenue Marine was formed by crewmen who left the Revenue Cutter Service.
Upon the order of President Lincoln to the Secretary of the Treasury on June 14, 1863, Federal cutters were assigned to the North Atlantic Blockading Squadron.
In the 1880s through the 1890s, the Revenue Cutter Service was instrumental in the development of Alaska
. Captain "Hell Roaring" Michael A. Healy, captain of the USRC Bear, greatly assisted a program that brought reindeer
to Alaska to provide a steady food source. Healy had the reputation as a rough sailing master and was court-martialed several times, but was restored to rank again and again. In the winter of 1897-1898, the reindeer and lieutenants in the Revenue Cutter Service participated in the Overland Relief Expedition to help starving trapped whalers. During the Snake River gold rush of 1900, the Revenue Cutter Service returned destitute miners to Seattle from Alaska.
The Coast Guard took its unofficial motto, "You have to go out, but you don't have to come back," from the 1899 regulations of the United States Life Saving Service, which stated:
These regulations were repeated in the 1934 Coast Guard regulations.
for its training exercises. It moved to Curtis Bay, Maryland in 1900 and then again in 1910 to Fort Trumbull, near New London, Connecticut. School provided a two-year premise to ship supplemented by some class work and tutoring in technical subjects. In 1903, the third year of instruction was added. The school was oriented to line officers, as engineers were hired directly from civilian life. In 1906, an engineering program for cadets began. Nevertheless the school remained small, with 5 to 10 cadets per class. In 1914 the School became the Revenue Cutter Academy and with the merger of the Revenue Cutter Service and the Life Saving Service in 1915, it became the United States Coast Guard Academy
. In 1929 it relocated on a site in New London on the Thames River.
was transferred to the U.S. Coast Guard.
In 1920 the House Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce held hearings on merging the recently created Coast Guard into the United States Navy.
directed that although the Coast Guard was then a part of the Navy, that most of the administrative details handled by Coast Guard Headquarters would not be changed. At the outset of the war the Coast Guard consisted of less than 4000 officers and men, had 23 cruising cutters, 21 harbor cutters, 272 rescue stations and 21 cadets at the Coast Guard Academy. The Coast Guard was still in a formative stage of development from the merger of the U.S. Revenue Cutter Service and the U.S. Lifesaving Service. Because of this fact, there was not much interaction between the two former entities during the war. A qualified Lifesaving Service surfman who wished to transfer to a cutter had to be reduced to ordinary seaman upon reporting because of a lack of shipboard skills. Because of this transfers were infrequent. There were no chief petty officers in the Coast Guard at this time and Coast Guard petty officers assigned to Navy ships often served under less experienced supervisors for less pay.
Coast Guard cutters were seen by the Navy as ready assets and were used to fill in for a rapidly expanding Navy. The Navy recognized Coast Guard officers and petty officers as the experienced mariners that they were and often put them on Navy ships to fill in for crew shortages and lack of experience.
s to help enforce Prohibition
. The effort was not entirely successful, due to the slowness of the destroyers. However, the mission provided many Coast Guard officers and petty officer
s with operational experience which proved invaluable in World War II
. The Navy's epithet of "Hooligan Navy" dates from this era, due to the Coast Guard's flexibility in enlisting men discharged from other services to rapidly expand; it has endured due to the high proportion of prior-other-service enlisteds, and become a term of pride within the service.
, the Coast Guard rescued a total of 43,853 persons who they “removed from perilous positions to places of safety". Additionally, they saved 11,313 head of livestock and furnished transportation for 72 persons in need of hospitalization. In all 674 Coast Guardsmen and 128 Coast Guard vessels and boats served in the relief operations. The immense scope of the operations actually eclipsed the number of persons that the Coast Guard rescued during the Hurricane Katrina operations.
In 1934, the passenger vessel SS Morro Castle
suffered a serious fire off the coast of New Jersey, which ultimately claimed the lives of 124 passenger and crew. The casualty prompted new fire protection standards for vessels and paved the way for the Act of May 27, 1936, which reorganized and changed the name of the Bureau of Navigation and Steamboat Inspection Service to the Bureau of Marine Inspection and Navigation.
Marine inspection and navigation duties under the Bureau of Marine Inspection and Navigation were temporarily transferred to the Coast Guard by executive order on February 28, 1942. This transfer of duties fit well with the Coast Guard's port safety and security missions, and was made permanent in 1946.
for this rescue.
, cutters of the Coast Guard patrolled the North Atlantic. In January 1940 President Roosevelt
directed the establishment of the Atlantic Weather Observation Service using Coast Guard cutters and U.S. Weather Bureau observers.
After the invasion of Denmark
by Germany in April, 1940, President Roosevelt ordered the International Ice Patrol
to continue as a legal pretext to patrol Greenland
, whose cryolite
mines were vital to refining aluminum and whose geographic location allowed accurate weather forecasts to be made for Europe. The Greenland patrol was maintained by the Coast Guard for the duration of the war.
The USCGC Modoc (WPG-46)
, was peripherally involved in the chase and sinking of the German
battleship
Bismarck
.
Shortly after Germany declared war on the United States, German submarine
s began Operation Drumbeat
("Paukenschlag"), sinking ships off the American coast. Many Coast Guard cutters were involved in rescue operations following German attacks on American shipping. The USCGC Icarus
, a 165-foot (50 m) cutter that previously had been a rumrunner chaser during Prohibition
, sank U-352 on May 9, 1942, off the coast of Charleston, South Carolina, and took 33 prisoners, the first Germans taken in combat by any U.S. force.
The USCGC Thetis sank U-157
on June 10, 1942. During the war, Coast Guard units sank 12 German and two Japanese submarines and captured two German surface vessels.
When the USCGC Campbell
rammed and sank the German U-606, her enlisted mascot Sinbad
became a public hero at home and brought attention to the role of the Coast Guard in convoy protection.
Coast Guardsmen also patrolled the shores of the United States during the war. On June 13, 1942, Seaman Second Class John Cullen, patrolling the beach in Amagansett, New York
, discovered the first landing of German saboteurs in Operation Pastorius
. Cullen was the first American who actually came in contact with the enemy on the shores of the United States during the war and his report led to the capture of the German sabotage team. For this, Cullen received the Legion of Merit
. http://www.uscg.mil/hq/g-cp/cb/PDFs/Sept_2005.pdf.
In addition to antisubmarine operations, the Coast Guard worked closely with the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps
. Many of the coxswain
s of American landing craft
, such as the Higgins boat (LCVP
), used in amphibious invasions were Coast Guardsmen who had received amphibious training with the cooperation of the U.S. Marine Corps. Coast Guard cutters and ships partially manned by Coast Guardsmen were used in the North African invasion of November 1942 (Operation Torch
) and the invasion of Sicily
in 1943 (Operation Husky).
On September 9, 1942 the USCGC Muskget (WAG-48)
was sunk with a loss of 121 crewmembers while on North Atlantic weather patrol by U-755.
In November 1942, legislation was passed creating the Coast Guard Women's Reserve, also known as the SPARS
. Led by Captain Dorothy C. Stratton
, around 11,000 women served in various stateside positions, freeing men for overseas duty.
On February 3, 1943 the torpedoing of the transport Dorchester
off the coast of Greenland saw cutters Comanche and Escanaba
respond. The frigid water gave the survivors only minutes to live in the cold North Atlantic. With this in mind, the crew of Escanaba used a new rescue technique when pulling survivors from the water. This "retriever" technique used swimmers clad in wet suits to swim to victims in the water and secure a line to them so they could be hauled onto the ship. Escanaba saved 133 men (one died later) and Comanche saved 97. Escanaba herself was lost to a torpedo or mine a few months later, along with 103 of her 105-man crew.
During the Normandy invasion of June 6, 1944, a 60-cutter flotilla of wooden WPB
83-foot (25 m) Coast Guard cutters, nicknamed the "Matchbox Fleet", cruised off all five landing beaches as combat search-and-rescue boats, saving 400 Allied airmen and sailors. Division O-1, including the Coast Guard-manned USS Samuel Chase
, landed the U.S. Army's 1st Infantry Division
on Omaha Beach
. Off Utah Beach
, the Coast Guard manned the command ship
USS Bayfield
. Several Coast Guard-manned landing craft were lost during D-Day to enemy fire and heavy seas. In addition, a cutter was beached during the storms off the Normandy
coast which destroyed the U.S.-operated artificial harbor.
The USCGC Taney, a notable World War II
era High Endurance Cutter, is the only warship still afloat today that was present for the attack on Pearl Harbor
in 1941, although she was actually stationed in nearby Honolulu.
On August 27, 1944, the all Coast Guard-manned USS LST-327
was torpedoed–but not sunk–by while crossing the English Channel. 22 Coast Guardsmen were killed.
On September 12, 1944, the Liberty ship
George Ade was torpedoed by a German U-boat off Cape Hatteras, N.C. CGC Jackson and CGC Bedloe, heading to assist the survivors of the Ade, were caught in the Great Atlantic Hurricane of 1944 the day after, sinking both cutters and killing 48 Coast Guardsmen. A U.S. Navy seaplane rescued the survivors. (PA2 Judy Silverstein, "Adrift: A CGC Jackson survivor recounts his harrowing survival at sea", Coast Guard Magazine 2/2006, pp. 28–31. pdf html)
On January 29, 1945, the USS Serpens (AK-97)
, a Coast Guard manned Liberty ship, exploded off Guadalcanal, Solomons Islands, while loading depth charges. 193 Coast Guardsmen, 56 Army stevedores, and one U.S. Public Health Service officer were killed in the explosion. This was the biggest single disaster to befall the Coast Guard during WW2. USS Serpens home page
As was common during this period, many of Hollywood's able-bodied screen stars became enlistees and left their film careers on hiatus in order to support the national defense. Specifically, actors Gig Young
, Cesar Romero
, and Richard Cromwell
all served admirably in various capacities in the USCG in the Pacific for several years. The A&P heir Huntington Hartford
also served in the Pacific as a commander.
, earned the decoration during World War II
as a small boat coxswain during the Battle of Guadalcanal in 1942. A Navy destroyer escort
, USS Douglas A. Munro (DE-422)
, was named in his honor in 1944. The cutter USCGC Munro (WHEC-724)
was commissioned in 1971, and is still on active service.
Bermuda Sky Queen, carrying sixty-nine passengers was flying from Foynes
, Ireland
to Gander
, Newfoundland
. Gale force winds had slowed her progress and she was running low on fuel. Too far from Newfoundland and unable to make it back to Ireland, the captain, Charles Martin, twenty-six-year-old ex-Navy pilot, decided to fly toward the cutter Bibb which was on Ocean Station Charlie in the North Atlantic. The plane’s captain decided to ditch and have his passengers and crew picked up by Bibb. In 30-foot (10 m) seas, the transfer was both difficult and dangerous. Initially the Bibb’s captain, Capt. Paul B. Cronk, tried to pass a line to the plane which taxied to the lee side of the cutter. A collision with the cutter ended this attempt to save the passengers. With worsening weather, a fifteen man rubber raft and a small boat were deployed from the ship. The raft was guided to the escape door of the aircraft. Passengers jumped into the raft which was then pulled to the boat. After rescuing 47 of the crew, worsening conditions and the approach of darkness forced the rescue’s suspension. By dawn, improved weather allowed the rescue to resume and the remaining passengers and crew were transferred to the Bibb. The rescue made headlines throughout the country and upon their arrival in Boston, Bibb and her crew received a hero’s welcome for having saved all those aboard the ditched Bermuda Sky Queen.
This event spurred ratification of the International Civil Aviation Organization
(ICAO) treaty establishing a network of ocean weather stations in 1947. A second conference in 1949 reduced the number of Atlantic stations to ten but provided for three Pacific stations.
in 1948 and all recruit training functions were consolidated in this facility in 1982, when the West Coast recruit center at Government Island (Alameda), California was closed, the facility repurposed and the island renamed. (See Coast Guard Island
).
, Coast Guard officers helped arrange the evacuation of the Korea
n Peninsula during the initial North Korea
n attack. On August 9, 1950, Congress enacted Public Law 679, known as the Magnuson Act
. This act charged the Coast Guard with ensuring the security of the United States' ports and harbors on a permanent basis. In addition, the Coast Guard established a series of weather ships in the north Pacific Ocean
and assisted civilian and military aircraft and ships in distress, and established a string of LORAN
stations in Japan
and Korea that assisted the United Nations forces.
" off the New England coast, the T2 tanker
s SS Fort Mercer and SS Pendleton broke in half. Pendleton was unable to make any distress call; she was discovered on the unusual shore radar with which the Chatham
, Massachusetts
, Lifeboat Station was equipped during the search for Fort Mercer. BM1 Bernard C. Webber, coxswain of motor lifeboat CG-36500 from Station Chatham and his crew, consisting of Andrew Fitzgerald, Richard Livesey, and Ervin Maske, rescued the crew of Pendleton, which had broken in half. Webber maneuvered the 36-footer under Pendletons stern
with expert skill as the tanker
's crew, trapped in the stern section, abandoned the remains of their ship on a Jacob's ladder
. One by one, the men jumped into the water and then were pulled into the lifeboat
. Webber and his crew saved 33 of the 34 Pendleton crewmen. Webber, Fitzgerald, Livesey, and Maske were awarded the Gold Lifesaving Medal
for their heroic actions.
In all, U .S. Coast Guard vessels, aircraft, and lifeboat stations, working under severe winter conditions, rescued 62 persons from the foundering ships or from the water; only five lives were lost among the crews of Fort Mercer and Pendleton. Five Coast Guardsmen earned the Gold Lifesaving Medal, four earned the Silver Lifesaving Medal, and 15 earned the Coast Guard Commendation Medal.
The rescue of men from the bow of Fort Mercer was nearly as spectacular as the Pendleton rescue, but is often overshadowed by the Pendleton rescue. Eight officers and crew were trapped on the bow of Fort Mercer and four were rescued using rafts and a Monomoy surfboat. By contrast, all aboard the bow of the Pendleton perished.
.
beginning 27 May 1965 with the formation of Coast Guard Squadron One consisting of Divisions 11 and 12. Squadron One assisted in Operation Market Time
by interdicting resupply by sea of Viet Cong and North Vietnamese forces. Seventeen Point Class 82 foot WPB cutters were transferred to coastal waters off Vietnam with their Coast Guard crews under the operational control of the U.S. Navy Seventh Fleet. Division 13, consisting of nine additional WPB's was added in February 1966. Squadron One cutters were awarded the Navy Presidential Unit Citation
for their assistance provided the Navy during Operation Sealords
. Coast Guard Squadron Three was activated in support of Market Time beginning March 1967 and consisted initially of five high endurance cutter
s (WHEC) tasked to the Navy for used in coastal interdiction and naval gunfire support
for shore operations in South Vietnam. The Coast Guard developed a "piggyback" weapon that proved highly useful; an M2 Browning machine gun placed over a 81mm mortar
.
Several Coast Guard aviators served with the U.S. Air Force 37th Aerospace Rescue and Recovery Squadron
and 40th Aerospace Rescue and Recovery Squadron
in Southeast Asia from 1968 to 1972. They were involved in combat search and rescue operations in both Vietnam and Laos.
The Coast Guard provided Explosive Loading Detachments (ELD) to the U.S. Army 1st Logistics Command in several locations in Vietnam. The ELD's were responsible for the supervision of Army stevedores in the unloading of explosives and ammunition from U.S. Merchant Marine ships. The ELD's were also responsible for assisting the Army in port security operations at each port and eventually were made a part of a Port Security and Waterways Detail (PS&WD) reporting to the Commanding General, United States Army, Vietnam (USARV). They earned the Army Meritorious Unit Commendation
for their efforts.
In December 1965 Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara
requested Coast Guard assistance in constructing a chain of LORAN-C stations for use by naval vessels and combat aircraft for operations in Southeast Asia. Construction started almost immediately at five locations in Thailand and Vietnam and were operational after 8 August 1966.
On 22 April 1966, arrived in Cam Rahn Bay to commence Aids to Navigation (ATON) operations in the coastal waters of South Vietnam. She was responsible for the marking of freshly cut channels and harbors with buoys and daymarks so that merchant and naval ships could safely navigate the waters. This direct support mission ended on 17 May 1971 with the departure of the last buoy tender, . The buoy tender crews were tasked with training South Vietnamese crews in the ATON effort prior to the departure of the Blackhaw as a part of the 'Vietnamization
' policy of the Nixon Administration. After May 1971 ATON was serviced on a 'as needed' basis by homeported in Guam.
In August 1970 the Coast Guard finished turning over to the South Vietnamese Navy the patrol boats of Squadron One. The training of South Vietnamese crews had started in February 1969 and continued through to the end of operations for Squadron One. and were turned over to the South Vietnamese Navy on 1 January 1971. Eventually three other WHEC's were turned over to the South Vietnamese Navy. The Coast Guard's involvement in the Vietnam War ended at 1246 local time 29 April 1975 when LORAN Station Con Son went off the air for good. Its signal was necessary for the safe evacuation of Siagon by U.S. Embassy personnel in the final days before the fall of the South Vietnamese government and it was kept on the air as long as possible. On 3 October 1975 the Coast Guard disestablished the remaining LORAN-C stations in Thailand. Seven Coast Guardsmen were killed during the war in combat and search and rescue operations.
Blues," they were implemented as part of the postwar transition to an all-volunteer force. It is noteworthy that the enlisted's and officer's uniforms differed only in rank insignia and cap devices, reflecting the value the service placed on its enlisted members (although it caused saluting confusion among members of other services). The stylish new women's uniform was created by Hollywood costume designer Edith Head
, upon the request of Capt. Eleanor L'Ecuyer.
Women were integrated into the Coast Guard during the 1970s, beginning with the end of the separate Women's Reserve (SPARS) in 1973, the modification of 378's for mixed-gender crews beginning in 1977, and the opening of all ratings to women in 1978 These stages of integration preceded the DOD military by roughly a year or so, as separate legislation restricted their deployment of women.
Altogether, the shift from Treasury to the DOT in 1967, the uniform change, the end of Ocean Station service, growth of the shore-side establishment by newly added missions, the steady if belated retirement of venerable but aging WWII cutters, and gender integration marked the oft-lamented end of the "Old Guard" ("wooden ships and men of steel").
The Ancient Order of the Pterodactyl was founded in 1977 in order to preserve the history of Coast Guard aviation, as the service's last amphibious seaplane, the Grumman Albatross
or "Goat," was nearing retirement, as was also the service's last enlisted pilot, John P. Greathouse.
, came to an end as improvements in oceanic aviation (turbojet airliners and improved radionavigation) obviated the need. However, the Magnuson-Stevens Fisheries Conservation and Management Act of 1976
brought an increase in offshore fisheries patrols, to which the newer WHECs (the 378s) were redeployed, as the aging boiler-powered WWII-vintage wooden-deckers were gradually retired.
seaman of Lithuania
n nationality, leapt from the 400-foot (120 m) mother ship Sovetskaya Litva, anchored in American waters (near Aquinnah, Massachusetts
on Martha's Vineyard
Island), aboard the USCGC Vigilant
, sailing from New Bedford
. The Soviets accused Kudirka of theft of 3,000 rubles from the ship's safe. Ten hours passed; communications difficulties contributed to the delay, as the ship was unfortunately in a "blind spot" of Boston Radio's (Marshfield) receivers, resulting in an awkward resort to using the public marine operator.
After attempts to get the U.S. State Department to provide guidance failed, Rear Admiral William B. Ellis, commander of the First Coast Guard District, ordered Commander Ralph E. Eustis to permit a KGB
detachment to board the Vigilant to return Kudirka to the Soviet ship. This led to a change in asylum policy by the U.S. Coast Guard. Admiral Ellis and his chief of staff were given administrative punishment under Article 15 of the UCMJ. Commander Eustis was given a non-punitive letter of reprimand
and assigned to shore duty.
Kudirka was tried for treason by the Soviet Union and given a ten-year sentence in the Gulag
. Subsequent investigations revealed that Kudirka could claim American citizenship through his mother and was allowed to come to the United States in 1974.
The incident, known for several years as the Coast Guard's "Day of Shame," was portrayed in a 1978 television movie
, The Defection of Simas Kudirka
, with Alan Arkin
playing Kudirka and Donald Pleasence
playing the captain of the Soviet ship. It was also portrayed in the book Day of Shame: The Truth About the Murderous Happenings Aboard the Cutter Vigilant During the Russian-American Confrontation Off Martha's Vineyard by Algis Ruksenas.
collided with the 605-foot oil tanker S.S. Capricorn and capsized when the Capricorns anchor entangled the cutter. 23 Coast Guardsmen were drowned. Coming close behind the loss of 11 men in the collision/sinking of the OCS training ship USCGC Cuyahoga
http://www.uscg.mil/HQ/RTC/Info/cuyahoga.shtm (built in 1927 as a Prohibition patrol boat http://www.uscg.mil/history/WEBCUTTERS/Cuyahoga1927.html), the impact of this disaster upon morale in the close-knit service was magnified.
were involved in the rescue of the passengers and crew of the Dutch cruise vessel in the Gulf of Alaska.
A fire broke out on the Prinsendam off Ketchikan, Alaska on 4 October 1980. The Prinsendam was 130 miles (209.2 km) from the nearest airstrip. The cruise ship’s captain ordered the ship abandoned and the passengers, many elderly, left the ship in the lifeboats. Coast Guard and Canadian helicopters and the cutters Boutwell
, Mellon
, and Woodrush
responded in concert with other vessels in the area. The passenger vessel later capsized and sank. The rescue is particularly important because of the distance traveled by the rescuers, the coordination of independent organizations and the fact that all 520 passengers and crew were rescued without loss of life or serious injury.
began to allow any person who wanted to leave Cuba to assemble in Mariel
Harbor and take their own transport. The U.S. Coast Guard, working out of Seventh District Headquarters in Miami, Florida, rescued boats in difficulty, inspected vessels for adequate safety equipment, and processed refugees. This task was made even more difficult by a hurricane which swamped many vessels in mid-ocean and by the lack of cooperation by Cuban Border Guard officials. By May, 600 reservists had been called up, the U.S. Navy provided assistance between Cuba and Key West
, and the Auxiliary was heavily involved. 125,000 refugees were processed between April and May 1980. (See Mariel boatlift
.)
The technology of all aids to navigation evolved dramatically during this era, reducing manning and maintenance requirements. The Coast Guard also managed the worldwide VLF OMEGA Navigation System
and operated two of its stations from the early 1970s until its termination in 1997 (having been superseded, though not truly obsoleted, by GPS).
At the time of the missile attack, the LORAN station was under the command of Lt. Ernest DelBueno, who panicked and attempted to evacuate his American crew by calling in a U.S. Navy transport helicopter from Helicopter Combat Support Squadron Four (HC-4), abandoning the Italians on his base, and in the community on the other end of the island. To their credit, the Italians, under the leadership of the base's civilian administrator, Marco Bartolo, reflected great honor as they kept their posts; however, the incident damaged relations with the local Italians; a rift that remained for more than two years.
In 1994, about 38,000 Cubans attempted to sail from Cuba to Florida, many on homemade rafts. The Coast Guard and Navy performed intensive search and rescue efforts to rescue rafters at sea. Sixteen 110 foot (34 m) cutters—half the complement of the Coast Guard—were involved in this operation, as well as buoy tenders not normally assigned to high seas duty. Due to a change in Presidential policy, rescued Cubans were sent to the U.S. Naval Station at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba
.
In 2002, the Coast Guard sent several 110-foot (34 m) cutters to the Persian Gulf
to enforce the U.N. embargo on goods to and from Iraq
. Port Security Unit
s and Naval Coastal Warfare
units also accompanied the U.S. military buildup.
(Public Law No. 107-296).
In September 2003, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld
rejected the proposal to transfer all military responsibilities of the Coast Guard to the Navy and assigning the Coast Guard purely homeland security responsibilities.
On April 24, 2004, Petty Officer 3rd Class Nathan B. Bruckenthal
, 24, from the USS Firebolt (PC-10)
, became the first Coast Guardsman to die in combat since the Vietnam War
. He was killed in a suicide boat attack on a Basra
oil terminal off the coast of Iraq
. With his death, all branches of the military had seen at least one death in that war.
After Hurricane Katrina
in August 2005, the Coast Guard dispatched a number of helicopters, fixed-wing aircraft, small boats, and Auxiliary aircraft as well as 25 cutters to the Gulf Coast, rescuing 2,000 people in two days, and around 33,500 people in all. The crews also assessed storm damage to offshore oil platforms and refineries. More than 2,400 personnel from all districts conducted search, rescue, response, waterway reconstitution and environmental impact assessment operations. In total, the Coast Guard air and boat rescued more than 33,500 people and assisted with the joint-agency evacuation of an additional 9,400 patients and medical personnel from hospitals in the Gulf coast region.
In May 2006, at the Change of Command ceremony when Admiral Thad Allen took over as Commandant, President
George W. Bush
awarded the entire Coast Guard, including the Coast Guard Auxiliary, the Presidential Unit Citation
for its efforts after Hurricane Katrina.
On October 29, 2009 Coast Guard HC-130 aircraft No. 1705 with seven crewmembers, based at McClellan Air Park in Sacramento, collided with a United States Marine Corps
(USMC) AH-1 Cobra
helicopter with two crewmembers 15 miles (24.1 km) east of San Clemente Island
. Both aircraft crashed into the ocean and all nine crewmembers in both aircraft are believed to have perished. The C-130 was searching for a missing boater while the USMC aircraft was heading towards a military training area in company with another Cobra and two CH-53 Sea Stallions from Miramar Naval Air Station. An investigation found no one directly responsible for the crash.
is designed to meet future threats to the U.S. from the sea. Although the program involves obtaining new ships and aircraft, Deepwater also involves upgraded information technology for command, control, communications and computers, intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (C4ISR).
A key part of the Deepwater system is the Maritime Security Cutter, Large (WMSL), which is designed to replace the 378-foot (115 m) high-endurance cutters currently on duty. This ship will have a length of 421 feet (128 m), be powered by a gas turbine
engine with two auxiliary diesel engine
s, and be capable of 12,000 nautical mile (22,000 km) voyages lasting up to 60 days. The keel laying of the USCGC Bertholf
(WMSL-750), the first ship in this class, took place in September 2004. The ship was delivered in 2008. The second keel, USCGC Waesche (WMSL-751)
, was laid in 2005.
Another key vessel is the Maritime Security Cutter, Medium (WMSM), which will be 341 ft (104 m) long, displace 2,921 long tons (2,968 metric tons), and be capable of 45-day patrols of up to 9,000 nautical miles (17,000 km). Both the WMSL and the WMSM cutters will be able to carry two helicopters or four VTOL
Unmanned Air Vehicles (VUAVs), or a combination of these.
United States Coast Guard
The United States Coast Guard is a branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven U.S. uniformed services. The Coast Guard is a maritime, military, multi-mission service unique among the military branches for having a maritime law enforcement mission and a federal regulatory agency...
goes back to the Revenue Cutter Service, which was founded on August 4, 1790 as part of the Department of the Treasury
United States Department of the Treasury
The Department of the Treasury is an executive department and the treasury of the United States federal government. It was established by an Act of Congress in 1789 to manage government revenue...
. The Revenue Cutter Service and the United States Life-Saving Service
United States Life-Saving Service
The United States Life-Saving Service was a United States government agency that grew out of private and local humanitarian efforts to save the lives of shipwrecked mariners and passengers...
were merged to become the Coast Guard per which states: "The Coast Guard as established January 28, 1915, shall be a military service and a branch of the armed forces of the United States at all times." In 1939, the United States Lighthouse Service
United States Lighthouse Service
The United States Lighthouse Service, also known as the Bureau of Lighthouses, was the agency of the US Federal Government that was responsible for the upkeep and maintenance of all lighthouses in the United States from the time of its creation in 1910 until 1939...
was merged into the Coast Guard. The Coast Guard itself was moved to the Department of Transportation
United States Department of Transportation
The United States Department of Transportation is a federal Cabinet department of the United States government concerned with transportation. It was established by an act of Congress on October 15, 1966, and began operation on April 1, 1967...
in 1967, and on February 25, 2003 it became part of the Department of Homeland Security
United States Department of Homeland Security
The United States Department of Homeland Security is a cabinet department of the United States federal government, created in response to the September 11 attacks, and with the primary responsibilities of protecting the territory of the United States and protectorates from and responding to...
. However, under as amended by section 211 of the Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation Act of 2006, upon the declaration of war and when Congress
United States Congress
The United States Congress is the bicameral legislature of the federal government of the United States, consisting of the Senate and the House of Representatives. The Congress meets in the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C....
so directs in the declaration, or when the President
President of the United States
The President of the United States of America is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president leads the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces....
directs, the Coast Guard operates as a service in the Department of the Navy
United States Department of the Navy
The Department of the Navy of the United States of America was established by an Act of Congress on 30 April 1798, to provide a government organizational structure to the United States Navy and, from 1834 onwards, for the United States Marine Corps, and when directed by the President, of the...
.
Early history
The Coast Guard's predecessor service, the Revenue Cutter Service, was founded on August 4, 1790, when the Tariff Act permitted construction of ten cutters and recruitment of 100 revenue officers. From 1790, when the Continental NavyContinental Navy
The Continental Navy was the navy of the United States during the American Revolutionary War, and was formed in 1775. Through the efforts of the Continental Navy's patron, John Adams and vigorous Congressional support in the face of stiff opposition, the fleet cumulatively became relatively...
was disbanded, to 1798, when the United States Navy
United States Navy
The United States Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven uniformed services of the United States. The U.S. Navy is the largest in the world; its battle fleet tonnage is greater than that of the next 13 largest navies combined. The U.S...
was created, the Revenue Cutter Service provided the only armed American presence on the sea. Revenue Marine cutters were involved in the Quasi-War
Quasi-War
The Quasi-War was an undeclared war fought mostly at sea between the United States and French Republic from 1798 to 1800. In the United States, the conflict was sometimes also referred to as the Franco-American War, the Pirate Wars, or the Half-War.-Background:The Kingdom of France had been a...
with France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
from 1798 to 1799, the War of 1812
War of 1812
The War of 1812 was a military conflict fought between the forces of the United States of America and those of the British Empire. The Americans declared war in 1812 for several reasons, including trade restrictions because of Britain's ongoing war with France, impressment of American merchant...
, and the Mexican-American War.
Another predecessor service, the U.S. Lighthouse Service
United States Lighthouse Service
The United States Lighthouse Service, also known as the Bureau of Lighthouses, was the agency of the US Federal Government that was responsible for the upkeep and maintenance of all lighthouses in the United States from the time of its creation in 1910 until 1939...
, was organized by statute in 1911. The predecessor to the Lighthouse Service was the United States Lighthouse Board
United States Lighthouse Board
The United States Lighthouse Board was the agency of the US Federal Government that was responsible for the upkeep and maintenance of all lighthouses in the United States...
established in 1852.
In 1794, the Revenue Cutter Service was given the mission of preventing trading in slaves from Africa to the United States. Between 1794 and 1865, the Service captured approximately 500 slave ships. In 1808, the Service was responsible for enforcing President Thomas Jefferson
Thomas Jefferson
Thomas Jefferson was the principal author of the United States Declaration of Independence and the Statute of Virginia for Religious Freedom , the third President of the United States and founder of the University of Virginia...
's embargo closing U.S. ports to European trade.
The Coast Guard's role in environmental protection dates back more than 185 years to the 1822 Timber Act that tasked the Revenue Cutter Service with protecting government timber from poachers.
During the American Civil War
American Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
, the Revenue Service cutter Harriet Lane
USS Harriet Lane (1857)
Harriet Lane was a revenue cutter of the United States Revenue Cutter Service and, on the outbreak of the American Civil War, a ship of the United States Navy and later Confederate States Navy. She was named after the niece of senator and later United States President, James Buchanan...
fired the first shots of the war at sea at the steamer Nashville during the siege of Fort Sumter
Fort Sumter
Fort Sumter is a Third System masonry coastal fortification located in Charleston Harbor, South Carolina. The fort is best known as the site upon which the shots initiating the American Civil War were fired, at the Battle of Fort Sumter.- Construction :...
. A Confederate Revenue Marine was formed by crewmen who left the Revenue Cutter Service.
Upon the order of President Lincoln to the Secretary of the Treasury on June 14, 1863, Federal cutters were assigned to the North Atlantic Blockading Squadron.
In the 1880s through the 1890s, the Revenue Cutter Service was instrumental in the development of Alaska
Alaska
Alaska is the largest state in the United States by area. It is situated in the northwest extremity of the North American continent, with Canada to the east, the Arctic Ocean to the north, and the Pacific Ocean to the west and south, with Russia further west across the Bering Strait...
. Captain "Hell Roaring" Michael A. Healy, captain of the USRC Bear, greatly assisted a program that brought reindeer
Reindeer
The reindeer , also known as the caribou in North America, is a deer from the Arctic and Subarctic, including both resident and migratory populations. While overall widespread and numerous, some of its subspecies are rare and one has already gone extinct.Reindeer vary considerably in color and size...
to Alaska to provide a steady food source. Healy had the reputation as a rough sailing master and was court-martialed several times, but was restored to rank again and again. In the winter of 1897-1898, the reindeer and lieutenants in the Revenue Cutter Service participated in the Overland Relief Expedition to help starving trapped whalers. During the Snake River gold rush of 1900, the Revenue Cutter Service returned destitute miners to Seattle from Alaska.
The Coast Guard took its unofficial motto, "You have to go out, but you don't have to come back," from the 1899 regulations of the United States Life Saving Service, which stated:
- "In attempting a rescue the keeper will select either the boat, breeches buoy, or life car, as in his judgment is best suited to effectively cope with the existing conditions. If the device first selected fails after such trial as satisfies him that no further attempt with it is feasible, he will resort to one of the others, and if that fails, then to the remaining one, and he will not desist from his efforts until by actual trial the impossibility of effecting a rescue is demonstrated. The statement of the keeper that he did not try to use the boat because the sea or surf was too heavy will not be accepted unless attempts to launch it were actually made and failed [underlining added], or unless the conformation of the coast—as bluffs, precipitous banks, etc.—is such as to unquestionably preclude the use of a boat."
These regulations were repeated in the 1934 Coast Guard regulations.
Coast Guard Academy
The School of Instruction of the Revenue Cutter Service was established in 1876, near New Bedford, Massachusetts. It used the USRC DobbinUSRC James C. Dobbin (1853)
USRC James C. Dobbin was a topsail schooner of the Cushing-class named after President Franklin Pierce's Secretary of the Navy, James Cochrane Dobbin. She was initially stationed at Wilmington, North Carolina, but in 1856 was moved to Savannah, Georgia. She was seized by a secessionist mob on 3...
for its training exercises. It moved to Curtis Bay, Maryland in 1900 and then again in 1910 to Fort Trumbull, near New London, Connecticut. School provided a two-year premise to ship supplemented by some class work and tutoring in technical subjects. In 1903, the third year of instruction was added. The school was oriented to line officers, as engineers were hired directly from civilian life. In 1906, an engineering program for cadets began. Nevertheless the school remained small, with 5 to 10 cadets per class. In 1914 the School became the Revenue Cutter Academy and with the merger of the Revenue Cutter Service and the Life Saving Service in 1915, it became the United States Coast Guard Academy
United States Coast Guard Academy
Founded in 1876, the United States Coast Guard Academy is the military academy of the United States Coast Guard. Located in New London, Connecticut, it is the smallest of the five federal service academies...
. In 1929 it relocated on a site in New London on the Thames River.
Birth of the modern Coast Guard
In 1915, the Revenue Cutter Service and the Life-saving Service were merged to form the Coast Guard. The Lighthouse Service was merged into the Coast Guard in 1939. On February 28, 1942, the Bureau of Marine Inspection and NavigationSteamboat Inspection Service
The Steamboat Inspection Service was a United States agency created in 1852 to safeguard lives and property at sea. It merged with the Bureau of Navigation in 1932 to form the Bureau of Navigation and Steamboat Inspection which, in 1936, was reorganized into the Bureau of Marine Inspection and...
was transferred to the U.S. Coast Guard.
In 1920 the House Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce held hearings on merging the recently created Coast Guard into the United States Navy.
Preparation
The Coast Guard's preparations for the coming war actually started before the Declaration of War on 6 April 1917. In late 1916, the Interdepartmental Board on Coast Communications recommended that telephone communications be improved and brought to a high state of readiness all along to U. S. coastline to include lighthouses and lifesaving stations as well as other government coastal facilities. Sensing a need for aviation, the Coast Guard sent Third Lieutenant Elmer Stone to Naval Flight Training on 21 March 1916. On 22 March 1917 the Commandant issued a twelve page manual titled Confidential Order No. 2, Mobilization of the U.S. Coast Guard When Required to Operate as a Part of the U.S. Navy. Germany had already announced a policy of unrestricted submarine warfare in January 1917, on all ships trading with its enemies and included neutral shipping as targets. U.S. merchant ships sunk before a declaration of war included the SS Healdton and the SS Housatonic and five others with the loss of 36 American lives.Declaration of war
On 6 April, with a formal declaration of war, the Coast Guard was transferred to the operational control of the Navy. All cutters were to report to the nearest Naval District commander and stand by for further orders. All normal operations were suspended with the exception of rescues pending orders from the Navy. Secretary of the Navy Josephus DanielsJosephus Daniels
Josephus Daniels was a newspaper editor and publisher from North Carolina who was appointed by United States President Woodrow Wilson to serve as Secretary of the Navy during World War I...
directed that although the Coast Guard was then a part of the Navy, that most of the administrative details handled by Coast Guard Headquarters would not be changed. At the outset of the war the Coast Guard consisted of less than 4000 officers and men, had 23 cruising cutters, 21 harbor cutters, 272 rescue stations and 21 cadets at the Coast Guard Academy. The Coast Guard was still in a formative stage of development from the merger of the U.S. Revenue Cutter Service and the U.S. Lifesaving Service. Because of this fact, there was not much interaction between the two former entities during the war. A qualified Lifesaving Service surfman who wished to transfer to a cutter had to be reduced to ordinary seaman upon reporting because of a lack of shipboard skills. Because of this transfers were infrequent. There were no chief petty officers in the Coast Guard at this time and Coast Guard petty officers assigned to Navy ships often served under less experienced supervisors for less pay.
Coast Guard cutters were seen by the Navy as ready assets and were used to fill in for a rapidly expanding Navy. The Navy recognized Coast Guard officers and petty officers as the experienced mariners that they were and often put them on Navy ships to fill in for crew shortages and lack of experience.
Prohibition
In the 1920s, the Coast Guard was given several former U.S. Navy four-stack destroyerDestroyer
In naval terminology, a destroyer is a fast and maneuverable yet long-endurance warship intended to escort larger vessels in a fleet, convoy or battle group and defend them against smaller, powerful, short-range attackers. Destroyers, originally called torpedo-boat destroyers in 1892, evolved from...
s to help enforce Prohibition
Prohibition
Prohibition of alcohol, often referred to simply as prohibition, is the practice of prohibiting the manufacture, transportation, import, export, sale, and consumption of alcohol and alcoholic beverages. The term can also apply to the periods in the histories of the countries during which the...
. The effort was not entirely successful, due to the slowness of the destroyers. However, the mission provided many Coast Guard officers and petty officer
Petty Officer
A petty officer is a non-commissioned officer in many navies and is given the NATO rank denotion OR-6. They are equal in rank to sergeant, British Army and Royal Air Force. A Petty Officer is superior in rank to Leading Rate and subordinate to Chief Petty Officer, in the case of the British Armed...
s with operational experience which proved invaluable in World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. The Navy's epithet of "Hooligan Navy" dates from this era, due to the Coast Guard's flexibility in enlisting men discharged from other services to rapidly expand; it has endured due to the high proportion of prior-other-service enlisteds, and become a term of pride within the service.
1927 Mississippi River flood
During the disastrous 1927 Mississippi River floodGreat Mississippi Flood of 1927
The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 was the most destructive river flood in the history of the United States.-Events:The flood began when heavy rains pounded the central basin of the Mississippi in the summer of 1926. By September, the Mississippi's tributaries in Kansas and Iowa were swollen to...
, the Coast Guard rescued a total of 43,853 persons who they “removed from perilous positions to places of safety". Additionally, they saved 11,313 head of livestock and furnished transportation for 72 persons in need of hospitalization. In all 674 Coast Guardsmen and 128 Coast Guard vessels and boats served in the relief operations. The immense scope of the operations actually eclipsed the number of persons that the Coast Guard rescued during the Hurricane Katrina operations.
Increasing regulation of merchant shipping
In June 1932, the Steamboat Inspection Service was merged with the Bureau of Navigation, itself created in 1884 to oversee the regulation of merchant seamen, on June 30, 1932.In 1934, the passenger vessel SS Morro Castle
SS Morro Castle
The SS Morro Castle was a luxury cruise ship of the 1930s that was built for the Ward Line for runs between New York City and Havana, Cuba...
suffered a serious fire off the coast of New Jersey, which ultimately claimed the lives of 124 passenger and crew. The casualty prompted new fire protection standards for vessels and paved the way for the Act of May 27, 1936, which reorganized and changed the name of the Bureau of Navigation and Steamboat Inspection Service to the Bureau of Marine Inspection and Navigation.
Marine inspection and navigation duties under the Bureau of Marine Inspection and Navigation were temporarily transferred to the Coast Guard by executive order on February 28, 1942. This transfer of duties fit well with the Coast Guard's port safety and security missions, and was made permanent in 1946.
Carl von Paulsen rescue
Lieutenant Commander Carl von Paulsen set the seaplane Arcturus in a heavy sea in January 1933 off Cape Canaveral and rescued a boy adrift in a skiff. The aircraft sustained so much damage during the open water landing that it could not take off. Ultimately, Arcturus washed onto the beach and all including the boy were saved. Commander Paulsen was awarded the Gold Lifesaving MedalLifesaving Medal
The Gold Lifesaving Medal and Silver Lifesaving Medal are civil and military decorations of the United States Coast Guard which was first established by Act of Congress, 20 June 1874; later authorized by Title 14 of the United States Code Section 500-501...
for this rescue.
World War II
Before the American entry into World War IIWorld War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, cutters of the Coast Guard patrolled the North Atlantic. In January 1940 President Roosevelt
Franklin D. Roosevelt
Franklin Delano Roosevelt , also known by his initials, FDR, was the 32nd President of the United States and a central figure in world events during the mid-20th century, leading the United States during a time of worldwide economic crisis and world war...
directed the establishment of the Atlantic Weather Observation Service using Coast Guard cutters and U.S. Weather Bureau observers.
After the invasion of Denmark
Operation Weserübung
Operation Weserübung was the code name for Germany's assault on Denmark and Norway during the Second World War and the opening operation of the Norwegian Campaign...
by Germany in April, 1940, President Roosevelt ordered the International Ice Patrol
International Ice Patrol
The International Ice Patrol is an organization with the purpose of monitoring the presence of icebergs in the Atlantic and Arctic Oceans and reporting their movements for safety purposes. It is operated by United States Coast Guard but is funded by the 13 nations interested in trans-Atlantic...
to continue as a legal pretext to patrol Greenland
Greenland
Greenland is an autonomous country within the Kingdom of Denmark, located between the Arctic and Atlantic Oceans, east of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. Though physiographically a part of the continent of North America, Greenland has been politically and culturally associated with Europe for...
, whose cryolite
Cryolite
Cryolite is an uncommon mineral identified with the once large deposit at Ivigtût on the west coast of Greenland, depleted by 1987....
mines were vital to refining aluminum and whose geographic location allowed accurate weather forecasts to be made for Europe. The Greenland patrol was maintained by the Coast Guard for the duration of the war.
The USCGC Modoc (WPG-46)
USCGC Modoc (WPG-46)
USCGC Modoc was a 240-foot Tampa class United States Coast Guard cutter designed for multi-mission roles. She had a top speed of sixteen knots, and was armed with a pair of 5-inch deck guns. With the breakout of war it was armed with depth charges, additional guns, sonar, and radar and...
, was peripherally involved in the chase and sinking of the German
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
battleship
Battleship
A battleship is a large armored warship with a main battery consisting of heavy caliber guns. Battleships were larger, better armed and armored than cruisers and destroyers. As the largest armed ships in a fleet, battleships were used to attain command of the sea and represented the apex of a...
Bismarck
German battleship Bismarck
Bismarck was the first of two s built for the German Kriegsmarine during World War II. Named after Chancellor Otto von Bismarck, the primary force behind the German unification in 1871, the ship was laid down at the Blohm & Voss shipyard in Hamburg in July 1936 and launched nearly three years later...
.
Shortly after Germany declared war on the United States, German submarine
Submarine
A submarine is a watercraft capable of independent operation below the surface of the water. It differs from a submersible, which has more limited underwater capability...
s began Operation Drumbeat
Second happy time
The Second Happy Time , also known among German submarine commanders as the "American shooting season" was the informal name for a phase in the Second Battle of the Atlantic during which Axis submarines attacked merchant shipping along the east coast of North America...
("Paukenschlag"), sinking ships off the American coast. Many Coast Guard cutters were involved in rescue operations following German attacks on American shipping. The USCGC Icarus
USCGC Icarus (WPC-110)
USCGC Icarus was a steel-hulled, diesel-powered Thetis-class patrol boat of the United States Coast Guard that patrolled the Eastern coast during World War II. In 1942, Icarus sank the U-boat U-352 off the coast of North Carolina and took its survivors into custody as prisoners of war...
, a 165-foot (50 m) cutter that previously had been a rumrunner chaser during Prohibition
Prohibition
Prohibition of alcohol, often referred to simply as prohibition, is the practice of prohibiting the manufacture, transportation, import, export, sale, and consumption of alcohol and alcoholic beverages. The term can also apply to the periods in the histories of the countries during which the...
, sank U-352 on May 9, 1942, off the coast of Charleston, South Carolina, and took 33 prisoners, the first Germans taken in combat by any U.S. force.
The USCGC Thetis sank U-157
German submarine U-157 (1941)
German submarine U-157 was a Type IXC U-boat of the German Kriegsmarine during World War II. The submarine was laid down on 21 October 1940 at the AG Weser yard at Bremen, launched on 5 June 1941, and commissioned on 15 September 1941 under the command of Korvettenkapitän Wolf Henne...
on June 10, 1942. During the war, Coast Guard units sank 12 German and two Japanese submarines and captured two German surface vessels.
When the USCGC Campbell
USCGC Campbell (WPG-32)
USCGC Campbell was a Secretary-Class Coast Guard ship built at the Philadelphia Navy Yard in 1935-1936 and commissioned in 1936. Seven similar "combat cutters" were built and named for secretaries of the United States Treasury...
rammed and sank the German U-606, her enlisted mascot Sinbad
Sinbad (USCG)
K9C Sinbad, USCG, Retired was a mixed-breed canine sailor aboard the US Coast Guard Cutter George W. Campbell...
became a public hero at home and brought attention to the role of the Coast Guard in convoy protection.
Coast Guardsmen also patrolled the shores of the United States during the war. On June 13, 1942, Seaman Second Class John Cullen, patrolling the beach in Amagansett, New York
Amagansett, New York
Amagansett is a census-designated place that roughly corresponds to the hamlet by the same name in the town of East Hampton in Suffolk County, New York on the South Shore of Long Island. As of the United States 2000 Census, the CDP population was 1,067. Amagansett hamlet was founded in 1680.The...
, discovered the first landing of German saboteurs in Operation Pastorius
Operation Pastorius
Operation Pastorius was a failed plan for sabotage via a series of attacks by Nazi German agents inside the United States. The operation was staged in June 1942 and was to be directed against strategic U.S. economic targets...
. Cullen was the first American who actually came in contact with the enemy on the shores of the United States during the war and his report led to the capture of the German sabotage team. For this, Cullen received the Legion of Merit
Legion of Merit
The Legion of Merit is a military decoration of the United States armed forces that is awarded for exceptionally meritorious conduct in the performance of outstanding services and achievements...
. http://www.uscg.mil/hq/g-cp/cb/PDFs/Sept_2005.pdf.
In addition to antisubmarine operations, the Coast Guard worked closely with the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps
United States Marine Corps
The United States Marine Corps is a branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for providing power projection from the sea, using the mobility of the United States Navy to deliver combined-arms task forces rapidly. It is one of seven uniformed services of the United States...
. Many of the coxswain
Coxswain
The coxswain is the person in charge of a boat, particularly its navigation and steering. The etymology of the word gives us a literal meaning of "boat servant" since it comes from cox, a coxboat or other small vessel kept aboard a ship, and swain, which can be rendered as boy, in authority. ...
s of American landing craft
Landing craft
Landing craft are boats and seagoing vessels used to convey a landing force from the sea to the shore during an amphibious assault. Most renowned are those used to storm the beaches of Normandy, the Mediterranean, and many Pacific islands during WWII...
, such as the Higgins boat (LCVP
LCVP
The Landing Craft, Vehicle, Personnel or Higgins boat was a landing craft used extensively in amphibious landings in World War II. The craft was designed by Andrew Higgins of Louisiana, United States, based on boats made for operating in swamps and marshes...
), used in amphibious invasions were Coast Guardsmen who had received amphibious training with the cooperation of the U.S. Marine Corps. Coast Guard cutters and ships partially manned by Coast Guardsmen were used in the North African invasion of November 1942 (Operation Torch
Operation Torch
Operation Torch was the British-American invasion of French North Africa in World War II during the North African Campaign, started on 8 November 1942....
) and the invasion of Sicily
Sicily
Sicily is a region of Italy, and is the largest island in the Mediterranean Sea. Along with the surrounding minor islands, it constitutes an autonomous region of Italy, the Regione Autonoma Siciliana Sicily has a rich and unique culture, especially with regard to the arts, music, literature,...
in 1943 (Operation Husky).
On September 9, 1942 the USCGC Muskget (WAG-48)
USS Muskeget (AG-48)
USS Muskeget – later known as USCGC Muskeget – was a commercial cargo ship acquired by the U.S. Navy during World War II. She was outfitted with a variety of guns and depth charge devices and sent on weather patrol in the North Atlantic Ocean...
was sunk with a loss of 121 crewmembers while on North Atlantic weather patrol by U-755.
In November 1942, legislation was passed creating the Coast Guard Women's Reserve, also known as the SPARS
SPARS
SPARS was the United States Coast Guard Women's Reserve, created 23 November 1942 with the signing of Public Law 773 by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. The name is a contraction of the Coast Guard motto: Semper Paratus and its English translation Always Ready...
. Led by Captain Dorothy C. Stratton
Dorothy C. Stratton
Dorothy Constance Stratton was the director of the SPARS, the United States Coast Guard Women's Reserve during World War II. She is the namesake of the Coast Guard's third National Security Cutter, the USCGC Stratton .-Early life and Coast Guard career:Stratton was born in 1899 in Brookfield,...
, around 11,000 women served in various stateside positions, freeing men for overseas duty.
USAT Dorchester
USAT Dorchester was a United States Army Transport ship that was sunk by a torpedo from a German U-boat on February 3, 1943, during World War II...
off the coast of Greenland saw cutters Comanche and Escanaba
USCGC Escanaba (WPG-77)
The United States Coast Guard Cutter Escanaba was an "A" class cutter stationed on the Great Lakes from her commissioning in 1932 until the start of US military involvement in World War II in 1941...
respond. The frigid water gave the survivors only minutes to live in the cold North Atlantic. With this in mind, the crew of Escanaba used a new rescue technique when pulling survivors from the water. This "retriever" technique used swimmers clad in wet suits to swim to victims in the water and secure a line to them so they could be hauled onto the ship. Escanaba saved 133 men (one died later) and Comanche saved 97. Escanaba herself was lost to a torpedo or mine a few months later, along with 103 of her 105-man crew.
During the Normandy invasion of June 6, 1944, a 60-cutter flotilla of wooden WPB
USCG Patrol Boat
The Island class patrol boat is a class of cutters of the United States Coast Guard. 49 cutters of the class were built, of which 41 remain in commission. Their hull numbers are WPB 1301 through WPB 1349.-Island Class Patrol Boat Overview:...
83-foot (25 m) Coast Guard cutters, nicknamed the "Matchbox Fleet", cruised off all five landing beaches as combat search-and-rescue boats, saving 400 Allied airmen and sailors. Division O-1, including the Coast Guard-manned USS Samuel Chase
USS Samuel Chase (APA-26)
USS Samuel Chase was an Arthur Middleton class attack transport manned by the United States Coast Guard during World War II. She was named after Samuel Chase, a signatory to the Declaration of Independence.-Construction :...
, landed the U.S. Army's 1st Infantry Division
U.S. 1st Infantry Division
The 1st Infantry Division of the United States Army is the oldest division in the United States Army. It has seen continuous service since its organization in 1917...
on Omaha Beach
Omaha Beach
Omaha Beach is the code name for one of the five sectors of the Allied invasion of German-occupied France in the Normandy landings on 6 June 1944, during World War II...
. Off Utah Beach
Utah Beach
Utah Beach was the code name for the right flank, or westernmost, of the Allied landing beaches during the D-Day invasion of Normandy, as part of Operation Overlord on 6 June 1944...
, the Coast Guard manned the command ship
Command ship
Command ships serve as the flagships of the Commander of a fleet. They provide communications, office space, and accommodations for a fleet commander and his staff, and serve to coordinate fleet activities....
USS Bayfield
USS Bayfield (APA-33)
USS Bayfield was a built for the United States Navy during World War II, the lead ship in her class. Named for Bayfield County, Wisconsin, she was the only U.S...
. Several Coast Guard-manned landing craft were lost during D-Day to enemy fire and heavy seas. In addition, a cutter was beached during the storms off the Normandy
Normandy
Normandy is a geographical region corresponding to the former Duchy of Normandy. It is in France.The continental territory covers 30,627 km² and forms the preponderant part of Normandy and roughly 5% of the territory of France. It is divided for administrative purposes into two régions:...
coast which destroyed the U.S.-operated artificial harbor.
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
era High Endurance Cutter, is the only warship still afloat today that was present for the attack on Pearl Harbor
Attack on Pearl Harbor
The attack on Pearl Harbor was a surprise military strike conducted by the Imperial Japanese Navy against the United States naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on the morning of December 7, 1941...
in 1941, although she was actually stationed in nearby Honolulu.
On August 27, 1944, the all Coast Guard-manned USS LST-327
Tank landing ship
Landing Ship, Tank was the military designation for naval vessels created during World War II to support amphibious operations by carrying significant quantities of vehicles, cargo, and landing troops directly onto an unimproved shore....
was torpedoed–but not sunk–by while crossing the English Channel. 22 Coast Guardsmen were killed.
On September 12, 1944, the Liberty ship
Liberty ship
Liberty ships were cargo ships built in the United States during World War II. Though British in conception, they were adapted by the U.S. as they were cheap and quick to build, and came to symbolize U.S. wartime industrial output. Based on vessels ordered by Britain to replace ships torpedoed by...
George Ade was torpedoed by a German U-boat off Cape Hatteras, N.C. CGC Jackson and CGC Bedloe, heading to assist the survivors of the Ade, were caught in the Great Atlantic Hurricane of 1944 the day after, sinking both cutters and killing 48 Coast Guardsmen. A U.S. Navy seaplane rescued the survivors. (PA2 Judy Silverstein, "Adrift: A CGC Jackson survivor recounts his harrowing survival at sea", Coast Guard Magazine 2/2006, pp. 28–31. pdf html)
On January 29, 1945, the USS Serpens (AK-97)
USS Serpens (AK-97)
USS Serpens was a United States Coast Guard-manned in the service of the United States Navy in World War II. It was the first ship of the Navy to have this name. It is named after Serpens, a constellation in the northern hemisphere....
, a Coast Guard manned Liberty ship, exploded off Guadalcanal, Solomons Islands, while loading depth charges. 193 Coast Guardsmen, 56 Army stevedores, and one U.S. Public Health Service officer were killed in the explosion. This was the biggest single disaster to befall the Coast Guard during WW2. USS Serpens home page
As was common during this period, many of Hollywood's able-bodied screen stars became enlistees and left their film careers on hiatus in order to support the national defense. Specifically, actors Gig Young
Gig Young
Gig Young was an American film, stage, and television actor. Known mainly for second leads and supporting roles, Young won an Academy Award for his performance as a dance-marathon emcee in the 1969 film, They Shoot Horses, Don't They?.-Early life and career:Born Byron Elsworth Barr in St...
, Cesar Romero
Cesar Romero
Cesar Julio Romero, Jr. was an American film and television actor who was active in film, radio, and television for almost sixty years...
, and Richard Cromwell
Richard Cromwell (actor)
Richard Cromwell, born LeRoy Melvin Radabaugh , was an American actor. His family and friends called him Roy, though he was also professionally known and signed autographs as Dick Cromwell. Cromwell's career was at its pinnacle with his work in Jezebel with Bette Davis and Henry Fonda and again...
all served admirably in various capacities in the USCG in the Pacific for several years. The A&P heir Huntington Hartford
Huntington Hartford
George Huntington Hartford II was an American businessman, philanthropist, filmmaker, and art collector. The heir to the A&P supermarket fortune, he owned Paradise Island in the Bahamas, and had numerous other business and real estate interests over his lifetime including the Oil Shale Corporation...
also served in the Pacific as a commander.
Douglas Munro
Signalman 1st Class Douglas Munro (1919–1942), the only Coast Guardsman to receive the Medal of HonorMedal of Honor
The Medal of Honor is the highest military decoration awarded by the United States government. It is bestowed by the President, in the name of Congress, upon members of the United States Armed Forces who distinguish themselves through "conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his or her...
, earned the decoration during World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
as a small boat coxswain during the Battle of Guadalcanal in 1942. A Navy destroyer escort
Destroyer escort
A destroyer escort is the classification for a smaller, lightly armed warship designed to be used to escort convoys of merchant marine ships, primarily of the United States Merchant Marine in World War II. It is employed primarily for anti-submarine warfare, but also provides some protection...
, USS Douglas A. Munro (DE-422)
USS Douglas A. Munro (DE-422)
USS Douglas A. Munro was a acquired by the U.S. Navy during World War II. The primary purpose of the destroyer escort was to escort and protect ships in convoy, in addition to other tasks as assigned, such as patrol or radar picket.Douglas A...
, was named in his honor in 1944. The cutter USCGC Munro (WHEC-724)
USCGC Munro (WHEC-724)
USCGC Munro is a High Endurance Cutter of the United States Coast Guard, named for Signalman First Class Douglas A. Munro , the only Coast Guardsman to be awarded the Medal of Honor. The vessel is currently commanded by Matt T...
was commissioned in 1971, and is still on active service.
Bermuda Sky Queen rescue
On October 14, 1947, the American-owned Boeing 314 flying boatBoeing 314
The Boeing 314 Clipper was a long-range flying boat produced by the Boeing Airplane Company between 1938 and 1941 and is comparable to the British Short S.26. One of the largest aircraft of the time, it used the massive wing of Boeing’s earlier XB-15 bomber prototype to achieve the range necessary...
Bermuda Sky Queen, carrying sixty-nine passengers was flying from Foynes
Foynes
Foynes is a village and major port in County Limerick in the midwest of Ireland, located at the edge of hilly land on the southern bank of the Shannon Estuary. The population of the town was 606 as of the 2006 census.-Foynes's role in aviation:...
, Ireland
Ireland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
to Gander
Gander, Newfoundland and Labrador
Gander is a Canadian town located in the northeastern part of the island of Newfoundland in the province of Newfoundland and Labrador, approximately south of Gander Bay, south of Twillingate and east of Grand Falls-Windsor...
, Newfoundland
Dominion of Newfoundland
The Dominion of Newfoundland was a British Dominion from 1907 to 1949 . The Dominion of Newfoundland was situated in northeastern North America along the Atlantic coast and comprised the island of Newfoundland and Labrador on the continental mainland...
. Gale force winds had slowed her progress and she was running low on fuel. Too far from Newfoundland and unable to make it back to Ireland, the captain, Charles Martin, twenty-six-year-old ex-Navy pilot, decided to fly toward the cutter Bibb which was on Ocean Station Charlie in the North Atlantic. The plane’s captain decided to ditch and have his passengers and crew picked up by Bibb. In 30-foot (10 m) seas, the transfer was both difficult and dangerous. Initially the Bibb’s captain, Capt. Paul B. Cronk, tried to pass a line to the plane which taxied to the lee side of the cutter. A collision with the cutter ended this attempt to save the passengers. With worsening weather, a fifteen man rubber raft and a small boat were deployed from the ship. The raft was guided to the escape door of the aircraft. Passengers jumped into the raft which was then pulled to the boat. After rescuing 47 of the crew, worsening conditions and the approach of darkness forced the rescue’s suspension. By dawn, improved weather allowed the rescue to resume and the remaining passengers and crew were transferred to the Bibb. The rescue made headlines throughout the country and upon their arrival in Boston, Bibb and her crew received a hero’s welcome for having saved all those aboard the ditched Bermuda Sky Queen.
This event spurred ratification of the International Civil Aviation Organization
International Civil Aviation Organization
The International Civil Aviation Organization , pronounced , , is a specialized agency of the United Nations. It codifies the principles and techniques of international air navigation and fosters the planning and development of international air transport to ensure safe and orderly growth...
(ICAO) treaty establishing a network of ocean weather stations in 1947. A second conference in 1949 reduced the number of Atlantic stations to ten but provided for three Pacific stations.
Enlisted training center
An enlisted training center was established in Cape MayUnited States Coast Guard Training Center Cape May
United States Coast Guard Training Center Cape May is the home of the Coast Guard enlisted corps and is the Coast Guard's only enlisted accession point and recruit training center. It is located on 1 Munro Avenue, Cape May, New Jersey....
in 1948 and all recruit training functions were consolidated in this facility in 1982, when the West Coast recruit center at Government Island (Alameda), California was closed, the facility repurposed and the island renamed. (See Coast Guard Island
Coast Guard Island
Coast Guard Island is in the Oakland Estuary between Oakland and Alameda, California. The island is situated in the historic Brooklyn Basin, now known as Embarcadero Cove. It is within the Alameda city limits, but is accessible, by car, only via a bridge to Dennison Street in Oakland.The Island...
).
Korean War
During the Korean WarKorean War
The Korean War was a conventional war between South Korea, supported by the United Nations, and North Korea, supported by the People's Republic of China , with military material aid from the Soviet Union...
, Coast Guard officers helped arrange the evacuation of the Korea
Korea
Korea ) is an East Asian geographic region that is currently divided into two separate sovereign states — North Korea and South Korea. Located on the Korean Peninsula, Korea is bordered by the People's Republic of China to the northwest, Russia to the northeast, and is separated from Japan to the...
n Peninsula during the initial North Korea
North Korea
The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea , , is a country in East Asia, occupying the northern half of the Korean Peninsula. Its capital and largest city is Pyongyang. The Korean Demilitarized Zone serves as the buffer zone between North Korea and South Korea...
n attack. On August 9, 1950, Congress enacted Public Law 679, known as the Magnuson Act
Magnuson Act
The Magnuson Act also known as the Chinese Exclusion Repeal Act of 1943 was immigration legislation proposed by U.S. Representative Warren G. Magnuson of Washington and signed into law on December 17, 1943 in the United States...
. This act charged the Coast Guard with ensuring the security of the United States' ports and harbors on a permanent basis. In addition, the Coast Guard established a series of weather ships in the north Pacific Ocean
Pacific Ocean
The Pacific Ocean is the largest of the Earth's oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic in the north to the Southern Ocean in the south, bounded by Asia and Australia in the west, and the Americas in the east.At 165.2 million square kilometres in area, this largest division of the World...
and assisted civilian and military aircraft and ships in distress, and established a string of LORAN
LORAN
LORAN is a terrestrial radio navigation system using low frequency radio transmitters in multiple deployment to determine the location and speed of the receiver....
stations in Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
and Korea that assisted the United Nations forces.
Pendleton rescue
On February 18, 1952, during a severe "nor’easterNor'easter
A nor'easter is a type of macro-scale storm along the East Coast of the United States and Atlantic Canada, so named because the storm travels to the northeast from the south and the winds come from the northeast, especially in the coastal areas of the Northeastern United States and Atlantic Canada...
" off the New England coast, the T2 tanker
T2 tanker
The T2 tanker, or T2, was an oil tanker constructed and produced in large quantities in the United States during World War II. The largest "navy oilers" after the T3s at the time, nearly 500 of them were built between 1940 and the end of 1945....
s SS Fort Mercer and SS Pendleton broke in half. Pendleton was unable to make any distress call; she was discovered on the unusual shore radar with which the Chatham
Chatham, Massachusetts
Chatham is a town in Barnstable County, Massachusetts, United States, Barnstable County being coextensive with Cape Cod. The population was 6,625 at the 2000 census...
, Massachusetts
Massachusetts
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2010...
, Lifeboat Station was equipped during the search for Fort Mercer. BM1 Bernard C. Webber, coxswain of motor lifeboat CG-36500 from Station Chatham and his crew, consisting of Andrew Fitzgerald, Richard Livesey, and Ervin Maske, rescued the crew of Pendleton, which had broken in half. Webber maneuvered the 36-footer under Pendletons stern
Stern
The stern is the rear or aft-most part of a ship or boat, technically defined as the area built up over the sternpost, extending upwards from the counter rail to the taffrail. The stern lies opposite of the bow, the foremost part of a ship. Originally, the term only referred to the aft port section...
with expert skill as the tanker
Tanker (ship)
A tanker is a ship designed to transport liquids in bulk. Major types of tankship include the oil tanker, the chemical tanker, and the liquefied natural gas carrier.-Background:...
's crew, trapped in the stern section, abandoned the remains of their ship on a Jacob's ladder
Jacob's ladder (nautical)
The term Jacob's ladder applies to a kind of ladder found on some square rigged ships. To climb above the lower mast to the topmast and above, sailors must get around the top, a platform projecting from the mast. Although on many ships the only way round was the overhanging futtock shrouds,...
. One by one, the men jumped into the water and then were pulled into the lifeboat
Lifeboat (shipboard)
A lifeboat is a small, rigid or inflatable watercraft carried for emergency evacuation in the event of a disaster aboard ship. In the military, a lifeboat may be referred to as a whaleboat, dinghy, or gig. The ship's tenders of cruise ships often double as lifeboats. Recreational sailors sometimes...
. Webber and his crew saved 33 of the 34 Pendleton crewmen. Webber, Fitzgerald, Livesey, and Maske were awarded the Gold Lifesaving Medal
Lifesaving Medal
The Gold Lifesaving Medal and Silver Lifesaving Medal are civil and military decorations of the United States Coast Guard which was first established by Act of Congress, 20 June 1874; later authorized by Title 14 of the United States Code Section 500-501...
for their heroic actions.
In all, U .S. Coast Guard vessels, aircraft, and lifeboat stations, working under severe winter conditions, rescued 62 persons from the foundering ships or from the water; only five lives were lost among the crews of Fort Mercer and Pendleton. Five Coast Guardsmen earned the Gold Lifesaving Medal, four earned the Silver Lifesaving Medal, and 15 earned the Coast Guard Commendation Medal.
The rescue of men from the bow of Fort Mercer was nearly as spectacular as the Pendleton rescue, but is often overshadowed by the Pendleton rescue. Eight officers and crew were trapped on the bow of Fort Mercer and four were rescued using rafts and a Monomoy surfboat. By contrast, all aboard the bow of the Pendleton perished.
Transfer to the Department of Transportation
On April 1, 1967 the Coast Guard was transferred from the Department of the Treasury to the newly formed Department of Transportation under the authority of PL 89-670 which was signed into law on October 15, 1966.The Racing Stripe
In 1967, the Coast Guard adopted the red and blue "racing stripe" as part of the regular insignia for cutters, boats, and aircraft. It was recommended by the industrial design firm of Raymond Loewy/William Snaith, Inc. (who redesigned the exterior and interior of Air Force One during the Kennedy administration) to give Coast Guard units and vessels a distinctive appearance, as well as clearer recognition from a distance. This "racing stripe" was in turn adopted (in modified forms) by several other coast guards, in particular the Canadian Coast GuardCanadian Coast Guard
The Canadian Coast Guard is the coast guard of Canada. It is a federal agency responsible for providing maritime search and rescue , aids to navigation, marine pollution response, marine radio, and icebreaking...
.
Vietnam War
The Coast Guard was active in the Vietnam WarVietnam War
The Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...
beginning 27 May 1965 with the formation of Coast Guard Squadron One consisting of Divisions 11 and 12. Squadron One assisted in Operation Market Time
Operation Market Time
Operation Market Time was the United States Navy’s effort to stop troops and supplies from flowing by sea from North Vietnam to South Vietnam during the Vietnam War...
by interdicting resupply by sea of Viet Cong and North Vietnamese forces. Seventeen Point Class 82 foot WPB cutters were transferred to coastal waters off Vietnam with their Coast Guard crews under the operational control of the U.S. Navy Seventh Fleet. Division 13, consisting of nine additional WPB's was added in February 1966. Squadron One cutters were awarded the Navy Presidential Unit Citation
Presidential Unit Citation
The Presidential Unit Citation is a senior unit award granted to military units which have performed an extremely meritorious or heroic act, usually in the face of an armed enemy...
for their assistance provided the Navy during Operation Sealords
Operation Sealords
Operation Sealords was a military operation that took place during the Vietnam War. Conceived by Elmo R. Zumwalt, Jr., it was a joint operation between United States and South Vietnamese forces...
. Coast Guard Squadron Three was activated in support of Market Time beginning March 1967 and consisted initially of five high endurance cutter
High endurance cutter
The designation of High endurance cutter was created in 1965 when the United States Coast Guard adopted its own designation system. High endurance cutters encompassed its largest cutters previously designated by the United States Navy as Coast Guard gunboats , Coast Guard destroyer escorts , and...
s (WHEC) tasked to the Navy for used in coastal interdiction and naval gunfire support
Naval gunfire support
Naval gunfire support is the use of naval artillery to provide fire support for amphibious assault and other troops operating within their range. NGFS is one of a number of disciplines encompassed by the term Naval Fires...
for shore operations in South Vietnam. The Coast Guard developed a "piggyback" weapon that proved highly useful; an M2 Browning machine gun placed over a 81mm mortar
M29 Mortar
The M29 is a United States produced 81 millimeter calibre mortar. It began replacing the M1 Mortar in U.S. service in 1952 being lighter and with greater range. It was replaced by the M252 Mortar in 1984...
.
Several Coast Guard aviators served with the U.S. Air Force 37th Aerospace Rescue and Recovery Squadron
37th Aerospace Rescue and Recovery Squadron
37th Aerospace Rescue and Recovery Squadron was a rescue squadron of the USAF active during the Vietnam War.-History:On 8 January 1966, the 37th ARRS was activated at Danang Air Base operating 5 HU-16s on loan from the 31st ARRS and the 33rd ARRS and with a Detachment at Udorn Royal Thai Air Force...
and 40th Aerospace Rescue and Recovery Squadron
40th Aerospace Rescue and Recovery Squadron
40th Aerospace Rescue and Recovery Squadron was a helicopter rescue squadron of the USAF active during the Vietnam War.-History:...
in Southeast Asia from 1968 to 1972. They were involved in combat search and rescue operations in both Vietnam and Laos.
The Coast Guard provided Explosive Loading Detachments (ELD) to the U.S. Army 1st Logistics Command in several locations in Vietnam. The ELD's were responsible for the supervision of Army stevedores in the unloading of explosives and ammunition from U.S. Merchant Marine ships. The ELD's were also responsible for assisting the Army in port security operations at each port and eventually were made a part of a Port Security and Waterways Detail (PS&WD) reporting to the Commanding General, United States Army, Vietnam (USARV). They earned the Army Meritorious Unit Commendation
Meritorious Unit Commendation
The Meritorious Unit Commendation is a mid-level unit award of the United States military which is awarded to any military command which displays exceptionally meritorious conduct in the performance of outstanding service, heroic deeds, or valorous actions....
for their efforts.
In December 1965 Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara
Robert McNamara
Robert Strange McNamara was an American business executive and the eighth Secretary of Defense, serving under Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson from 1961 to 1968, during which time he played a large role in escalating the United States involvement in the Vietnam War...
requested Coast Guard assistance in constructing a chain of LORAN-C stations for use by naval vessels and combat aircraft for operations in Southeast Asia. Construction started almost immediately at five locations in Thailand and Vietnam and were operational after 8 August 1966.
On 22 April 1966, arrived in Cam Rahn Bay to commence Aids to Navigation (ATON) operations in the coastal waters of South Vietnam. She was responsible for the marking of freshly cut channels and harbors with buoys and daymarks so that merchant and naval ships could safely navigate the waters. This direct support mission ended on 17 May 1971 with the departure of the last buoy tender, . The buoy tender crews were tasked with training South Vietnamese crews in the ATON effort prior to the departure of the Blackhaw as a part of the 'Vietnamization
Vietnamization
Vietnamization was a policy of the Richard M. Nixon administration during the Vietnam War, as a result of the Viet Cong's Tet Offensive, to "expand, equip, and train South Vietnam's forces and assign to them an ever-increasing combat role, at the same time steadily reducing the number of U.S....
' policy of the Nixon Administration. After May 1971 ATON was serviced on a 'as needed' basis by homeported in Guam.
In August 1970 the Coast Guard finished turning over to the South Vietnamese Navy the patrol boats of Squadron One. The training of South Vietnamese crews had started in February 1969 and continued through to the end of operations for Squadron One. and were turned over to the South Vietnamese Navy on 1 January 1971. Eventually three other WHEC's were turned over to the South Vietnamese Navy. The Coast Guard's involvement in the Vietnam War ended at 1246 local time 29 April 1975 when LORAN Station Con Son went off the air for good. Its signal was necessary for the safe evacuation of Siagon by U.S. Embassy personnel in the final days before the fall of the South Vietnamese government and it was kept on the air as long as possible. On 3 October 1975 the Coast Guard disestablished the remaining LORAN-C stations in Thailand. Seven Coast Guardsmen were killed during the war in combat and search and rescue operations.
The "New Guard"
In the mid-70s the Coast Guard adopted the blue uniforms seen today, replacing Navy-style uniforms worn prior to the Vietnam War. Known jocularly as "Bender'sChester R. Bender
Chester R. Bender served as the fourteenth Commandant of the United States Coast Guard from 1970 to 1974. He also served as Superintendent of the Coast Guard Academy from 1965 to 1967.-Early life and education:...
Blues," they were implemented as part of the postwar transition to an all-volunteer force. It is noteworthy that the enlisted's and officer's uniforms differed only in rank insignia and cap devices, reflecting the value the service placed on its enlisted members (although it caused saluting confusion among members of other services). The stylish new women's uniform was created by Hollywood costume designer Edith Head
Edith Head
Edith Head was an American costume designer who won eight Academy Awards, more than any other woman.-Early life and career:...
, upon the request of Capt. Eleanor L'Ecuyer.
Women were integrated into the Coast Guard during the 1970s, beginning with the end of the separate Women's Reserve (SPARS) in 1973, the modification of 378's for mixed-gender crews beginning in 1977, and the opening of all ratings to women in 1978 These stages of integration preceded the DOD military by roughly a year or so, as separate legislation restricted their deployment of women.
Altogether, the shift from Treasury to the DOT in 1967, the uniform change, the end of Ocean Station service, growth of the shore-side establishment by newly added missions, the steady if belated retirement of venerable but aging WWII cutters, and gender integration marked the oft-lamented end of the "Old Guard" ("wooden ships and men of steel").
The Ancient Order of the Pterodactyl was founded in 1977 in order to preserve the history of Coast Guard aviation, as the service's last amphibious seaplane, the Grumman Albatross
HU-16 Albatross
The Grumman HU-16 Albatross is a large twin-radial engine amphibious flying boat that was utilized by the U.S. Air Force, the U.S. Navy and the U.S. Coast Guard, primarily as a search and rescue and combat search and rescue aircraft...
or "Goat," was nearing retirement, as was also the service's last enlisted pilot, John P. Greathouse.
End of ocean stations, beginning of the 200 nautical mile (0.3704 km²) limit
One major mission of the service, maintaining Ocean StationsWeather ship
A weather ship was a ship stationed in the ocean as a platform for surface and upper air meteorological observations for use in weather forecasting. They were primarily located in the north Atlantic and north Pacific oceans, reporting via radio...
, came to an end as improvements in oceanic aviation (turbojet airliners and improved radionavigation) obviated the need. However, the Magnuson-Stevens Fisheries Conservation and Management Act of 1976
Magnuson-Stevens Fisheries Conservation and Management Act of 1976
The Magnuson–Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act, commonly referred to as the Magnuson–Stevens Act, is the primary law governing marine fisheries management in the United States. The law is named after Warren G. Magnuson, former U.S...
brought an increase in offshore fisheries patrols, to which the newer WHECs (the 378s) were redeployed, as the aging boiler-powered WWII-vintage wooden-deckers were gradually retired.
The Kudirka incident
On November 23, 1970, Simonas "Simas" Kudirka, a SovietSoviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
seaman of Lithuania
Lithuania
Lithuania , officially the Republic of Lithuania is a country in Northern Europe, the biggest of the three Baltic states. It is situated along the southeastern shore of the Baltic Sea, whereby to the west lie Sweden and Denmark...
n nationality, leapt from the 400-foot (120 m) mother ship Sovetskaya Litva, anchored in American waters (near Aquinnah, Massachusetts
Massachusetts
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2010...
on Martha's Vineyard
Martha's Vineyard
Martha's Vineyard is an island located south of Cape Cod in Massachusetts, known for being an affluent summer colony....
Island), aboard the USCGC Vigilant
USCGC Vigilant (WMEC-617)
USCGC Vigilant is a United States Coast Guard medium endurance cutter. She is the twelfth cutter to bear the name Vigilant, dating back to 1790 when the original Vigilant was built for the Revenue Cutter Service. She was commissioned on October 3, 1964, at Todd Shipyards in Houston, Texas at a...
, sailing from New Bedford
New Bedford, Massachusetts
New Bedford is a city in Bristol County, Massachusetts, United States, located south of Boston, southeast of Providence, Rhode Island, and about east of Fall River. As of the 2010 census, the city had a total population of 95,072, making it the sixth-largest city in Massachusetts...
. The Soviets accused Kudirka of theft of 3,000 rubles from the ship's safe. Ten hours passed; communications difficulties contributed to the delay, as the ship was unfortunately in a "blind spot" of Boston Radio's (Marshfield) receivers, resulting in an awkward resort to using the public marine operator.
After attempts to get the U.S. State Department to provide guidance failed, Rear Admiral William B. Ellis, commander of the First Coast Guard District, ordered Commander Ralph E. Eustis to permit a KGB
KGB
The KGB was the commonly used acronym for the . It was the national security agency of the Soviet Union from 1954 until 1991, and was the premier internal security, intelligence, and secret police organization during that time.The State Security Agency of the Republic of Belarus currently uses the...
detachment to board the Vigilant to return Kudirka to the Soviet ship. This led to a change in asylum policy by the U.S. Coast Guard. Admiral Ellis and his chief of staff were given administrative punishment under Article 15 of the UCMJ. Commander Eustis was given a non-punitive letter of reprimand
Letter of reprimand
A letter of reprimand is a United States Department of Defense procedure involving a letter to an employee or soldier from his or her superior that details the wrongful actions of the person and the punishment that can be expected...
and assigned to shore duty.
Kudirka was tried for treason by the Soviet Union and given a ten-year sentence in the Gulag
Gulag
The Gulag was the government agency that administered the main Soviet forced labor camp systems. While the camps housed a wide range of convicts, from petty criminals to political prisoners, large numbers were convicted by simplified procedures, such as NKVD troikas and other instruments of...
. Subsequent investigations revealed that Kudirka could claim American citizenship through his mother and was allowed to come to the United States in 1974.
The incident, known for several years as the Coast Guard's "Day of Shame," was portrayed in a 1978 television movie
Television movie
A television film is a feature film that is a television program produced for and originally distributed by a television network, in contrast to...
, The Defection of Simas Kudirka
The Defection of Simas Kudirka
The Defection of Simas Kudirka is a 1978 television movie based on actual events, featuring Alan Arkin as Simas Kudirka, a Lithuanian merchant seaman in Soviet-era 1970 who attempts to defect to the United States by jumping onto a U.S. Coast Guard cutter. Among the movie's awards are two Emmys and...
, with Alan Arkin
Alan Arkin
Alan Wolf Arkin is an American actor, director, musician and singer. He is known for starring in such films as Wait Until Dark, The Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming, The Heart is a Lonely Hunter, Catch-22, The In-Laws, Edward Scissorhands, Glengarry Glen Ross, Marley & Me, and...
playing Kudirka and Donald Pleasence
Donald Pleasence
Sir Donald Henry Pleasence, OBE, was a British actor who gained more than 200 screen credits during a career which spanned over four decades...
playing the captain of the Soviet ship. It was also portrayed in the book Day of Shame: The Truth About the Murderous Happenings Aboard the Cutter Vigilant During the Russian-American Confrontation Off Martha's Vineyard by Algis Ruksenas.
The
Blackthorn Tragedy On January 28, 1980, the 180-ft buoy tender USCGC Blackthorn (WLB-391)USCGC Blackthorn (WLB-391)
The USCGC Blackthorn was a sea going buoy tender which sank in 1980 in a tragic collision near the Sunshine Skyway Bridge of Tampa Bay, resulting in 23 crew member fatalities....
collided with the 605-foot oil tanker S.S. Capricorn and capsized when the Capricorns anchor entangled the cutter. 23 Coast Guardsmen were drowned. Coming close behind the loss of 11 men in the collision/sinking of the OCS training ship USCGC Cuyahoga
USCGC Cuyahoga (WIX-157)
The was an Active Class Patrol Boat built in 1927 and saw action in World War II. It sank after a night-time collision in the Chesapeake Bay while on patrol in 1978...
http://www.uscg.mil/HQ/RTC/Info/cuyahoga.shtm (built in 1927 as a Prohibition patrol boat http://www.uscg.mil/history/WEBCUTTERS/Cuyahoga1927.html), the impact of this disaster upon morale in the close-knit service was magnified.
Prinsendam rescue
On October 4, 1980, the Coast Guard and Canadian Coast GuardCanadian Coast Guard
The Canadian Coast Guard is the coast guard of Canada. It is a federal agency responsible for providing maritime search and rescue , aids to navigation, marine pollution response, marine radio, and icebreaking...
were involved in the rescue of the passengers and crew of the Dutch cruise vessel in the Gulf of Alaska.
A fire broke out on the Prinsendam off Ketchikan, Alaska on 4 October 1980. The Prinsendam was 130 miles (209.2 km) from the nearest airstrip. The cruise ship’s captain ordered the ship abandoned and the passengers, many elderly, left the ship in the lifeboats. Coast Guard and Canadian helicopters and the cutters Boutwell
USCGC Boutwell (WHEC-719)
USCGC Boutwell is a U. S. Coast Guard high endurance cutter based out of Coast Guard Island, Alameda, California. Named for George S. Boutwell, United States Secretary of the Treasury under President Ulysses S. Grant....
, Mellon
USCGC Mellon (WHEC-717)
USCGC Mellon is a U. S. Coast Guard high endurance cutter based out of Seattle, Washington. Laid down July 25, 1966 at Avondale Shipyards near New Orleans, Louisiana. Named for Andrew W. Mellon the 49th Secretary of the Treasury from 1921-1932 and launched February 11, 1967 by Mrs. John W. Warner,...
, and Woodrush
USCGC Woodrush (WLB-407)
USCGC Woodrush was a buoy tender that performed general aids-to-navigation , search and rescue , and icebreaking duties for the United States Coast Guard from 1944 to 2001 from home ports of Duluth, Minnesota and Sitka, Alaska...
responded in concert with other vessels in the area. The passenger vessel later capsized and sank. The rescue is particularly important because of the distance traveled by the rescuers, the coordination of independent organizations and the fact that all 520 passengers and crew were rescued without loss of life or serious injury.
The Mariel boatlift
In April, 1980, the government of CubaCuba
The Republic of Cuba is an island nation in the Caribbean. The nation of Cuba consists of the main island of Cuba, the Isla de la Juventud, and several archipelagos. Havana is the largest city in Cuba and the country's capital. Santiago de Cuba is the second largest city...
began to allow any person who wanted to leave Cuba to assemble in Mariel
Mariel, Cuba
Mariel is a municipality and city in the Artemisa Province of Cuba. It is located approximately west of the city of Havana. The town is situated on the south-east side of the Mariel bay...
Harbor and take their own transport. The U.S. Coast Guard, working out of Seventh District Headquarters in Miami, Florida, rescued boats in difficulty, inspected vessels for adequate safety equipment, and processed refugees. This task was made even more difficult by a hurricane which swamped many vessels in mid-ocean and by the lack of cooperation by Cuban Border Guard officials. By May, 600 reservists had been called up, the U.S. Navy provided assistance between Cuba and Key West
Key West, Florida
Key West is a city in Monroe County, Florida, United States. The city encompasses the island of Key West, the part of Stock Island north of U.S. 1 , Sigsbee Park , Fleming Key , and Sunset Key...
, and the Auxiliary was heavily involved. 125,000 refugees were processed between April and May 1980. (See Mariel boatlift
Mariel boatlift
The Mariel boatlift was a mass emigration of Cubans who departed from Cuba's Mariel Harbor for the United States between April 15 and October 31, 1980....
.)
The end of the lightships
The number of lightships steadily decreased during the 20th century, some replaced by "Texas Tower" type structures (e.g., Chesapeake, Buzzards Bay, both now automated) http://www.uscg.mil/history/h_lightships.html http://www.uscg.mil/history/Lightship_Index.html, and others by buoys. However, the Columbia River and Nantucket Shoals Lightships were not replaced by large navigational buoys (LNBs) until 1979 and 1983, respectively, due to the difficulty of anchoring buoys securely at their heavy-weather locations. http://www.uscg.mil/history/h_lightships.html http://www.lighthousefriends.com/light.asp?ID=554.The technology of all aids to navigation evolved dramatically during this era, reducing manning and maintenance requirements. The Coast Guard also managed the worldwide VLF OMEGA Navigation System
OMEGA Navigation System
OMEGA was the first truly global radio navigation system for aircraft, operated by the United States in cooperation with six partner nations.-History:OMEGA was originally developed by the United States Navy for military aviation users...
and operated two of its stations from the early 1970s until its termination in 1997 (having been superseded, though not truly obsoleted, by GPS).
Libyan Attack on LORAN Station Lampedusa
On April 15, 1986, Libya fired two Scuds at the U.S. Coast Guard navigation station on the Italian island, in retaliation for the American bombing of Tripoli and Benghazi. However, the missiles passed over the island, landing in the sea, and caused no damage. As a result of the attack, the Coast Guard station was commissioned as a NATO base, including security hardening and an armory, as well as an Italian security detail stationed nearby.At the time of the missile attack, the LORAN station was under the command of Lt. Ernest DelBueno, who panicked and attempted to evacuate his American crew by calling in a U.S. Navy transport helicopter from Helicopter Combat Support Squadron Four (HC-4), abandoning the Italians on his base, and in the community on the other end of the island. To their credit, the Italians, under the leadership of the base's civilian administrator, Marco Bartolo, reflected great honor as they kept their posts; however, the incident damaged relations with the local Italians; a rift that remained for more than two years.
Operation Buckshot, The Great Flood of '93
During April and again in June 1993, Coast Guard Forces, St. Louis was activated for flooding on the Mississippi, Missouri and Illinois River basins. The '500 year' flooding closed over 1250 miles (2,011.7 km) of river to navigation and claimed 47 lives. Historic levels of rainfall in the river tributaries caused many levee breaks along the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers displacing thousands of people from their homes and businesses. The commander of CGF, St. Louis set in to motion a preconceived operations plan to deal with the many requests for assistance from state and local governments for law enforcement assistance, help with sandbagging, water rescues, evacuation of flood victims, and aerial surveillance of levee conditions. The unprecedented duration of the flood also caused Coast Guard personnel to assume some humanitarian services not normally a part of flood operations. Food, water and sandbags were transported to work sites to assist sandbagging efforts by local governments. Red Cross and Salvation Army relief workers were given transportation assistance. Many homeless animals displaced by the flood waters were rescued and turned over to local animal shelters. Utility repair crews were assisted with transportation of personnel and repair parts. Disaster Response Units (DRU) were formed from active duty and reserve units throughout the Second Coast Guard District and consisted of eight members equipped with three 16 foot flood punts powered by 25 HP outboard motors. The DRU's accounted for 1517 boat sorties and 3342 hours of underway operations. Coast Guard helicopters from CG Air Stations in Traverse City and Detroit, MI; Chicago, IL; Elizabeth City, NC; and Mobile, AL provided search and rescue, logistical support and aerial survey intelligence. The Coast Guard Auxiliary provided three fixed wing aircraft. There were 473 aircraft sorties with 570 hours of aircraft operations. CG Forces St. Louis stood down from the alert phase of operations on August 27. A total of 380 Active Duty, 352 Reserve, 179 Auxiliary, and 5 Coast Guard Civilians were involved in the operation.1994 Cuban Boat Rescues
Cuba
The Republic of Cuba is an island nation in the Caribbean. The nation of Cuba consists of the main island of Cuba, the Isla de la Juventud, and several archipelagos. Havana is the largest city in Cuba and the country's capital. Santiago de Cuba is the second largest city...
.
The 2000s
- For details on the Coast Guard's response to the September 11, 2001 attacksSeptember 11, 2001 attacksThe September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks (also referred to as September 11, September 11th or 9/119/11 is pronounced "nine eleven". The slash is not part of the pronunciation...
, see Missions of the United States Coast GuardMissions of the United States Coast GuardThe United States Coast Guard carries out three basic roles, which are further subdivided into eleven statutory missions. The three roles are:* Maritime safety* Maritime security* Maritime Stewardship...
above.
In 2002, the Coast Guard sent several 110-foot (34 m) cutters to the Persian Gulf
Persian Gulf
The Persian Gulf, in Southwest Asia, is an extension of the Indian Ocean located between Iran and the Arabian Peninsula.The Persian Gulf was the focus of the 1980–1988 Iran-Iraq War, in which each side attacked the other's oil tankers...
to enforce the U.N. embargo on goods to and from Iraq
Iraq
Iraq ; officially the Republic of Iraq is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert....
. Port Security Unit
Port Security Unit
United States Coast Guard Port Security Units are deployable units organized for sustained force protection operations. They can deploy within 96 hours and establish operations within 24 hours. PSUs conduct OCONUS port security in support of requesting regional Combatant commander. They provide...
s and Naval Coastal Warfare
Naval Coastal Warfare
The Naval Coastal Warfare community is a component of the United States Navy, part of Naval Expeditionary Combat Command. It is undergoing a major overhaul and transitioning to the Maritime Expeditionary Security Force, units affected range from Mobile Inshore Undersea Warfare Unit's to Inshore...
units also accompanied the U.S. military buildup.
Transfer to the Department of Homeland Security
The Coast Guard was transferred from the Department of Transportation to the Department of Homeland Security on 1 March 2003 under the Homeland Security ActHomeland Security Act
The Homeland Security Act of 2002, , 116 Stat. 2135 was introduced in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks and subsequent mailings of anthrax spores. The HSA was cosponsored by 118 members of Congress. It was signed into law by President George W...
(Public Law No. 107-296).
In September 2003, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld
Donald Rumsfeld
Donald Henry Rumsfeld is an American politician and businessman. Rumsfeld served as the 13th Secretary of Defense from 1975 to 1977 under President Gerald Ford, and as the 21st Secretary of Defense from 2001 to 2006 under President George W. Bush. He is both the youngest and the oldest person to...
rejected the proposal to transfer all military responsibilities of the Coast Guard to the Navy and assigning the Coast Guard purely homeland security responsibilities.
On April 24, 2004, Petty Officer 3rd Class Nathan B. Bruckenthal
Nathan Bruckenthal
Nathan B. "Nate" Bruckenthal was a Damage Controlman Third Class in the United States Coast Guard. He was the first Coast Guardsman to die in wartime action since the Vietnam War. Bruckenthal died along with two U.S...
, 24, from the USS Firebolt (PC-10)
USS Firebolt (PC-10)
USS Firebolt is the 10th member of the Cyclone-class of coastal patrol boats. She is a vessel with a crew of approximately 30 sailors, normally homeported at Naval Amphibious Base Little Creek, Norfolk, Virginia. Her armament includes two Mk38 chain guns, two Mk19 automatic grenade launchers, and...
, became the first Coast Guardsman to die in combat since the Vietnam War
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...
. He was killed in a suicide boat attack on a Basra
Basra
Basra is the capital of Basra Governorate, in southern Iraq near Kuwait and Iran. It had an estimated population of two million as of 2009...
oil terminal off the coast of Iraq
Iraq
Iraq ; officially the Republic of Iraq is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert....
. With his death, all branches of the military had seen at least one death in that war.
After Hurricane Katrina
Hurricane Katrina
Hurricane Katrina of the 2005 Atlantic hurricane season was a powerful Atlantic hurricane. It is the costliest natural disaster, as well as one of the five deadliest hurricanes, in the history of the United States. Among recorded Atlantic hurricanes, it was the sixth strongest overall...
in August 2005, the Coast Guard dispatched a number of helicopters, fixed-wing aircraft, small boats, and Auxiliary aircraft as well as 25 cutters to the Gulf Coast, rescuing 2,000 people in two days, and around 33,500 people in all. The crews also assessed storm damage to offshore oil platforms and refineries. More than 2,400 personnel from all districts conducted search, rescue, response, waterway reconstitution and environmental impact assessment operations. In total, the Coast Guard air and boat rescued more than 33,500 people and assisted with the joint-agency evacuation of an additional 9,400 patients and medical personnel from hospitals in the Gulf coast region.
In May 2006, at the Change of Command ceremony when Admiral Thad Allen took over as Commandant, President
President of the United States
The President of the United States of America is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president leads the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces....
George W. Bush
George W. Bush
George Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 43rd President of the United States, from 2001 to 2009. Before that, he was the 46th Governor of Texas, having served from 1995 to 2000....
awarded the entire Coast Guard, including the Coast Guard Auxiliary, the Presidential Unit Citation
Presidential Unit Citation (US)
The Presidential Unit Citation, originally called the Distinguished Unit Citation, is awarded to units of the Armed Forces of the United States and allies for extraordinary heroism in action against an armed enemy on or after 7 December 1941...
for its efforts after Hurricane Katrina.
On October 29, 2009 Coast Guard HC-130 aircraft No. 1705 with seven crewmembers, based at McClellan Air Park in Sacramento, collided with a United States Marine Corps
United States Marine Corps
The United States Marine Corps is a branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for providing power projection from the sea, using the mobility of the United States Navy to deliver combined-arms task forces rapidly. It is one of seven uniformed services of the United States...
(USMC) AH-1 Cobra
AH-1 Cobra
The Bell AH-1 Cobra is a two-bladed, single engine attack helicopter manufactured by Bell Helicopter. It shares a common engine, transmission and rotor system with the older UH-1 Iroquois...
helicopter with two crewmembers 15 miles (24.1 km) east of San Clemente Island
San Clemente Island
San Clemente Island is the southernmost of the Channel Islands of California. It is owned and operated by the United States Navy, and is a part of Los Angeles County. Defined by the United States Census Bureau as Block Group 2 of Census Tract 5991 of Los Angeles County, California, it is long and...
. Both aircraft crashed into the ocean and all nine crewmembers in both aircraft are believed to have perished. The C-130 was searching for a missing boater while the USMC aircraft was heading towards a military training area in company with another Cobra and two CH-53 Sea Stallions from Miramar Naval Air Station. An investigation found no one directly responsible for the crash.
Future
The Integrated Deepwater System ProgramIntegrated Deepwater System Program
The Integrated Deepwater System Program is the 25-year program to replace all or much of the United States Coast Guard's equipment, including aircraft, ships, and logistics and command and control systems...
is designed to meet future threats to the U.S. from the sea. Although the program involves obtaining new ships and aircraft, Deepwater also involves upgraded information technology for command, control, communications and computers, intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (C4ISR).
A key part of the Deepwater system is the Maritime Security Cutter, Large (WMSL), which is designed to replace the 378-foot (115 m) high-endurance cutters currently on duty. This ship will have a length of 421 feet (128 m), be powered by a gas turbine
Gas turbine
A gas turbine, also called a combustion turbine, is a type of internal combustion engine. It has an upstream rotating compressor coupled to a downstream turbine, and a combustion chamber in-between....
engine with two auxiliary diesel engine
Diesel engine
A diesel engine is an internal combustion engine that uses the heat of compression to initiate ignition to burn the fuel, which is injected into the combustion chamber...
s, and be capable of 12,000 nautical mile (22,000 km) voyages lasting up to 60 days. The keel laying of the USCGC Bertholf
USCGC Bertholf
USCGC Bertholf is the first Legend-class maritime security cutter of the United States Coast Guard. She is named for Commodore Ellsworth P. Bertholf, fourth Commandant of both the Revenue Cutter Service and Coast Guard....
(WMSL-750), the first ship in this class, took place in September 2004. The ship was delivered in 2008. The second keel, USCGC Waesche (WMSL-751)
USCGC Waesche (WMSL-751)
USCGC Waesche is the name of the second Legend-class National Security Cutter of the United States Coast Guard.Waesche is named for Coast Guard Admiral Russell R. Waesche...
, was laid in 2005.
Another key vessel is the Maritime Security Cutter, Medium (WMSM), which will be 341 ft (104 m) long, displace 2,921 long tons (2,968 metric tons), and be capable of 45-day patrols of up to 9,000 nautical miles (17,000 km). Both the WMSL and the WMSM cutters will be able to carry two helicopters or four VTOL
VTOL
A vertical take-off and landing aircraft is one that can hover, take off and land vertically. This classification includes fixed-wing aircraft as well as helicopters and other aircraft with powered rotors, such as cyclogyros/cyclocopters and tiltrotors...
Unmanned Air Vehicles (VUAVs), or a combination of these.
External links
- Official history
- Coast Guard Historian's Office Web site
- Fred (Siegel)'s Place Large reunion/buddy-search bulletin board, begun 1995
- Coast Guard Trivia 125 historical questions at Coast Guard Channel
- Coast Guard Warriors - Part of the Mix Historical vignettes by William R. Wells, II
- Plus articles
- SemperParatus.com Insignia collection, aviation images, miscellany, reading list
- World War II and the West End Online exhibit of Lake Ozette, Washington facilities and personnel (U. of Wash. Libraries Digital Collections – Olympic Peninsula Community Museum)
- Joe Stevens' Kadiak.org Kodiak, Alaska military history site
- Oral Histories:
- Jack's joint Very extensive anecdotal collection by Jack Eckert
- Dozens of Oral Histories, Memoirs & Other First-Person Accounts at the Coast Guard Historian's Office
- Ken Laesser's The Old Guard
- Three memories at Rutgers School Department of History's Oral History Archives
- Lloyd C. Berger at the Virginia Military Institute
- Coast Guard history section of Sean McPhilamy's Weblog