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Show HAPPY BIRTHDAY COASTGUARD This year marks the 189th birthday of the U.S. Coast Guard, a tightly knit organization organi-zation of over 38,000 members. Most Americans know the Coast Guard for its search and rescue efforts, but it also has a number of other jobs. Highly sophisticated radar units are manned by the Coast Guard in the busiest U.S. ports. This central communication and monitoring moni-toring system is designed to bring freighters and tankers into port safely and quickly. A major concern of the Coast Guard is the prevention pre-vention of marine pollution in ports and along our sea -coasts. The Guard also makes periodic inspections of all tankers entering the US. Law enforcement, maintenance main-tenance of the more than ,000 aids to navigation in . waters, thelnternation-Ice thelnternation-Ice Patrol, oceanographic research, public safety, reserve re-serve programs and the manning of the entire U.S. fleet of six icebreakers are also Coast Guard duties. While maintaining military mili-tary readiness, the Guard must also be ready to step in where help is needed, regardless re-gardless of the task. |