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Tag: The Long Blue Line

Official headshot of Michael J. Swierc, who enlisted in the Coast Guard on Aug. 11, 1942, and trained as a motor machinist’s mate before deploying overseas for the first wave of the D-Day invasion. Swierc, who turned 100 years old on Nov. 6, 2021, received the Bronze Star Medal for helping save 126 Allied troops from drowning in the English Channel on June 6, 1944. (U.S. Coast Guard photo, courtesy Pam Manka)

June 3, 2022

The Long Blue Line: D-Day, 1944—MoMM2 Swierc and the heroic saviors of CG-16

The night of the invasion was unbelievable. There was a continuous flash of light in the sky and we could hear the bombs. It was nonstop fire.   - Motor Machinist’s Mate Second Class Mike SwiercNearly 80 years have passed since Motor Machinist’s Mate Second Class Michael J. Swierc served on the Coast Guard Cutter CG-16 off Utah Beach during the

Official Coast Guard photograph of Seaman First Class Fletcher Burton in dress blues. (U.S. Coast Guard)

May 30, 2022

The Long Blue Line: Seaman First Class Fletch Burton—he went in harm’s way so others might live free

Memorial Day we remember those who gave all.

Commissaryman Robert Manges in his dress blues on leave from the Coast Guard. (Courtesy of Robert Manges)

May 27, 2022

The Long Blue Line: World War II Chief Commissaryman Robert Manges—100-years strong!

Celebrating a 100-year-old Coast Guard veteran

Prince William Sound, AK (Mar. 24)--The Exxon Valdez remains in place in Prince Williams Sound after running aground. The Exxon Valdez ran aground on Bligh Reef in Prince William Sound, Alaska, March 23, 1989 spilling 11 million gallons of crude oil, which resulted in the largest oil spill in U.S. history. U.S. COAST GUARD PHOTO

May 20, 2022

The Long Blue Line: Four Minutes after Midnight—Bligh Reef, Murphy Prefers Midnight!

Exxon Valdez tragedy...32 years later

Portrait of William Tatham in 1779. Tatham was a contemporary and frequent correspondent of the president. He was universally acknowledged as brilliant, but could be abrasive and arrogant. He quickly alienated the other two commissioners, Jonathan Price and William Coles, working on the 1806 survey. They ended up submitting separate reports, and only Coles and Price produced the chart. (North Carolina Historical Review, July 1972)

May 6, 2022

The Long Blue Line: Death by hurricane of Coast Survey Cutters Diligence and Governor Williams 216 years ago

A busy hurricane season of 1806.

Prinsendam cruising the sheltered waters near Skagway, Alaska, before her fire and subsequent loss. (Alaska State Library)

April 29, 2022

The Long Blue Line: Prinsendam—Coast Guard’s “Miracle Rescue” over 40 years ago!

Editor’s note: This article initially published Nov. 24 in the Commandant’s Bulletin Magazine.The town of Valdez, Alaska, fell behind the U.S. tanker Williamsburgh. Full of oil, the ship headed for Texas. The bridge crew sighed relief—one more successful trip through the narrow channel. Midnight was approaching, bringing in Saturday, Oct. 4, 1980,

Lt. Buddy Ebsen on stage hosting the 7th War Loan bond drive in Seattle. (U.S. Coast Guard)

April 22, 2022

The Long Blue Line: Buddy Ebsen—Hollywood actor and World War II patrol frigate officer

Hollywood actor, Coast Guard WWII hero

A map from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) showing the State of Alaska and the epicenter of the Great Alaska Earthquake of 1964. (NOAA)

April 15, 2022

The Long Blue Line: “The land turned to liquid”—Coast Guard operations in the Great Alaska Earthquake

The land turned to liquid. A long slice of the seaward edge of the plain…a section nearly a mile long and as much as six hundred feet wide-compacted, slumped, and then slid into the bay… men tumbled into the water, grasping for anything – timbers, boxes, debris-to stay afloat. One clung to the side of the fissure before he too, fell in. In the

Long-time U.S. Life-Saving Service member and keeper, Patrick Etheridge, alleged to have uttered the unofficial Life-Saving Service motto of “You have to go out, but you don’t have to come back.” (U.S. Coast Guard)

April 8, 2022

The Long Blue Line: “You have to go out, but you don’t have to come back”—origin of the old Life-Saving Service motto

The lore behind the motto

Rare photograph of a Civil War-era tugboat. USS Daisy, a tugboat converted for Union naval may have been similar in design and construction to USRCS Hercules and Reliance. (www.history.uscg.mil)

April 1, 2022

The Long Blue Line: “The last full measure of devotion”—the life and death of Revenue Cutter Capt. Thomas Dungan

A story about the Coast Guard's predecessor service in the Civil War.