My Coast Guard
Results:
Tag: The Long Blue Line

Color engraving of the Battle of Lake Erie by Murray Draper and Company, circa 1813. (Naval History and Heritage Command)

April 12, 2024

Dobbins and Knapp — Frontier mariners, naval officers, and Revenue Cutter masters

The revolving-door saga of Dobbins versus Knapp ... a pendulum of political spoils.

A newspaper headshot of LT Altson J. Wilson in dress uniform. (H. Lee White Maritime Museum) A rare antique photo of a Coast Guard motor lifeboat broaching heavy seas in the surf zone. (U.S. Life-Saving Service Heritage Association)

April 5, 2024

“Get in the boat; we have a job to do!” — BOSN Wilson motors into the Great New England Hurricane

This motor lifeboat was the right tool for a terrible storm such as this, and the man at the helm was the best man for this catastrophe. The feeling of the men on board was: If you can hang on, you may survive.

A photograph of the U.S. Life Saving Service crew posing with its surfboat in front of U.S. Life-Saving Station at St. Joseph, Michigan, from the Digital Collections of the Detroit Public Library.

March 29, 2024

Joseph Napier — Heroic Surfman, Gold Lifesaving Medal recipient and FRC namesake

For his heroism, Napier received the first Gold Lifesaving Medal issued by the U.S. Life-Saving Service, forerunner of the modern Coast Guard.

An official portrait photograph of BM1 Bernie Webber in his dress blues. (U.S. Coast Guard) A painting by Richard Kaiser of CG-36500 in heavy seas nearing the broken stern half of the Pendleton (depicted in the background). (U.S. Coast Guard)

March 22, 2024

Bernard “Bernie” Webber and the greatest smallboat rescue in Coast Guard history

Divine intervention, dead reckoning and plain luck have all been trumpeted as ways Bernie’s crew found the Pendleton that night.

An official portrait photograph of Dorothy C. Stratton seated in her office at Coast Guard Headquarters shortly before her retirement in 1946. (U.S. Coast Guard) A World War II photo of Stratton meets with members of the Coast Guard’s Women’s Reserve of SPARs. (U.S. Coast Guard)

March 8, 2024

Dorothy Stratton — Wartime Coast Guard trailblazer and SPAR Leader

Capt. Stratton had the unique distinction of serving her country through three of the women’s branches of U.S. Armed Forces and became the director of the newly formed Coast Guard Women's Reserve, SPARS.

A formal seated photograph showing a vigorous Isaac Mayo later in life. (U.S. Coast Guard) Image of the Massachusetts Humane Society. Modeled after the British Royal Humane Society, the Massachusetts Humane Society’s work ultimately served as a model for the U.S. Life-Saving Service and eventually the U.S. Coast Guard.

March 1, 2024

Isaac Mayo — Surfman, Gold Life-Saving Medal recipient and FRC namesake

On Nov. 10, 1879, Congress awarded Mayo the Gold Life Saving Medal for his bravery and successful actions leading the crew of volunteer surfmen in the rescue of the four survivors off the wreck of the Sarah J. Fort.

A March 1959 color photo of LTJG Bobby Wilks posing in front of an HU-16E “Albatross” fixed-wing amphibian aircraft. (U.S. Coast Guard)

Feb. 23, 2024

Bobby Wilks — distinguished aviator, mentor, and minority trailblazer

“I was in awe of him, as not only he was the first senior ranking African American officer at that time, but also an aviator. He shared with me the challenges, which he was quick to call them opportunities, that he took full advantage of that mapped out his successful Coast Guard career.” - MCPOCG Vincent W. Patton (Ret.)

A rare vintage painting of the all-African American crew of the Pea Island Life-Saving Service Station, circa 1896. (U.S. Coast Guard)

Feb. 16, 2024

Lewis Wescott—the lost grave of a heroic Pea Island lifesaver

A discovery uncovers the whereabouts of a Pea Island Keeper, one whose last resting place was lost for more than 70 years.

Color image of a Coast Guard HH-52 “Seaguard” helicopter similar to the ones crewed by CWO Melvin Williams during his distinguished Coast Guard aviation career. (U.S. Coast Guard) Retired Chief Warrant Officer Melvin W. Williams, Jr., seated in his office pointing to pictures from his career in Coast Guard aviation. (Courtesy of Jennifer Kirsop, U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs)

Feb. 9, 2024

Melvin Williams Jr. — An African American Coast Guardsman’s aviation story

Melvin Williams Jr. was the first African American to make chief as an Aviation Survivalman and then as a Chief Warrant Officer.

Coast Guard cutter Reliance conducting helicopter operations circa 1964. (U.S. Coast Guard photo). Coast Guard cutter Diligence shown with the prototype “racing stripe” painted on the bow in December 1966. (Coast Guard Historian’s Archive). The extensive accommodation for helicopter operations is shown by this photo of third-in-class 210 cutter Vigilant. (U.S. Coast Guard photo) A Coast Guard HH-52A launched from Diligence hovers over the Gemini III space capsule in 1965. (U.S. Navy National Museum of Naval Aviation photo)

Jan. 12, 2024

Built to Last - The early days of the 210-foot cutter fleet

The two leading ships of the 210-foot Reliance-class cutters, Coast Guard cutters Reliance and Diligence, will turn 60 years old in June and August of this year, respectively.