X-Nico

30 unusual facts about United States Coast Guard


1939 California tropical storm

Out at sea, the Coast Guard and Navy conducted rescue operations, saving dozens of people.

Baseball cap

Some armed forces also use baseball caps as part of their uniforms, especially the United States Navy and United States Coast Guard.

Berlin Charter Township, Michigan

The Detroit River Light is within the township's water boundaries, although the station is under the jurisdiction of the United States Coast Guard.

Broadkill River

The United States Coast Guard maintains a station near the mouth of the Broadkill.

Coast Guard Air Station Sacramento

Coast Guard Air Station Sacramento is an Air Station of the United States Coast Guard, located in Sacramento County, California.

Columbia River Maritime Museum

Visitors may experience what it is like to pilot a tugboat, participate in a Coast Guard rescue on the Columbia River Bar, and live in Astoria during the height of salmon fishing.

Edwin Louis Cole

He enlisted in the United States Coast Guard during World War II, where he met his wife, fellow Coast Guard member Nancy Corbett.

Great Duck Island, Maine

The island was inhabited year-round from sometime after 1837 when William Gilley purchased the island, until 1986 when the Coast Guard left and the lighthouse was automated.

Haiku Stairs

When the Naval base was decommissioned in the 1950s, the United States Coast Guard used the site for an Omega Navigation System station.

Haiku Valley

The valley was the site of a United States Navy radio transmitting station (later taken over by the Coast Guard as an OMEGA Navigation System station) and is part of the route of Hawaii's Interstate H-3.

John Macionis

He served as a commissioned officer in the United States Coast Guard during World War II, attaining the rank of lieutenant commander.

John Mariucci

He would lose three seasons to the war (1942-43 through 1944-45), but would play two seasons for the United States Coast Guard in the Eastern Amateur Hockey League.

Keweenaw Underwater Preserve

One of the most recent large boats on the Great Lakes to be a total loss, the former United States Coast Guard cutter Mesquite, grounded off Keweenaw in 1989 and is now a diveable wreck in this preserve.

Lillian Ngoyi-class environmental inshore patrol vessels

The United States Coast Guard later decided to construct several dozen Sentinel Class cutters, also based on the Damen Stan patrol vessel 4708 design, citing the success of the South African vessels.

Nahant Life-Saving Station

The station, which consists of a residence and an equipment building, was established in 1900 by the United States Life-Saving Service before being taken over by the United States Coast Guard in 1915.

Navy League of the United States

The Navy League of the United States, commonly referred to as The Navy League, is a national association with nearly 50,000 members who advocate for a strong, credible United States Navy, United States Marine Corps, United States Coast Guard and U.S. Merchant Marine.

New London Union Station

Beginning in 2010, Union Station was considered a possible site for the United States Coast Guard Museum, which would have added a glass atrium north of the main station building as well as a pedestrian bridge over the tracks to a second waterfront building.

Non-judicial punishment

The U.S. Navy and the U.S. Coast Guard call non-judicial punishment captain's mast or admiral's mast, depending on the rank of the commanding officer.

Northeastern Maritime Historical Foundation

The former United States Coast Guard icebreaker USCG Snohomish was leased in 2005 to serve as a commercial icebreaker.

Portland Rose Festival

During Fleet Week, ships from United States Navy, Coast Guard, Army Corps of Engineers and the Royal Canadian Navy dock along the seawall of Tom McCall Waterfront Park.

Samuel S. Cox

He was a backer of the Life Saving Service, later merged into the United States Coast Guard.

Satan's Triangle

The plot involves a United States Coast Guard helicopter sent to answer a distress call from inside the Bermuda Triangle.

Shore Line East

There are plans to increase the service to New London, which is limited by U.S. Coast Guard requirements regarding the bridge crossing the Connecticut River.

Storm Stories

Coast Guard Storm Stories: details the United States Coast Guard and their work during natural disasters, including Hurricane Katrina.

The Missing Chums

After notifying the United States Coast Guard, the boys gain permission from Chief Collig to search for the criminals in the Sleuth, but the boys discover the Sleuth has been stolen.

Thumb Area Bottomland Preserve

As in most of the Great Lakes, most of the shipwrecks predate the consolidation of federal marine safety services into the United States Coast Guard in 1915.

Weeks Marine

The company performed salvage and dredging work, installed navigational aids for the United States Coast Guard, and even constructed a breakwater to protect the air shaft leading from the Brooklyn–Battery Tunnel to Governors Island.

William A. Newell

He is probably best known for, and was most proud of, the Newell Act, which created the United States Life-Saving Service (a Federal agency that grew out of private and local humanitarian efforts to save the lives of shipwrecked mariners and passengers; which ultimately merged with the Revenue Cutter Service to form the United States Coast Guard in 1915).

William J. Kossler Award

The award consists of one certificate for the selected individual or crew and honors the memory of William J. Kossler, a U.S. Coast Guard airman, aeronautical engineer and early advocate of helicopters in USCG operations.

Winter Island

The main attractions of the park are the historic Fort Pickering, the Fort Pickering Lighthouse, Salem Harbor, a boat launching ramp, and the former Coast Guard seaplane hangar and barracks.


142d Fighter Wing

The United States Coast Guard performed a search using two HH-60 Jayhawks, two Coast Guard Cutters, and one HC-130 Hercules.

ANT Coos Bay

The United States Coast Guard Aids To Navigation Team, ANT Coos Bay was established in 1976 and is located near the mouth of Coos Bay in the fishing and tourist community of Charleston, Oregon, southwest of the city of Coos Bay.

CBP Office of Air and Marine

Providing support to agencies and multi-jurisdictional task forces such as ICE Homeland Security Investigations, the United States Secret Service, Customs and Border Protection, the United States Coast Guard, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, National Special Security Events, and Joint Interagency Task Force South account for the bulk of OAM operations.

Charles Sexton

Charles Sexton, a United States Coast Guard machinery technician, died during the rescue of fishermen stranded off the treacherous Columbia River bar.

Coast Guard Honor Guard Badge

The Coast Guard Honor Guard Badge is a qualification badge of the United States Coast Guard which recognizes those personnel who are/have been permanently assigned to the Ceremonial Honor Guard Unit of a U.S. Coast Guard command located at TISCOM, Alexandria, Virginia.

Coast Guard Station Provincetown

United States Coast Guard Station Provincetown is a United States Coast Guard station located in Provincetown, Massachusetts.

Color guard

Typically these include a unit flag and a departmental flag (Army, Marines, Navy, Air Force, or Coast Guard).

Dana, Indiana

Although miles from any major body of water, Dana was home to a Coast Guard LORAN navigation transmitter station until it was closed in 2010.

Differential GPS

The United States Department of Transportation, in conjunction with the Federal Highway Administration, the Federal Railroad Administration and the National Geodetic Survey appointed the Coast Guard as the maintaining agency for the U.S. Nationwide DGPS network (NDGPS).

Erie Harbor North Pier Light

The United States Coast Guard, which operates the beacon, changed its fixed red beam to an automated red flashing light in 1995, at which time the 4th order Fresnel lens was sent to the Erie Maritime Museum.

Gregory R. Dahlberg

In 1981, he joined the staff of the United States House Appropriations Subcommittee on Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies, a subcommittee of the United States House Committee on Appropriations; there, he worked on the budgets of the Federal Highway Administration, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the Urban Mass Transportation Administration, Amtrak, Conrail, and the United States Coast Guard.

Gulfstream III

C-20B - United States Air Force and United States Coast Guard variant with upgraded electronics, used for Operational Support Airlift (OSA) and Special Assignment Airlift Missions (SAAM); the single Coast Guard C-20B was used by the Commandant of the Coast Guard and other senior USCG officials as well as the Secretary of Homeland Security.

Keith Kerr

Also coming out in the interview were Brigadier General Virgil A. Richard of the Army and Rear Admiral Alan M. Steinman of the United States Coast Guard.

Mare Island Naval Shipyard

The Navy is also transferring property at the shipyard to other government agencies such as Fish and Wildlife Service refuge, a Forest Service office building, an Army Reserve Center, a Coast Guard communications facility, and a Department of Education school.

Niagara Scow

Since a rescue boat was out of the question, the Niagara Falls (Ontario) Fire Department tried using a grappling gun to shoot a life line out towards the barge, from atop the roof of the Toronto Power House while awaiting the arrival of the US Coast Guard from Youngstown, New York to bring a heavier grappling gun.

San Jacinto Ordnance Depot

Captains of the Ports of Houston and Galveston objected to its location close to manufacturing plants, shipyards and an oil refinery, but the US Coast Guard approved the project.

Seaside Municipal Airport

Other operations include training flights from Astoria and the Willamette Valley, charter flights, US Coast Guard, and Air National Guard operations.

Tillamook Bay

During the July 4th weekend of 1980 Richard Dixon the United States Coast Guard coxswain of a 44 motor lifeboat lead two daring rescues off the Tillamook Bay breakwater, for which he was awarded two Coast Guard Medals.

United States Coast Guard Auxiliary

The United States Coast Guard Auxiliary (USCG Aux) is the uniformed volunteer component of the United States Coast Guard ("USCG").

United States Naval Aviator

Coast Guard Officers receive their commissions either from the United States Coast Guard Academy or Coast Guard Officer Candidate School, both located in New London, Connecticut; or via the United States Merchant Marine Academy in Kings Point, NY.

USCGC Sherman

Two ships of the United States Coast Guard or its antecedent services have borne the name Sherman, in honor of John Sherman (1823–1900), who was Secretary of the Treasury during the Hayes administration (1877–1881).

Wetting-down

Wetting-down is a raucous ceremony for newly promoted officers observed in the U.S. and Royal navies, and the U.S. Coast Guard.