Happy Birthday Coast Guard!!
 

August 4 is U.S. Coast Guard Day

Aug. 4 is celebrated as Coast Guard Day to honor the establishment on that day in 1790 of the Revenue Cutter Service, the predecessor of today's Coast Guard. On that date, Congress, guided by Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton, authorized the building of a fleet of 10 cutters, whose responsibility would be enforcement of the first tariff laws enacted by Congress under the Constitution.

The Coast Guard has been continuously at sea since its inception; although, the name Coast Guard didn't come about until 1915 when the Revenue Cutter Service was merged with the Lifesaving Service. The Lighthouse Service joined the Coast Guard in 1939, followed in 1946 by the Bureau of Navigation and Steamboat Inspection. In 1967, after 177 years in the Treasury Department, the Coast Guard was transferred to the newly formed Department of Transportation. In 2003, the Coast Guard became a member of the Department of Homeland Security where it is today.

Coast Guard Day is primarily an internal activity for Coast Guard active duty, reservist, civilian, and auxiliarist personnel and their families to celebrate the Coast Guard's many accomplishments.

A CG reservist who used to work for me recently returned from his 2nd tour in the Gulf. He quit working for us because he was spending too much time away from home in boats -- proof that one cannot die from irony! This time harbor policing in Bahrain. He made E-7 over there. ****** lifers. Wish I could entice him back but he has a university job now that pays better and he stays home -- except for the war thingie.

B

Thanks, Coast Guard, for watching our borders!

Tom W

Thank you CG.

SEMPER PERATUS
Always Ready

My dad was a career Coast Guard officer. His first command came early-1942.
:)
http://www.warcovers.dk/greenland/sc527.htm

here's to the Coast Guard!

I saw a movie (with Kevin Costner in it) about the Coast Guard. If they do anything like what this movie portrayed, I had no idea what it was really like. Pretty impressive.

Happy birthday!

Glad that they made it! The DOT tried their damn hardest to kill them with lack of funding.

Howie, thanks for reminding me about CG day!

In another life, Thing One was a coastie. Did his time on the Penobscot, breaking ice and then to Kodiak to ride on the Queen of the Fleet (USCGC Storis WMEC 38) doing Maritime Economic Boundary patrol and many other fun things.

I have an acquaintance (actually an ex-roommate of Thing One's) who's a Coast Guard rescue swimmer. He was assigned to Air Station New Orleans when Katrina hit. He lost count of the rescues after they hit 250. Ian is about the most humble man to have ever walked the face of the Earth.

Ian is at Air Station Astoria now, rescuing the unlucky folks that get a bad draw when crossing the Columbia River Bar.