My Coast Guard News

U.S. Revenue Cutter Wolcott. The Wolcott was a sail-steamer homeported at Port Townsend, Washington, Territory. Although her crew discovered no drugs aboard the George E Starr, a landing party from the cutter made the earliest yet-known drug seizure by predecessor agencies of the Coast Guard, finding nearly 3,012 pounds of opium hidden in barrels at a fishery in Alaska on January 14, 1886. (U.S. Coast Guard)

July 12, 2024

The service’s first drug seizure at sea? The mostly mistaken case of the George E Starr

The story of the service’s first drug interdiction case (1891) and how it was misrepresented in the history books.

Official photograph of Charles T. Thrun in his dress uniform. (U.S. Coast Guard)
The Grumman J2F “Duck” No. 162 that Thrun flew when he died. (U.S. Coast Guard)

July 5, 2024

The last flight of Coast Guard Aviator #3

USCG aviator #3 Charles Thrun, the first enlisted aviator in the Coast Guard.

The original enlistment photograph for Robert Grattan Ward, later Silver Star Medal recipient for action on D-Day. (U.S. Coast Guard)
With cargo nets dropped and LCVPs in position, the Joseph Dickman disembarks troops for amphibious landing. (U.S. Coast Guard)

June 28, 2024

Coxswain for all invasions — Robert Ward and the Joseph T. Dickman at D-Day

The story of D-Day hero, Silver Star Medal recipient and FRC namesake Robert Ward.

Black and white photo of Seaman John “Jack” DeNunzio in dress blues. (Coast Guard Collection)

A rare color photo of Flotilla Ten on the River Dart, England, preparing for the landings on D-Day. (Coast Guard Collection)

June 14, 2024

D-Day hero Jack DeNunzio and LCI-94 at Normandy

Jack DeNunzio’s final breath would be forever recorded for posterity by a Coast Guard photographer and a world-renowned Life Magazine combat photographer.

“Into the Jaws of Death: Down the ramp of a Coast Guard landing barge Yankee soldiers storm toward the beach-sweeping fire of Nazi defenders in the D-Day invasion of the French coast. Troops ahead may be seen lying flat under the deadly machinegun resistance of the Germans. Soon the Nazis were driven back under the overwhelming invasion forces thrown in from Coast Guard and Navy amphibious craft.” (U.S. Coast Guard photo by Chief Photographers Mate Robert F. Sargent.)

June 7, 2024

Into the Jaws of Death — Coast Guard landing craft at D-Day

Story and images of CPO Robert Sargent, “Into the Jaws of Death” photographer.

Rare photograph of landing craft from the Samuel Chase landing the first wave of troops on Omaha Beach on D-Day. Frank DeVita may have manned one of these landing craft. (National Archives)

May 31, 2024

“Love your Freedom, because that’s what we fought for” — D-Day Gunner’s Mate Frank DeVita

“There’s a cemetery right above Omaha Beach with 9,400 dead GIs. I go there every year and I cry, and I cry. They made the biggest sacrifice. They gave their lives so that we have freedom today.” - Frank DeVita

Painting of U.S. Revenue Cutter Bear, circa 1890, on patrol off Alaska by James A. Mitchell III. (U.S. Coast Guard)

May 17, 2024

Bear Hunt — the search for Healy’s legendary cutter

Finding a shipwreck is like solving any mystery.

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.