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WASHINGTON, Aug. 5, 2009 – Petty Officer 1st Class Joseph Ruggiero’s heroic actions more than five years ago saved lives and earned him the first Purple Heart awarded to a Coast Guardsman since the Vietnam War. Petty Officer 1st Class Joseph Ruggiero became the first Coast Guardsmen since the Vietnam War to earn the Purple Heart for valor. Courtesy photo   (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. Ruggiero entered the service May 1, 2000, not knowing what the future would hold for him. His father, who served in the U.S. Marines in Vietnam, also served in the federal government for...

U.S. Coast Guard Historian's Office Official WebsiteSemper Paratus - the US Coast Guard anthem

Please join us in the campaign to show Gratitude to our US Military. Go the following link to the Gratitude Campaign and email the link to everyone you know: THE GRATITUDE FOR OUR MILITARY CAMPAIGNLet's show our military how grateful we are for their service all over this country. It's a neat video you can download to distribute in emails, thumbdrives, and any other way you can too. Thank you.

PASCAGOULA -- First lady Michelle Obama will sponsor the Coast Guard's third Legend-class national security cutter, which is about 25 percent complete at Northrop Grumman Shipbuilding's Pascagoula yard, officials said Monday. In August 2007, the Coast Guard awarded Northrop Grumman a $285.5 million contract to construct the Stratton. The 418-foot cutter, WMSL 752, is named in honor of Dorothy C. Stratton, the first female commissioned officer in the Coast Guard. Stratton served as director of the SPARS, the Guard's women's reserve, during World War II.

The keel for the new National Security Cutter Stratton — which will be a sister ship of theCutter Berthoff, seen here on her builder’s trials — was laid Monday at Northrop GrummanShipbuilding in Pascagoula. PASCAGOULA — First lady Michelle Obama will serve as the sponsor of the third National Security Cutter, Stratton. Officials celebrated the ship’s construction Monday as the U.S. Coast Guard and Northrop Grumman laid the ship’s keel at the Pascagoula shipyard. Rear Adm. Ronald J. Rábago announced at the ceremony that Obama will serve as the Stratton’s sponsor and she will attend the christening ceremony at...

USGS HomeContact USGSSearch USGS Earthquake Hazards Program  HomeEarthquake CenterRegional InformationAbout EarthquakesResearch & MonitoringOther Resources You are here: Home » Earthquake Center » Latest Earthquakes - World » Magnitude 7.8 - OFF WEST COAST OF THE SOUTH ISLAND, N.Z. Latest Earthquakes USAWorldEQ Notification Service Feeds & DataAnimations Recent Earthquakes:Last 8-30 DaysEarthquake Archives Lists & MapsSearch EQ DatabaseEQ Summary PostersScientific Data About EQ MapsDid You Feel It?Fast Moment TensorsMedia InfoPAGERSeismogram DisplaysShakeMaps Magnitude 7.8 - OFF WEST COAST OF THE SOUTH ISLAND, N.Z. 2009 July 15 09:22:32 UTC Versión en Español DetailsSummaryMapsScientific & TechnicalAdditional Info Where can I find...? Earthquake Details Magnitude...

An MH-60 Jayhawk helicopter crew from Air Station Kodiak prepares the rescue of a French kayaker from the Bering Sea Saturday July 4, 2009. The crew hoisted Jean Gabriel Shelala, 28, from his kayak 40 miles north of St. Lawrence Island at about 4:15 p.m. The 28-year-old is attempting to circumnavigate the world using a specially designed kayak. He departed from Emmonak on June 27. Chelala is reportedly in good condition, but asked for the assistance Saturday. (AP Photo/US Coast Guard - Brian Myers)

WASHINGTON, D.C. - House Coast Guard & Maritime Transportation Ranking Member Frank A. LoBiondo (NJ-02) has introduced legislation to provide immunity to U.S. merchant mariners who wound or kill pirates while responding to a pirate attack. H.R. 2984, the "U.S. Mariner and Vessel Protection Act," was introduced in response to the recent hijacking of the U.S.-flagged Maersk Alabama by Somali pirates, during which the pirates kidnapped the ship's captain. The bill directs the U.S. Coast Guard to certify firearms training for merchant mariners on U.S.-flagged merchant vessels. Any trained mariner using force and the owner, operator or master of said...

      ~The FReeper Canteen Presents~ Happy Birthday United States Coast Guard Auxiliary! Semper Paratus The United States Coast Guard Auxiliary was established on June 23, 1939 by an act of Congress as the United States Coast Guard Reserve and re-designated as the Auxiliary on February 19, 1941. The mission of the U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary is to contribute to the safety and security of our citizens, ports, waterways and coastal regions, as directed by the United States Coast Guard. On June 23, 1939, Congress established the Coast Guard Reserve, a volunteer civilian organization, to promote boating safety and...

Canada and the U.S. signed an agreement Monday designed to increase border security by allowing the RCMP and the U.S. Coast Guard to team up and ride in each others' vessels during border patrols. Known as the Shiprider program, the new rules intend to improve security and eliminate jurisdictional grey areas in Canada-U.S. waterways. Without the new program, vessels must stop at the border and call upon the other country's officials for help. The Shiprider program has been used as a pilot program over the past few years to catch smugglers and criminals on joint waterways. Public Safety Minister Peter...

SAN DIEGO — The Coast Guard says a Navy helicopter with five people aboard has crashed into the ocean 13 miles south of San Diego near the Coronado Islands.

The Coast Guard says a Navy helicopter with five people aboard has crashed into the ocean 13 miles south of San Diego near the Coronado Islands. More Navy Copter Down (from AP) Prayers up.prisoner6

WASHINGTON, May 18, 2009 – A North American Aerospace Defense Command exercise designed to test the command’s aerospace defense capabilities in the national capital area has been rescheduled after inclement weather last week forced its postponement. Exercise Falcon Virgo, originally planned for the May 15-16 overnight period, now is scheduled for May 19-20. Air Force F-16 Fighting Falcon jets, Coast Guard Dolphin choppers and Civil Air Patrol Cessnas will participate in the exercise over the nation’s capital and its suburbs. A number of Falcon Virgo exercises have taken place since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, officials said. The most...

FORT LAUDERDALE, Florida (Reuters) – The U.S. Coast Guard will require U.S.-flagged ships sailing around the Horn of Africa to post guards and ship owners to submit anti-piracy security plans for approval, a Coast Guard official said on Tuesday. The new requirements, which respond to a surge of piracy off the coast of Somalia, allow ship owners to decide whether to use armed or unarmed guards, Coast Guard Rear Admiral James Watson told shipping industry representatives at a maritime security meeting in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. The revised Maritime Security Directive, highly anticipated by the shipping industry, was signed on Monday...

NEW LONDON, Conn. - The U.S. Coast Guard Academy says Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano will give the keynote speech at the Connecticut school's 128th commencement next month. The graduation ceremony is set for May 20 at the New London campus. --snip-- Napolitano was on CNN's "State of the Union" show Sunday defending an intelligence report by her agency that veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan could be susceptible to recruitment by right-wing extremists.

WASHINGTON, April 15, 2009 – Somali pirates fired on a U.S.-flagged merchant vessel south of the Gulf of Aden today, military officials reported. Pirates attacked the motor vessel Liberty Sun with small arms and rocket-propelled grenades. The crew put out a distress call received by the U.S. Coast Guard. “The pirates were not successful in their attempt to board the vessel,” said Navy Lt. Nate Christensen, a spokesman for the Navy’s 5th Fleet in Bahrain. “The USS Bainbridge, [which] was in the general vicinity, responded to ensure Liberty Sun wasn’t in peril.” The pirates had fled by the time the...

Bogota (AP) - It's a game played out regularly on the high seas off Colombia's Pacific coast: A U.S. Navy helicopter spots a vessel the size of a humpback whale gliding just beneath the water's surface. A Coast Guard ship dispatches an armed team to board the small, submarine-like craft in search of cocaine. Crew members wave and jump into the sea to be rescued, but not before they open flood valves and send the fiberglass hulk and its cargo into the deep. Colombia has yet to make a single arrest in such scuttlings because the evidence sinks with the...

Attempts to free a stuck anchor caused the boat carrying four football players to turn over and capsize, according to a report released by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission on Friday. According to the report, the problems for the boaters started when they attempted to pull their anchor up so they could head back to port.

NASSAU, Bahamas, March 10, 2009 – Coast Guardsmen from District 7, Tactical Law Enforcement Detachment, are taking part in Tradewinds 2009, a U.S. Southern Command-sponsored exercise designed to increase maritime security. Coast Guard Chief Petty Officer Gustavo Tirado demonstrates defensive techniques during compliant boarding training for servicemembers from the Dominican Republic Defence Forces at Royal Bahamas Defence Force Base in Coral Harbour, Bahamas, March 6, 2009. U.S. Marine Corps photo by Sgt. Sheila M. Brooks  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. The Coast Guardsmen trained servicemembers from partner nations in compliant and noncompliant boarding March 6 to 8 at...

MANAMA, Bahrain, March 9, 2009 – U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Boutwell left Karachi, Pakistan, today after a four-day port visit to participate in the international naval exercise Aman 2009, marking the first time a U.S. ship has pulled into Pakistan since May. The 10-day exercise, which began March 5, focuses on air, surface and maritime security training. It includes representatives from 38 countries, as well as ships from 11 nations that include the United States, United Kingdom, Pakistan and Australia. The at-sea portion of the exercise is being conducted primarily in the North Arabian Sea, off the coast of Pakistan....