The official blog of the U.S. Coast Guard
LV-82, the most modern lightship of its time in the U.S. Lighthouse Service fleet, disappeared during the “White Hurricane” storm in the Great Lakes in 1913. A year later, the body of Chief Engineer Charles Butler floated to the surface, but the bodies of other crew members were never found.
Diamond Head Light shines from a U.S. Coast Guard facility on an extinct volcano overlooking one of the most popular beaches in the world. The 64-foot-tall lighthouse shines a white light that can be seen for 17 nautical miles, and to mark the dangerous shoal, a red sector light that can be seen for 14 nautical miles.
The crew of the Lawrence, the Pacific’s first revenue cutter, put down mutinies, interdicted smugglers, saved vessels in distress, charted the California coast and tamed America’s maritime frontier, all in the vessels short 4-year lifetime.
Seventy-five years ago, on December 25, 1944, after a six-week campaign to liberate the Philippine island of Leyte, Allied forces under General Douglas Macarthur were mopping up the last vestiges of Japanese resistance. The invasion of the Philippines was one of the last major land battles of the Pacific War leading up to the surrender of Japan. By the 26th, MacArthur announced the end of organized resistance on Leyte. It was a fitting Christmas gift to the Philippine people and MacArthur’s forces would pursue the enemy back to the island nation’s capital in Manila.
This Christmas letter was created using quotes from Hamerschlag’s narrative in the book “Three Years Behind the Mast”, quotes from newspaper articles, and stories relayed by the descendants of Unit 21 SPARs.
On paper, it’s referred to as a High Mobility Multi-Purpose Wheeled Vehicle, or “Humvee,” one of the 281,000 built since its adoption by the U.S. military in 1985. To friends and historians, this particular sand-colored military vehicle is known as Eleanor II, and she’s one of a kind.
African Americans comprise the longest serving minority in the United States Coast Guard. They were the first to serve and, in many ways, were the first to sacrifice, pioneering the way ahead for all minorities in the Coast Guard, U.S. military, and the nation.
Lieutenant Warren Gill was the only Coast Guard Reservist to receive the Navy Cross. After surviving a deadly explosion on a Navy Landing Ship-Tank being manned by the Coast Guard, Gill returned to his home state where he practiced law and served as an elected official.
In 1925, using borrowed Navy aircraft, the Coast Guard demonstrated the value of air assets through the first aerial law enforcement assist and the first aviation interdiction. The next year, Congress appropriated $162,000 to purchase the first five Coast Guard aircraft, designed specifically for the Service’s needs.
Continuing a 20-year tradition, the Coast Guard Cutter Mackinaw will deliver 1,200 Christmas trees as part of Chicago’s Christmas Ship program. The annual tree delivery dates back more than a century when brothers August and Herman Schuenemann sold and gave away Christmas trees from the Chicago waterfront.