The official blog of the U.S. Coast Guard
By 1931, Friedman had trained T-Men to use new radio direction finders. They mounted them on Coast Guard radio detection trucks to track the rum runners’ pirate radio stations. She also persuaded the Treasury Department to give her a team of analysts. She interviewed and hired three men, then trained them in the latest codebreaking methods.
The earliest reference to use of the flag dates back to 1917 in the book Flags of the World. The book states “Coast Guard cutters patrolling the anchorage grounds of the large harbors of the United States fly at their jackstaff a flag of white upon which is imposed a blue anchor.”
In early September of 1900, a hurricane of massive force struck the Gulf Coast west of Galveston, Texas. The Great Galveston Hurricane would prove far deadlier than any man-made, environmental or weather-related disaster in U.S. history, with approximately 8,000 killed in Galveston and roughly 2,000 more lost in other parts of the Gulf Coast.This death toll is greater than the combined casualty figure for the 1941 Pearl Harbor attack, Hurricane Katrina, the 9/11 terrorist attacks as well as Hurricane Ike, which struck Galveston in 2008.
By the end of World War II, Sutphin would be a decorated war hero, battle-tested landing craft operator and survivor of Saipan, one of the Pacific War’s bloodiest combat missions.
On September 29, 1917, Tampa sailed out of New York, bound for Halifax, Nova Scotia. It would be the last time Tampa’s crew would see American shores.During World War I, Tampa was the largest naval loss of life suffered by the United States due to combat action.
Eddy never forgot how that Coast Guardsman had saved his life and how the Royal Signalmen had watched as the brave American swam powerfully through the waves to save strangers he would never see again. After they secured the tow rope, the Signalmen tried to thank the Coast Guardsmen, but he just waved and swam back to his rescue boat never to be seen again.
Over the past 100 years, the Coast Guard chief has become a linchpin to the Service, able to advise petty officers and commissioned officers in the chain of command. Since 1920, chiefs have served many roles. These include teacher, parent, rating specialist and mentor.
Florence Finch Smith was the first Asian-American woman to don a Coast Guard uniform. In 1995, the Coast Guard honored Finch’s service by naming the administration building for her at Coast Guard Base Honolulu. She passed away in 2016 at the age of 101. Of her wartime activities, she stated “I feel very humble because my activities in the war effort were trivial compared with those of people who gave their lives for their country.”
In November 1958, Melvin Bell became the first master chief in his rate. Perhaps more significantly, he became the first minority master chief in the history of the Coast Guard. He will soon be honored as namesake of a Fast Response Cutter.
In late March 1945, nearly 1,300 ships of the Allied forces of America, Great Britain, Australia, New Zealand, and Canada assembled to support the largest amphibious operation of the Pacific War–the invasion of Okinawa and Ryukyu Islands.