My Coast Guard News

Rare photo showing the heroic Pea Island Lifesaving Station crew commanded by famed African American keeper Richard Etheridge. (Coast Guard Collection)

Feb. 28, 2023

Legacy’s Shadow: The Keeper’s Lost Grave

Finding the final resting place of Keeper Capt. L.S. Wescott

Commissary Steward First Class Alphonzo F. Barbour dressed in his steward uniform including medals he received during his Coast Guard career. (Courtesy of Vince Patton)

Feb. 24, 2023

The Long Blue Line: Remembering centurium Alphonzo Barbour—eyewitness to African American history

The Coast Guard's 8th MCPOCG shares his time with a centenarian.

A rare image of River Cutter Yocona’s crew in 1925 shows her black enlisted men, and white officers and non-commissioned officers posed aboard the cutter. (Courtesy of U.S. Coast Guard)

Feb. 17, 2023

The Long Blue Line: The mystery of “River Cutter” Yocona the Coast Guard's first desegregated cutter homeported in the Deep South.

Homeported in Vicksburg, Mississippi, the Cutter Yocona’s achievement remains an important chapter in American minority history.

A 1942 colorized photograph of Seaman Robert E. Thompson. (Courtesy of Robert E. Thompson)

Feb. 10, 2023

The Long Blue Line: WWII recruit training at Manhattan Beach and desegregating the U.S. military

Many African American Coast Guard recruits trained in the New York facility prior to serving their country.

Feb. 3, 2023

The Long Blue Line: Keeper Richard Etheridge and the Gold Medal lifesavers of Pea Island

The first African American officer-in-charge of a military installation.

Chief Louis Etheridge near the end of his honorable and productive Coast Guard career. (U.S. Coast Guard)

Feb. 18, 2022

The Long Blue Line: Louis Etheridge—Gun captain and African-American war hero

Read about the courageous actions resulting in the Coast Guard’s first military medal bestowed on an African American Coast Guardsman for combat heroism.

John and Carol Witherspoon pose for a photograph near the conclusion of the captain’s distinguished career. (Courtesy of the Mariners’ Museum)

Feb. 11, 2022

The Long Blue Line: John Gordon Witherspoon—leader, mentor, minority trailblazer, and cutter namesake!

“Learn, think, then act” a mantra for excellence

Feb. 1, 2022

Message from the Commandant: Celebrate black health & wellness

ALCOAST 029/22 - Celebrate Black health and wellness in February

Capt. Patrick Burkett, chief of the 13th Coast Guard District’s Prevention Division, is an alumnus of South Carolina State University and the Coast Guard College Student Pre-Commissioning Initiative (CSPI). CSPI is a scholarship program, open to students of all races and ethnicities, which pays up to two academic years of college tuition at Minority Serving Institutions.

Feb. 1, 2022

CSPI: Pathway to prosperity and security through service

How the Coast Guard's CSPI program can help you achieve your educational and leadership goals

Secretary of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson met with members of several agencies within the Dept. of Homeland Security in a town hall meeting held at Coast Guard Air Station Los Angeles on March 30, 2016. During the town hall, Johnson addressed issues the Department of Homeland Security faces in the coming years along with concerns and questions raised by attendees.
(U.S. Coast Guard photo by Petty Officer 3rd Class Andrea Anderson

March 2, 2021

Let’s talk diversity in a fireside chat

Former Department of Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson talked about diversity and leadership with the Coast Guard Academy.