History of the United States Coast Guard
[2] As such, the cutters and their crews took on a wide variety of duties beyond the enforcement of tariffs, including combating piracy, rescuing mariners in distress, ferrying government officials, and even carrying mail.
[7] After the purchase of Alaska in 1867, USRC Lincoln, with First Lieutenant George W. Moore aboard was dispatched to Sitka to establish United States sovereignty as agent of the U.S. Collector of Customs in San Francisco.
Call, Public Health Service drove a reindeer herd across 1,500 miles in the Overland Relief Expedition to help starving whalers trapped by ice near Point Barrow.
[14] A number of voluntary organizations had formed in coastal communities in the 1700s and early 1800s to assist shipwrecked mariners by means of small boats at shore-based stations, notably the Massachusetts Humane Society, which was established in 1786.
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.A number of Coast Guard traditions survive from, or pay homage to, the Lifesaving Service as well.
For example, members of the Lifesaving Service were referred to as "surfmen," and today the Surfman Badge it awarded to coxswains who qualify to operate motor lifeboats in heavy surf conditions.
[51] Lieutenant Commander Carl von Paulsen set down the seaplane Arcturus in a heavy sea in January 1933 off Cape Canaveral and rescued a boy adrift in a skiff.
USCGC Taney, a notable World War II era high endurance cutter, is the only warship still afloat today (as a museum ship in Baltimore) that was present for the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, although she was actually stationed in nearby Honolulu.
[57] Coast Guard aviator, Lieutenant Frank Erickson, who later pioneered search and rescue helicopter flight, although assigned to Taney was standing watch at Ford Island before the attack then took command of an anti-aircraft battery to fight off multiple enemy aircraft.
USCGC Icarus, a 165-foot (50 m) cutter that previously had been a rumrunner chaser during Prohibition, sank U-352 on 9 May 1942, off the coast of Cape Lookout, North Carolina, and took 33 prisoners, the first Germans taken in combat by any U.S. force.
When USCGC Campbell rammed and sank 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.
[66] During the Normandy invasion of 6 June 1944, a 60-cutter flotilla of wooden 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.
[70] Signalman 1st Class Douglas Munro (1919–1942), the only Coast Guardsman to receive the Medal of Honor, earned the decoration posthumously during World War II as a small boat coxswain during the Battle of Guadalcanal in 1942.
Too far from Newfoundland and unable to make it back to Ireland, the captain, twenty-six-year-old ex-Navy pilot Charles Martin, decided to fly toward the cutter USCGC Bibb which was at Ocean Station Charlie in the North Atlantic.
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.
[76] 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.
On 13 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.
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.
VP 9's Aircraft Accident Report recorded conditions at the time of ditching as "1500 foot ceiling, one and one-half to three miles visibility in rain showers, wave height 12-20 feet, winds 223 degrees at 43 knots."
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.
On 15 April 1986, Libya fired two Scuds at the U.S. Coast Guard radio navigation station on the Italian island of Lampedusa, in retaliation for the American bombing of Tripoli and Benghazi.
[103] Prior to the launch of Operation Desert Storm, Coast Guard LEDET personnel aboard the USS Nicholas (FFG-47) assisted when the frigate cleared eleven Iraqi oil platforms and took 23 prisoners on 18 January 1991.
[103] During the war, Saddam Hussein's Iraqi army was seeking to pollute the Persian Gulf by pouring oil into in an effort only partly stymied when Air Force F-111F Aardvarks bombed the source of the deliberate spill.
Two HU-25B Guardians from Coast Guard Air Station Cape Cod, Mass., were dispatched 13 Feb 1991, supported by two HC-130H Hercules from CGAS Clearwater Florida, Operating from Saudi and Bahraini airfields.
Coast Guard cutters primarily assisted in force protection and search and seizures of suspected smugglers in Iraqi and international waters, often in close proximity to Iran.
At the height its involvement in both wars, the Coast Guard deployed over 1,200 men and women, including about 500 reservists, 11 ships (two large cutters, a buoy tender, and eight patrol boats), 4 port-security units, law enforcement detachments, and other specialized teams and support staff in order to perform a wide range of operations in Iraq, Afghanistan, Kuwait, and the Persian Gulf.
The Coast Guard is charged with providing harbor defense and security to ports, seaward approaches, and waterways within U.S. Central Command's area of responsibility and ensuring the free flow of personnel, equipment and commerce in the region.
[114] 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 Marine Corps Air Station Miramar.
The signal was received by Monomoy, and information was passed to the group's parent unit, Task Force 56.7, aiding the search and rescue operation where eventually the cutter escorted the sailors to safety after they were released.
[138] The GAO and agency observers have offered several opinions for this, and some have questioned whether the USCG should invest in greater number of less sophisticated vessel and air assets rather than paying dearly for cutting-edge technology.
