Free Republic

President Obama’s urgent call to construct a new fleet of heavy Coast Guard icebreakers to monitor the contested Arctic is belied by his recent budgets that slashed funding for even one new ship. Mr. Obama, in a game of polar ice chess with Russian President Vladimir Putin and his 40-plus icebreakers, made the gap one of his themes as he toured Alaska last week. Officials say the U.S. needs to keep pace in the face of an increasingly serious challenge by Russia, which is making new territorial claims on the Arctic. But even by the White House’s own internal projections,...

Published on Aug 23, 2013 Freely downloadable at the Internet Archive, where I first uploaded it. "On overseas activities of the Coast Guard in World War II. Includes views of the amphibious invasions of Guadalcanal, North Africa, Anzio, Tarawa, Saipan, Luzon, Iwo Jima, Okinawa, Normandy, and South France. Cutters shoot down an airplane, patrol a Persian port, deliver supplies and men to Greenland, release depth charges, and sink a German boat. Coast Guardsmen place buoys in a port, load supplies on B-24 plane, load wounded Marines aboard transports off Tarawa, and rescue sailors of ships sunk by Japanese suicide planes...

The Eagle was built by the Nazis and fought for Hitler in World War Two - so how did a tall ship that once flew the swastika end up as a training vessel for new US Coast Guard cadets? Driving home along the coast of Connecticut one winter's evening, Tido Holtkamp saw a ghost. There she was - moored in the harbour, her three towering masts, draped with those familiar sails he had rigged back in the German Navy in World War Two. Her body had been repainted in the red, white and blue of the US, but her curves...

‘A Liking for the Sea’ | JFK and the USCG Eagle Jul 21st, 2015 | Categories: Americana, Jared Paul Stern | by Jared Paul Stern A majestic sight greeted visitors to Portland, Maine’s waterfront the other day: the only active commissioned sailing vessel in American military service. The 295-ft. USCG Eagle, used as a training cutter for future officers of the United States Coast Guard, visited the city as part of the Tall Ships Portland Festival. The ship has a rather interesting history. Built as the German training vessel Horst Wessel in 1936, Adolf Hitler presided at its launch and...

Disney has just release its first trailer from its new film The Finest Hours, based on the remarkable true story of “the greatest small boat rescue in U.S. Coast Guard history.” The film tells the story of the SS Pendleton, a 10,448 gross ton “T2″ tanker which broke in half during a fierce nor’easter while off the coast of Cape Cod on February 18, 1952.

NEW LONDON, Conn. (Reuters) - Rising seas and thawing permafrost caused by warmer global temperatures threaten U.S. military bases and will change the way the U.S. armed services defend the country, President Barack Obama said on Wednesday. In a commencement address at the United States Coast Guard Academy, Obama underscored the risks to national security posed by climate change, one of his top priorities for action in his remaining 19 months in office. "The threat of a changing climate cuts to the very core of your service," Obama told the 224 graduating cadets, who studied the impacts of global warming...

MOBILE, AL (WALA) - One boater was rescued, but four were still missing as the United States Coast Guard searched the waters of Mobile Bay after sailing vessels participating in a Dauphin Island sailing regatta capsized during a storm. The Coast Guard Sector Mobile received the report at approximately 4:30 p.m. Saturday that the regatta was struck by severe weather causing multiple vessels to capsize and leaving multiple people on the water. The United States Coast Guard said 200 people were on 119 boats during the 57th annual iteration of the Dauphin Island Race.

Oregon Inlet is closed to vessels drawing more than 2 feet, essentially shutting down the charter fishing fleet with four days left in the bluefin tuna season and Easter week approaching. Petty Officer Kathryn Bruner with the Coast Guard in Wilmington said Saturday that the closing was prompted by the latest U.S. Army Corps of Engineers survey, which showed that search-and-rescue vessels can no longer get out of the inlet. Emergencies will be handled by helicopters out of the Coast Guard’s air station in Elizabeth City, she said. A buffer zone of 100 yards on either side of the Bonner...

Italy’s coastguard announced Friday that it would allow its 11,000 members to carry weapons, following threats from Islamic militants in Libya, and recent confrontation with traffickers. Up till now, the Italian coastguard has operated on a different status from the ordinary military or even that of police officers, who have the right to carry firearms. Now the coastguard will be on a similar footing. This represents a noteworthy acceleration of events and a heightened understanding of the gravity of the situation. Just two weeks ago, the general commander of the coast guard himself, Admiral Felicio Angrisano, had said that there...

GRAND HAVEN, MI - A suspect is in custody this morning after breaking into the U.S. Coast Guard Station in Grand Haven and assaulting Coast Guard personnel, according to a release by the Grand Haven Department of Public Safety. Per the release, the male suspect crashed his truck through the gate of the Grand Haven Coast Guard Station, 601 S. Harbor Drive, before breaking into the facility at approximately 6:07 a.m, on Sunday, Feb. 8. The U.S. Coast Guard Station in Grand Haven is located at 601 S. Harbor Drive. U.S. Coast Guard The suspect, whose name has not yet...

GRAND HAVEN, Mich. (WOOD)– Officers from the Grand Haven Department of Public Safety are investigating after a man crashed his truck through the Coast Guard Station Gate and assaulted U.S. Coast Guard personnel. This happened just after 6:00 a.m. Sunday. According to officials, the suspect broke into the station and threatened he had an explosive device in his truck. Authorities say all U.S. Coast Guard personnel are safe. At this time, Harbor Drive and the boardwalk are closed until further notice. Residents of Sand Piper Condos are advised to shelter in place. If you live there, stay in your residence...

Despite its status among progressives as a veritable model for health care reformers and proponents of egalitarianism, the joint announcement by President Barack Obama and Cuban dictator Raul Castro of the normalization of bilateral relations has resulted in a sharp uptick in the number of Cubans desperately fleeing the island in makeshift dinghies. Who could have possibly seen this coming?The Coast Guard is reporting an 117 percent spike in December in the number of Cubans fleeing the island nation by boat. On Monday alone, the Coast Guard returned 121 Cubans back to the custody of authorities in Havana. They...

(VIDEO-AT-LINK)PORT CANAVERAL, Fla. (WOFL FOX 35 ORLANDO) - The EOT Spar is a 300-foot-long cargo ship due in Port Canaveral just 17 days after leaving the port of Freetown, the capital of Sierra Leone in West Africa. The country has documented 5,235 Ebola cases so far, according to the World Health Organization. The U.S. Coast Guard says federal requirements already in place, as well as self-monitoring by the crew is enough to reduce risk to Central Floridians. The Coast Guard says it is in close communication with the EOT Spar, an American-flagged cargo ship out of Annapolis, Maryland. It's scheduled...

(VIDEO-AT-LINK) PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) — A U.S. Coast Guard sector says it will contact ships that have recently been to Ebola-affected countries to ask whether passengers have symptoms of the virus before they are allowed into port. The sector, which includes parts of New York and Connecticut, issued to the maritime community in Long Island Sound on Monday a bulletin that describes protocols being put into place due to the Ebola outbreak....

(U.S. Coast Guard photo) WWII veteran given Viking funeral; Coast Guard agreed to Norse send-off World War II veteran Andrew Haines decided years ago that he wanted a Norse-inspired funeral upon his death, and the U.S. Coast Guard obliged. Mr. Haines, who emigrated from Norway in 1927, scaled down blueprints for a 100-foot ship to a few feet in the years before he died. It was then up to the Coast Guard to decide whether it would ignite the boat and send-off Mr. Haines‘ cremated remains in accordance with his wishes. “Oh, I was thrilled,” Mr. Haines’ son Andy...

An investigative reporter whose private files were illegally seized during a raid on her home will receive $50,000 as part of a settlement with the Department of Homeland Security. Audrey Hudson, an award-winning journalist most recently at the Washington Times, told The Daily Signal she was awoken by her barking dog around 4:30 a.m. on Aug. 6, 2013, to discover armed government agents had descended on her property under the cover of darkness. The agents had a search warrant for her husband’s firearms. As they scoured the home, Hudson was read her Miranda rights. While inside Hudson’s house, a U.S....

<p>It was a fairly routine day at Michigan’s Coast Guard Station Saginaw River – until the telephone rang. It was Thursday afternoon, September 18.</p> <p>A baby eagle had been spotted in the water by the captain of a sailboat. The bird was in distress. It was wounded and could not get up.</p>

Lighthouses for sale! Actually, lots of lighthouses for free. Technological advances and a desire to purge unneeded properties have paved the way for the federal government to get rid of more than 100 lighthouses over the last 14 years, and it intends to keep selling and giving them away. The sold lighthouses, located on both coasts and in the Great Lakes states, have become everything from museums to bed-and-breakfasts. […] The federal General Services Administration, which sells the lighthouses, does not have a target number of how many lighthouses it would like to sell and give away, but the Coast...

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates - A U.S. Coast Guard vessel fired in self-defense on an Iranian boat in the Persian Gulf, the Navy said Wednesday, an encounter that could exacerbate tensions between the two countries as they work to hammer out a lasting deal over Iran's nuclear program. Cmdr. Kevin Stephens, a spokesman for the U.S. Navy's Bahrain-based 5th Fleet, said personnel on a small boat dispatched from the U.S. Coast Guard patrol boat Monomoy fired a single shot when it saw crew on a nearby Iranian dhow training one of its two .50-caliber machine guns on them and preparing...

On August 4, 1790, the United States Revenue Cutter Service was established by Alexander Hamilton, and eventually evolved into the United States Coast Guard. Today, we raise the current version of the Coast Guard Ensign in honor of all who serve.