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Show With 155 Years of Outstanding Service In Wars and Peace Coast Guard Has Been Big Factor in Present Successful Operations! " " !- " " 7I ' 1 j r . - The United States coast guard on August 4 celebrates the 155th anniversary anni-versary of its founding, proud of being be-ing the nation's "first fleet" and proud of its "firsts" and its distinguished distin-guished service on all fronts of World War II. Most of the 172,000 men who wear the coast guard shield on their uniform sleeves will celebrate the service's birthday overseas, for the coast guard, created cre-ated primarily to prevent smugglers smug-glers from reaching the coast, ranges far from home in time of war to fight alongside the army, navy and marine corps. The coast guard's story really begins be-gins in 1787 when Alexander Hamilton, Hamil-ton, first secretary of the treasury, while urging adoption of the then pending constitution, wrote of the need for a sea-going service which would prevent "material infractions upon the rights of the revenue." "A few armed vessels," he wrote, "judiciously "judi-ciously stationed at the entrance to our ports, might at small expense be made useful sentinels of the laws." With the constitution adopted, the first congress elected under It, in the spring of 1790, approved Hamilton's Hamil-ton's idea for a marine law enforcement en-forcement agency, and on August 4, 1790, the service's birthday, appro- A seaman is ill, requiring immediate medical attention. Coast guard vessel transfers doctor on a boatswain's chair to the merchant ship. An example of the work done by the coast guard in their 155 years of service. manned ships lost as the war progressed pro-gressed the Acaccia, the Muske-get, Muske-get, the Natsek, the Escanaba, the Leopold, and the Serpens. To many, In peacetime, the coast guard was known as the "Mercy Fleet," and there is a long tradition behind its reputation reputa-tion for th saving of life and property at sea. Back in 1833, some of the cutters were -as-signed to aid distressed vessels - i j j ( i guardmanned assault transport Bayfield, Bay-field, flagship for "Utah" beach, cared for more than 600 casualties during the three weeks it was anchored an-chored off the beachhead. Also Serve in Air. ' Outstanding . also has been the coast guard's initiative in the experiments experi-ments with airplane, parachute and helicopter rescue groups. Adm. Russell Rus-sell R. Waesche, first full admiral to head the coast guard, also sits with the Joint Air-Sea Rescue committee commit-tee set up by all of the armed services serv-ices to investigate and experiment with rescue techniques. From the life saving stations, the coast guard acquired personnel person-nel well versed in the knack of handling small boats, in battling surf, wind and tide. The nation has drawn heavily on these men to participate in every invasion of the war and to train others in amphibious landings. Many surfmen were among the personnel of the boat pool set up under Coast Guard Comdr. Dwight H. Dexter at Guadalcanal and Tul-agi Tul-agi in August, 1942, the Allies' first successful amphibious operation. Aboard the coastguardmanned assault transport Samuel Chase, formerly the passenger, ship African Meteor, the technique of loading small landing barges at the rail was first used In the invasion of Sicily on July 10, 1943. The technique was decided upon after the vessel's earlier experience in the African invasion inva-sion in November, 1942, and speeded up such operations by many precious minutes. The coast guard also has been called "A sea-going handyman" and in war or peace the service has become be-come used to having new duties and functions added to its work. After the Titanic disaster, nations of the world formed the International Ice Patrol and the duty of patrolling was delegated to the coast guard. priated money to build 10 cutters and pay salaries to their officers and men. For six years the small cutters were the only armed vessels under the United States flag. (The navy was created in 1794 by act of congress, con-gress, but its ships were not In service serv-ice until 1797.) Given Naval Rank. The possible defense value of the cutters was recognized early. In suggesting establishment of the service, Hamilton asked that officers offi-cers of the cutters be given military or naval rank, "which," he said, "will not only induce fit men to engage, en-gage, but attach them to their duties with a nicer sense of honor." In 1797, congress passed a temporary act to increase the strength of the cutters "and cause said revenue-cutters revenue-cutters to be employed to defend the sea-coast and repel any hostility hos-tility to their vessels and commerce within their jurisdiction, having due 'egard to the duties of said cutters n the production of the revenue." In 1798, during the "undeclared" "unde-clared" naval war with France, the President, "with a view of producing a concert of action of the naval forces of the United States," placed the revenue vessels ves-sels at the disposition of the secretary of the navy. In the , next year, congress passed an act providing that the cutters were to co-operate with the navy whenever the President should so ilirect a precedent since followed fol-lowed in every war. The cutter Taney went through Pearl Harbor unscathed and the next day left the stricken Pacific base on antisubmarine patrol. The 165-foot Icarus received credit for sinking the first German submarine in United States waters when she blasted a U-boat and took 33 prisoners pris-oners off the Carolina coast. (A coastguardmanned destroyer escort, with several navy ships, was in at the kill on the last U-boat sunk in the Atlantic by American forces.) Many Ships Lost. A tragic "first" of the coast guard was the loss of the cutter Hamilton, Hamil-ton, torpedoed off Iceland in January, Janu-ary, 1942, the first American warship war-ship lost to a submarine after the start of the war and, unfortunately, the first of a line, of coastguard- Adm. Russell R. Waesche, commandant com-mandant of the U. S. coast guard, with his third half-inch stripe, which designates him as a full admiral. and save lives; a duty they had performed incidentally from time to time. The combination strengthened the service's devotion to the savjng of life and property a devotion amply demonstrated during this war. In the Normandy invasion, a fleet of 83-foot coast guard vessels (considered (con-sidered small craft now, but more than twice the length suggested by Hamilton in his recommendation for the first cutters!) which had been on antisubmarine duty in the Atlantic was designated as Rescue Flotilla 1 and, in the first days of the invasion, pulled more than 4,000 men to safety from channel waters. The coast- i. . - ' ;.: . ' 1 ' "a i I , 4 Coastguardmanned LSTs are among the first to drop their ramps at Manila after American forces had driven the Japs from the Philippine capital. |
