My Coast Guard News

Joe Rodriguez operating in the field with the Drug Interdiction Assist Team or DIAT. (Coast Guard Tactical Law Enforcement Association)

Jan. 17, 2025

Jose Luis “Joe” Rodriguez

Hero and Hispanic American trailblazer of the Coast Guard.

In 2009, members of LEDET 409 detained suspected pirates in the Gulf of Aden as part of Combined Task Force 151. (U.S. Coast Guard)

Jan. 10, 2025

LEDETs — Over 40 years of law enforcement boarding missions

Rapid growth of illegal narcotics smuggling by sea drove the need for highly trained boarding teams.

The aft section of the wreck of the Selendang Ayu photographed against the backdrop of Unalaska Island. (NOAA)

Jan. 3, 2025

AST3 Aaron Bean and the Selendang Ayu disaster

Fighting adverse conditions, crews from Kodiak rescued all but six of the sailors.

German prisoners march out of surrendered Cherbourg under U.S. Army guard. (U.S. Navy)

Dec. 27, 2024

Quentin Walsh — D-Day planner and Cherbourg liberator

Walsh’s career spans some of the most eventful years in USCG history, including Prohibition, World War II and the post-war modernization of the service.

LST-66 (to the right) unloading tanks in July 1944, months before the epic battle of Leyte Gulf, Philippines. (Navsource.org)

Dec. 20, 2024

80th Anniversary of the Leyte liberation

The story of the Christmas liberation of the Philippines.

Coast Guard Cutter Active pictured with an interdicted “fastboat.” By 1990, smugglers had shifted to long-range fastboats as the primary transport platform for cocaine smuggling. (U.S. Coast Guard)

Dec. 13, 2024

Enforcing the law at sea

With a seizure of opium near San Francisco Bay in 1886, the fight against maritime drug smuggling began, and continues to this day.

Grimy marines return to the Arthur Middleton for rest and recovery after the Battle of Eniwetok. (National Archives)

Dec. 6, 2024

Hoyle’s Hell

Coast Guardsman masters the bloody beaches of the Pacific.

BMCM Poulin is honored as part of the 2018 Memorial Day Parade for Nahant, Massachusetts. (Courtesy of the Poulin family)

Nov. 29, 2024

BMCM Maurice Poulin, World War II veteran

This essay is based on the author’s interview with retired master chief and World War II veteran, Maurice Poulin, regarding his World War II experiences.

1894 photograph of Keeper Lawson surrounded by his NWU student surfmen. (Courtesy of NWU Deering Library)

Nov. 22, 2024

Lawrence Lawson’s Thanksgiving Day rescue

"Thanksgiving Day 1889 will doubtless ever be remembered by the crew of Calumet... for on this day the student surfmen of Northwestern and their fearless keeper kept them from a watery grave."

-Coast Guard photograph of Seaman First Class Sophia Thadei in uniform. (National Personnel Records Center, National Archives)
-Photograph of the Rogers Mansion in Charleston, which housed the District Coast Guard Office during World War II. (Library of Congress)

Nov. 15, 2024

An Alaska Native SPAR - The Story of Seaman First Class Sophia Thadei

Sophia Thadei was among the first Native American women to wear the Coast Guard uniform.