The White Falcon - 06.08.1971, Blaðsíða 12

Bantam of the sea—181
One hundred and eighty one
years ago, on August 4, George
Washington's Secretary of the
Treasury, Alexander Hamilton or-
ganized a group of men and made
them responsible for deterring
smuggling and enforcing customs
laws. He called them the Revenue
Marines and 17 years later they
merged with the lifesaving service
to form what is now the United
States Coast Guard. Hie U. S.
Coast Guard celebrated its 181st
anniversary Wednesday in commem-
oration of that date.
Since the beginning of the
Coast Guard, it has been mis-
takenly referred to as the second
navy of the U. S. It is really
eight years older than the U. S.
Navy, and has participated in
every war the United States has
entered, including the Seminole
Indian War of the 1830s- During
that war, the first amphibious
landing of combined U. S. forces
was made.
The Coast Guard's first suc-
cessful steam cutter, the side-
wheeler Harriet Lane fired the
first shot in the Civil War.
During the Spanish-American
War in 1898, 18 cutters were dis-
patched to Cuba and the Philip-
By JOSN Terry J. Carroll
pines where they were assigned to
Admiral George Dewey.
When the United States entered
World War I, the Coast Guard's
15-cutter fleet with 200 officers
and 5,000 enlisted men, operated
with the Navy. One of the most
famous antisubmarine units con-
sisted of six cutters based at
Gibraltar. Their purpose was to
convoy cargo ships and to screen
transports. Because of their
strategically dangerous position
there, the Coast Guard propor-
tionally suffered greater losses
in that war than any other branch
of the service.
During World War II, the Coast
Guard reached it's peak strength
with 802 vessels over 65 feet in
length and more than 171,000 men.
During that war they performed
convoy escorts and amphibious op-
erations, as well as participat-
ing in anti-submarine warfare,
sinking 12 U-boats.
Taking to aviation in 1916,
three members of the Kill Devil
lifeboat station were on hand at
Kitty Hawk 13 years earlier to
help secure the Wright brothers'
plane when the wind flipped it
over. Today, the Coast Guard air-
craft are stationed at 25 loca-
years old
tions around the world.
Now operating all nine of the
nation's icebreakers, they par-
ticipate each year in Operation
Deep Freeze in the Antarctic. In
addition, the icebreakers clear
the shipping lanes in northemre-
gions and assist in reprovision-
ing the outlying Arctic sites.
In 1967 Coast Guardsmen assumed
additional duties when they were
transferred to the newly-created
Department of Transportation from
the Treasury Department. They now
enforce pollution control laws
and are instrumental in restoring
beauty to America's waterways.
During these past two centur-
ies the Coast Guard's duties have
become more diversified, but even
today their officers take the
same oath to support the Consti-
tution and detect and preva^
frauds against the revenue H
By international agreemenl5J|
the U. S. mans six ocean stations
in the Atlantic and Pacific.
Coast Guard cutters continually
provide meteorological data, com-
munications, aids to navigation
and search and rescue service.
All cutters maintain a condition
(See BANTAM, Page 9)
Fourteen Coast Guardsmen are attached to the
LORAN monitor station here. They are, from left,
Lt. Cdr. Harold T. Sherman, the unit's CO, SN
James Sheppard, SNEW John Grinds, RM2 Neil Gard-
ner, SAEW Norman Kellogg, ET2 Daniel Sohn, ET3
Thomas Daub, ET3 Keith Manning, RM2 Jeffrey Bron-
sing, ET3 Philip Coulon, and CWO James L. White,
the senior technical officer. Three of the sta-
tion's crew not available for the photo are ET
John Musgrave, YN2 Ward Kreidler and ETC Rob^
Antcnson.
(Photo by JOSN Terry J. Carroll
ta-
;#
12
August 6, 1971