Custom

The Coast Guard is the nation's oldest continuous seagoing service with responsibilities including Search and Rescue (SAR), Maritime Law Enforcement (MLE), Aids to Navigation (ATON), Ice Breaking, Environmental Protection, Port Security and Military Readiness. In order to accomplish these missions the Coast Guard has approximately 40,000 active-duty men and women, 8,000 Reservists, and 35,000 Auxiliary personnel who serve in a variety of job fields ranging from operation specialists and small-boat operators and maintenance specialists to electronic technicians and aviation mechanics.

REFERENCE: https://www.military.com/join-armed-forces/coast-guard-mission-values.html

The U.S. Navy rightfully casts a large shadow over the naval history of World War II. But more often than not, the U.S. Coast Guard’s service and sacrifice is lost in that shadow. Perhaps because the Coast Guard was transferred from the Treasury Department to the Department of the Navy in November 1941, histories of World War II typically overlook or only briefly mention the service’s role. Nevertheless, in the years immediately preceding U.S. entry into the conflict and over the subsequent four years, eight months of fighting, the Coast Guard’s responsibilities expanded exponentially. And after the war, Fleet Admiral Chester Nimitz applauded the performance of Coast Guard men and women, writing in the introduction of Malcolm Willoughby’s The U.S. Coast Guard in World War II, “I know of no instance wherein they did not acquit themselves in the highest traditions of their Service, or prove themselves worthy of their Service motto, ‘Semper Paratus’—‘Always Ready.’”

REFERENCES: https://www.usni.org/magazines/naval-history-magazine/2016/october/coast-guards-world-war-ii-crucible

In this day in 1941, President Roosevelt announces that the U.S. Coast Guard will now be under the direction of the U.S. Navy, a transition of authority usually reserved only for wartime.
The Coast Guard was established as the Revenue Marine Service by Alexander Hamilton, secretary of the treasury, in 1790. In 1915, the U.S. Lifesaving Service, formed in 1878, and the RMS combined to become the Coast Guard. During peacetime, the Guard was under the direction of the Department of Treasury until 1967, when the Department of Transportation took control. But during war, it was under the control of the U.S. Navy. What made FDR’s November 1 announcement significant was that the United States was not yet at war—but more and more American ships were nevertheless becoming casualties of the European war.

REFERENCES: https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/fdr-puts-coast-guard-under-control-of-the-navy