According to Coast Guard historian Robert L. Scheina, Coast Guard cutters, boats, and aircraft rescued more than 1,500 survivors of torpedo attacks in areas adjacent to the United States. Cutters on escort duty saved another 1,000, and more than 1,500 were rescued during the Normandy operation by 60 83-foot patrol craft specifically assigned to that duty.

During the Korean War, the Coast Guard remained a part of the Treasury Department, but operated some Navy ships taken out of mothballs and established air detachments and weather stations throughout the Pacific theater. A Coast Guard cadre stationed in Korea helped establish and train the Korean coast guard, which later evolved into the Republic of Korea navy.

The Coast Guard served with distinction in the Vietnam War, with 17 82-foot patrol boats operating as part of the U.S. Navy Coastal Surveillance Force. Chief Boatswain’s Mate Richard H. Patterson was serving on the CGC Point Welcome in 1966 when the cutter came under attack by friendly aircraft in August in waters off South Vietnam. The first attack resulted in a fuel fire on the fantail that threatened the ship. Patterson took charge of the situation and used a fire hose to force the flaming gasoline overboard. A second aircraft attack shot up the pilot house, killing the cutter’s commanding officer and seriously wounding the executive officer and the helmsman. Patterson climbed to the bridge, assumed command, directed the movement of the wounded to the below-decks area, and maneuvered the cutter at high speed to avoid further attacks, eventually bringing the Point Welcome close to shore and getting the crew off the ship and safely into the water.

When Iraq invaded Kuwait on Aug. 1, 1990, the Coast Guard once again answered the call to perform military duties. The service’s law enforcement detachments (LEDETs) helped to enforce United Nations sanctions by the maritime interdiction forces. Approximately 60 percent of the 600 boardings carried out by U.S. forces were either led by or supported with LEDETs.

In 2004, USS Firebolt (PC 10) was patrolling the Northern Arabian Gulf protecting Iraq’s oil terminals there. A rigid-hulled inflatable boat with a Navy and Coast Guard boarding team attempted to board a dhow that was within the security zone around the Khawr Al Amaya Oil Terminal. The dhow was apparently on a suicide mission and blew up, killing two sailors and one Coast Guardsman, Petty Officer 3rd Class Nathan B. Bruckenthal, who became the first Coast Guardsman to die in military action since the Vietnam War.

 

Layered Security and Response

As one of America’s armed forces, the Coast Guard today is called upon to operate far out to sea on a continuous basis for months at a time in extreme conditions, and so requires modern platforms, sensors, and real-time command, control, and communication network connectivity. These forces will be fully interoperable with the Navy and other services, as well as federal, state, and local law enforcement partners, including elements of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), together providing a layered defense of the United States.

The Coast Guard’s layered security and response strategy optimally positions Coast Guard shore-based, maritime patrol and deployable specialized forces in the offshore and high seas, coastal, and inland maritime environments, said Deputy Commandant for Operations Vice Adm. Charles Michel in June 2014. Speaking to the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, Subcommittee on Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation, Michel said the service seeks to interdict or prevent threats early before they reach the nation’s shores and improve the ability to respond to contingency or surge operations.

For those threats that cannot be stopped overseas, U.S. forces – and in particular the Coast Guard and the Navy – must be able to intercept them on the open ocean, before they blend, with the thousands of commercial vessels, fishermen, or the tens of thousands of pleasure boats.

“Although we have an important international footprint, this strategy focuses the majority of our forces in the Western Hemisphere. This focus is by design, given the shift of resources to other regions by other agencies such as the Department of Defense, as well as the challenges related to climate change, particularly in the Arctic region,” Michel said. “We continue to work with the U.S. Navy, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, and the DHS Science & Technology Directorate to leverage their existing programs to develop cutter- and land-based unmanned aerial systems [UAS] to supplement manned aircraft to meet maritime surveillance requirements. Following the completion of a three-phased demonstration of small UAS, the Coast Guard recently conducted market research in support of a project to acquire small UAS capabilities for the national security cutter fleet.”

 

National Maritime Strategy

Released in 2007, “A Cooperative Strategy for 21st Century Seapower” was jointly issued by all three U.S. maritime forces.

The unified maritime strategy set forth how to apply seapower – with other elements of national power, as well as those of our friends and allies – around the world to protect our way of life. The Coast Guard was and is very much a part of this strategy. “The Sea Services will establish a persistent global presence using distributed forces that are organized by mission and comprised of integrated Navy, Marine Corps, and Coast Guard capabilities. …”