My Coast Guard
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Tag: The Long Blue Line

Early photograph of crewmembers of the Bering Sea Patrol cutter Bear with Asian national crew members seated in the bottom row. (U.S. Coast Guard)

May 10, 2024

Devotion to Duty — Asian nationals serving in the Coast Guard

Asian nationals began serving in the United States Coast Guard 175 years ago, playing an important role in the history of the Coast Guard’s ancestor agency of the U.S. Revenue Cutter Service.

Painting of the Civil War revenue cutter Morris titled “Inspection of a Merchant Ship,” by Gil Cohen, depicts a boat howitzer ready for use on the ship’s bow. (U.S. Coast Guard)

April 26, 2024

Sentinels of the past — the Coast Guard’s Civil War Boat Howitzers from the Revenue Cutter Service

Written by retired Gunner CWO Steven Wilson, this essay provides the history of two Coast Guard Civil War artifacts: Boat Howitzers #245 and #246.

Posed photograph early in the war of Joseph Gerczak in his dress blues uniform. (Courtesy of the Gerczak family) Photo showing LST-66’s bow doors open to debark troops to the beach. (Navsource.org)

April 19, 2024

Joe Gerczak’s service and sacrifice from Philly to New Guinea

LST-66 ended the war as the most-decorated LST serving in the Coast Guard.

Color engraving of the Battle of Lake Erie by Murray Draper and Company, circa 1813. (Naval History and Heritage Command)

April 12, 2024

Dobbins and Knapp — Frontier mariners, naval officers, and Revenue Cutter masters

The revolving-door saga of Dobbins versus Knapp ... a pendulum of political spoils.

A newspaper headshot of LT Altson J. Wilson in dress uniform. (H. Lee White Maritime Museum) A rare antique photo of a Coast Guard motor lifeboat broaching heavy seas in the surf zone. (U.S. Life-Saving Service Heritage Association)

April 5, 2024

“Get in the boat; we have a job to do!” — BOSN Wilson motors into the Great New England Hurricane

This motor lifeboat was the right tool for a terrible storm such as this, and the man at the helm was the best man for this catastrophe. The feeling of the men on board was: If you can hang on, you may survive.

A photograph of the U.S. Life Saving Service crew posing with its surfboat in front of U.S. Life-Saving Station at St. Joseph, Michigan, from the Digital Collections of the Detroit Public Library.

March 29, 2024

Joseph Napier — Heroic Surfman, Gold Lifesaving Medal recipient and FRC namesake

For his heroism, Napier received the first Gold Lifesaving Medal issued by the U.S. Life-Saving Service, forerunner of the modern Coast Guard.

An official portrait photograph of BM1 Bernie Webber in his dress blues. (U.S. Coast Guard) A painting by Richard Kaiser of CG-36500 in heavy seas nearing the broken stern half of the Pendleton (depicted in the background). (U.S. Coast Guard)

March 22, 2024

Bernard “Bernie” Webber and the greatest smallboat rescue in Coast Guard history

Divine intervention, dead reckoning and plain luck have all been trumpeted as ways Bernie’s crew found the Pendleton that night.

An official portrait photograph of Dorothy C. Stratton seated in her office at Coast Guard Headquarters shortly before her retirement in 1946. (U.S. Coast Guard) A World War II photo of Stratton meets with members of the Coast Guard’s Women’s Reserve of SPARs. (U.S. Coast Guard)

March 8, 2024

Dorothy Stratton — Wartime Coast Guard trailblazer and SPAR Leader

Capt. Stratton had the unique distinction of serving her country through three of the women’s branches of U.S. Armed Forces and became the director of the newly formed Coast Guard Women's Reserve, SPARS.

A formal seated photograph showing a vigorous Isaac Mayo later in life. (U.S. Coast Guard) Image of the Massachusetts Humane Society. Modeled after the British Royal Humane Society, the Massachusetts Humane Society’s work ultimately served as a model for the U.S. Life-Saving Service and eventually the U.S. Coast Guard.

March 1, 2024

Isaac Mayo — Surfman, Gold Life-Saving Medal recipient and FRC namesake

On Nov. 10, 1879, Congress awarded Mayo the Gold Life Saving Medal for his bravery and successful actions leading the crew of volunteer surfmen in the rescue of the four survivors off the wreck of the Sarah J. Fort.

A March 1959 color photo of LTJG Bobby Wilks posing in front of an HU-16E “Albatross” fixed-wing amphibian aircraft. (U.S. Coast Guard)

Feb. 23, 2024

Bobby Wilks — distinguished aviator, mentor, and minority trailblazer

“I was in awe of him, as not only he was the first senior ranking African American officer at that time, but also an aviator. He shared with me the challenges, which he was quick to call them opportunities, that he took full advantage of that mapped out his successful Coast Guard career.” - MCPOCG Vincent W. Patton (Ret.)