Coast Guard, United States, is a branch of the armed services. The Coast Guard operates within the Department of Homeland Security. It works to protect the public, the environment, United States economic interests, and national security in maritime regions. The regions where the Coast Guard operates include U.S. coasts, ports, and inland waters, and international waters. Its many duties give special meaning to its motto, Semper Paratus, which is Latin for always ready.
The Coast Guard is the nation’s oldest continuous seagoing force. Since 1790, it has grown from a fleet of 10 small sailing vessels to a force of modern ships and aircraft. Its members have fought in every major war of the United States. They have rescued hundreds of thousands of people from disasters and have saved billions of dollars’ worth of property from shipwrecks and floods.
The Coast Guard maintains an active-duty force of about 41,000 men and women. It has 8,000 reserve members; a 30,000-member, all-volunteer Coast Guard Auxiliary; and a civilian work force of about 9,000.
The Coast Guard emblem was adopted in 1927. “Semper Paratus” is the Coast Guard’s famous marching song.
What the Coast Guard does
The Coast Guard enforces all federal laws and treaties on the high seas and on the navigable waters of the United States. These include criminal laws, inspection laws, pollution laws, revenue and navigation laws, and nautical rules of the road. Coast Guard activities are directed toward five main purposes: (1) safety, (2) national defense, (3) maritime security, (4) mobility, and (5) protection of the environment.
Safety.
The Coast Guard works worldwide to limit deaths, injuries, and property damage associated with maritime transportation, fishing, and recreational boating. It enforces and helps establish safety regulations governing the construction and operation of merchant ships and passenger ships. It establishes safety rules for passengers, and tests and licenses crew members. The Coast Guard also establishes safety standards for yachts, motorboats, and other noncommercial vessels.
Coast Guard ships, which are called cutters, patrol oceans and inland waterways. The Coast Guard operates search-and-rescue stations along the coasts of the United States and its territories, and in the Great Lakes. When accidents occur, rescue boats and aircraft go into action. They rescue people who have been involved in boating accidents, shipwrecks, airplane crashes, and hurricanes. They also tow damaged vessels to shore. The Coast Guard helps rescue any person or ship, regardless of nationality. It provides emergency medical aid to crews of all vessels at sea and takes injured or critically ill crew members to shore bases for treatment.
Ships at sea depend on Coast Guard aids to navigation. Such guides as beacons, buoys, fog signals, lighthouses, and radio stations reduce the dangers of navigation. The Coast Guard uses the Global Positioning System to help ships determine their exact positions at sea (see Global Positioning System ). Coast Guard units report weather information to the U.S. National Weather Service, which uses the data for forecasting. The International Ice Patrol, operated by the Coast Guard, locates and tracks icebergs in shipping lanes in the North Atlantic and warns ships about them.
The Coast Guard Auxiliary, a voluntary association of yacht and motorboat sailors and owners and aircraft owners, also promotes safety. It checks boats for safety equipment, helps with rescues, and conducts classes on boating safety.
National defense.
The Coast Guard defends the United States as one of the five armed services. In both peacetime and wartime, the Coast Guard and the United States Navy work together. The Coast Guard participates in military exercises with the Navy and with forces of countries that are members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). In wartime, the Coast Guard serves as part of the Navy. It provides escorts for merchant ships, helps guard ports and shipping lanes for the United States and its allies, and provides air-sea rescue services.
Maritime security.
The Coast Guard helps other federal agencies enforce their laws concerning customs, immigration, and quarantines. Patrols along U.S. coasts serve to prevent the transport of illegal drugs, immigrants, and contraband into the United States through sea routes. The Navy aids the Coast Guard in preventing the smuggling of illegal drugs. The Coast Guard also prevents illegal fishing. Its port security program helps keep waterfronts safe by controlling traffic and regulating shipment of dangerous cargoes.
Mobility.
The Coast Guard works to ease maritime commerce by eliminating interruptions and obstacles to the efficient and economical movement of goods and people. Special Coast Guard cutters called icebreakers clear icebound harbors on the North Atlantic coast, on the Great Lakes, and on inland rivers. The Coast Guard works to provide the greatest possible access to water for recreation.
Protection of the environment.
The Coast Guard works to eliminate damage to natural resources and the environment associated with maritime transportation, fishing, and recreational boating. Its work in preventing illegal fishing helps to preserve valuable fish stocks. The port security program monitors pollution on waterfronts. Coast Guard icebreakers support research scientists in the Arctic and Antarctic.
Life in the Coast Guard
Careers in the Coast Guard
include a variety of positions. A member of the Coast Guard can become an expert in a specialized field. Coast Guard training also prepares members for civilian jobs when their enlistments end or they retire from service.
Applicants must be at least 17 years old and not older than 27. They must meet Coast Guard physical standards and pass the Armed Forces Qualifications Test. They may have no more than two dependents.
Many Coast Guard officers receive their training at the U.S. Coast Guard Academy in New London, Connecticut. Applicants to the Coast Guard Academy must be high school graduates who have not yet turned 22 years old. They must be unmarried, meet rigid physical standards, and be of good moral character. Cadets are appointed on the basis of a nationwide competition each year. Applications to enter the competition should be sent to the Director of Admissions, U.S. Coast Guard Academy, New London, CT 06320.
Men and women between the ages of 21 and 34 with a bachelor’s degree from an accredited college or university may apply to Coast Guard Officer Candidate School. This 17-week program is conducted at the Coast Guard Academy. Enlisted men and women who qualify may also apply. Graduates receive commissions as ensigns and serve at least three years of active duty. Pilots, engineers, lawyers, environmental specialists, maritime academy graduates, and former officers in other military branches may complete a three- to five-week direct commission program to become Coast Guard officers.
Officers and enlisted men and women in the Coast Guard hold the same ranks and earn the same pay as those in the Navy. Enlisted men wear the same blue uniforms as male Coast Guard officers, and enlisted women wear the same blue dress uniforms as female officers. The only differences in the uniforms is in the rank insignia. See Rank, Military .
Training a recruit
begins at “boot camp” at Cape May, New Jersey. Recruits receive eight weeks of basic training. They take courses in communications, firefighting, first aid, gunnery, military drill, physical education, and seamanship. Specially trained petty officers teach the courses. The Coast Guard tries to place men and women in positions for which they are best suited. It encourages them to specialize in a selected field.
Training an officer.
A cadet at the Coast Guard Academy takes a four-year course and graduates with a Bachelor of Science degree and a commission as an ensign in the Coast Guard. Members of each new class enter the academy during the summer, usually in late June or early July. These cadets are called swabs. They spend their swab summer becoming adjusted to military life. Coast Guard cadets spend part of each summer at sea, training aboard the bark Eagle or on major cutters. See United States Coast Guard Academy .
Ships, aircraft, and weapons of the Coast Guard
Ships and stations.
The Coast Guard maintains a fleet of several hundred ships and boats that can perform various assignments. These vessels include buoy tenders, cutters, icebreakers, lifeboats, surfboats, and tugboats. The service operates offices devoted to marine safety, port security, and shipping-inspection duties. The Coast Guard also maintains light towers, navigational aids, and law enforcement and search-and-rescue stations.
Aircraft
play a major part in Coast Guard operations. The Coast Guard uses cargo planes, jets, and helicopters for patrol, law enforcement, and search-and-rescue missions. Helicopters are particularly important to the Coast Guard in air-sea rescues, in bringing help to flood victims, and in rescuing disaster victims in inland areas that could not otherwise be reached. During World War II (1939-1945), Coast Guard aircraft bombed enemy submarines. Aircraft of the Coast Guard also rescued many survivors of torpedoed ships.
Weapons.
All Coast Guard vessels are armed with at least small arms. Weapons used by the Coast Guard range from 9-millimeter pistols, M-16 rifles, and machine guns on small patrol vessels to 76-millimeter cannons on large cutters. The crews of larger Coast Guard vessels periodically train with the Navy.
Organization of the Coast Guard
Coast Guard headquarters
are in Washington, D.C. The commandant of the Coast Guard—an admiral—heads the service, assisted by a vice commandant, a planning and control staff, and various Coast Guard departments. The United States and its possessions are divided into nine Coast Guard districts. Each district is headed by a district commander.
Active-duty and reserves.
The active-duty Coast Guard makes up the core of the service. It consists of officers and enlisted men and women who have chosen the Coast Guard as a full-time career. The Coast Guard Reserve is a group whose members may be called to active duty in time of emergency. Their training is similar to that of the regulars and includes port security and other wartime missions.
History
The Coast Guard began
its history as the Revenue Cutter Service. This service was created in 1790 at the recommendation of Alexander Hamilton, the first secretary of the treasury. Congress established this fleet of 10 small sailing vessels to stamp out smuggling and piracy along the coasts of the United States. Revenue Cutter Service officers had permission to board all vessels that entered United States waters and to examine their cargoes. From 1790 until 1798—when the Navy was reorganized—the Revenue Cutter Service served as the nation’s only naval force. The service saw its first wartime activity from 1798 to 1800, when it cooperated with the Navy in fighting French privateers. The service also fought during the War of 1812.
New duties.
For many years, private organizations, such as the Massachusetts Humane Society, operated the only lifesaving services on the Atlantic Coast. In 1831, the Revenue Cutter Service began its first winter cruising to aid seafarers and ships in distress. This activity may have lasted only one season, however. In 1837, Congress authorized the use of public vessels to cruise the coast in rough weather and help mariners in distress. In 1848, Congress funded the construction of lifesaving stations to be staffed by volunteers. In 1871, the government took over the stations and formed the U.S. Life-Saving Service, which was operated by the Revenue Cutter Service. In 1878, the Life-Saving Service became an independent bureau of the Department of the Treasury. The Revenue Cutter and Life-Saving services were combined as the United States Coast Guard in 1915. The Federal Lighthouse Service became a part of the Coast Guard in 1939. The Bureau of Marine Inspection and Navigation was transferred from the Department of Commerce to the Coast Guard in 1942.
World War I.
On April 6, 1917, after the United States declared war on Germany, the Coast Guard’s more than 200 officers and 5,000 enlisted men were ordered into action with the Navy. The Coast Guard served in the thick of the action, escorting cargo ships and screening transports from the enemy.
A great sea tragedy occurred on Sept. 26, 1918. The cutter Tampa, having escorted a group of cargo ships from Gibraltar to England, was returning to a port in Wales when it disappeared with a loud explosion. The entire crew of 111 Coast Guard and 4 Navy men was lost. Authorities believe that a German U-boat (submarine) torpedoed the cutter.
World War II
saw the United States Coast Guard serving as a specialized branch of the Navy. The service was responsible for handling and stowing explosives and other dangerous cargo, and for protecting vessels and port facilities from fire, negligence, or damage. The Coast Guard also furnished weather reports, provided cutters for convoy (escort) duty, and staffed many Army and Navy vessels. It took part in every Pacific and European landing operation.
The Coast Guard Auxiliary was formed in 1939. During World War II, its members offered their boats and their services to the Coast Guard without pay. They wore uniforms and served under military discipline while on active duty. The Coast Guard Reserve was established in 1941. During the war, about 7,100 reserve officers and about 135,000 enlisted men were on active duty in the Coast Guard.
Women first entered the Coast Guard in 1942 as a reserve group called the SPARS. The name SPAR came from the first letters of the Coast Guard motto, Semper Paratus, and its English translation, Always Ready. The SPARS filled administrative jobs to free Coast Guard men for sea duty during World War II. When the war ended in 1945, the SPARS had 10,000 enlisted women and 1,000 officers. All of them were discharged or placed on inactive duty by June 1946, and the group was dissolved.
The Coast Guard since World War II.
In November 1949, shortly before the Korean War, the SPARS was reactivated. It was disbanded again in 1974, when women became a part of the regular Coast Guard.
In 1957, three cutters, Storis, Bramble, and Spar, were the first U.S. ships to sail through the Northwest Passage, the deepwater passage across the top of North America. In 1967, the Coast Guard was transferred from the United States Treasury Department to the newly created Department of Transportation.
From 1965 to 1972, during the Vietnam War, Coast Guard squadrons patrolled the coastal waters of South Vietnam. The 56 cutters were assigned to prevent the flow of Communist troops and equipment from North Vietnam to South Vietnam.
In 1972, Congress passed the Ports and Waterways Safety Act. This legislation directed the Coast Guard to establish regulations governing the construction of oil tankers and other ships that would carry polluting substances in United States waters. The legislation also authorized the Coast Guard to develop vessel traffic control systems to help prevent accidents in crowded harbors and waterways.
In 1989, the Coast Guard headed the cleanup of nearly 11 million gallons (42 million liters) of crude oil that spilled into Prince William Sound in southeastern Alaska. The oil spill—one of the largest in North American history—occurred after the U.S. tanker Exxon Valdez struck a reef in the sound. From 1992 to 1994, the Coast Guard stopped nearly 100,000 migrants fleeing Cuba and Haiti from entering the United States illegally. The Coast Guard also served in the Persian Gulf War of 1991 and the Iraq War (2003-2011).
In 2003, the Coast Guard was transferred from the Department of Transportation to the newly created Department of Homeland Security. The Department of Homeland security focuses on protecting the country against terrorism.
