USCG and WWII

[Blink309]

When most of you think of the US Coast guard, something like this comes to mind...

 

http://cdn.funnycorn..._guardian_l.jpg

 

 

In fact, the men and women of the Coast Guard have played their role in every major conflict since the birth of our country.  World War II is no exception.

 

Before the American entry into World War II, cutters of the Coast Guard patrolled the North Atlantic. In January 1940 President Roosevelt directed the establishment of the Atlantic Weather Observation Service using Coast Guard cutters and U.S. Weather Bureau observers.  After the invasion of Denmark by Germany in April, 1940, President Roosevelt ordered the International Ice Patrol to continue as a legal pretext to patrol Greenland, whose cryolite mines were vital to refining aluminum and whose geographic location allowed accurate weather forecasts to be made for Europe. The Greenland patrol was maintained by the Coast Guard for the duration of the war.

 

Shortly after Germany declared war on the United States, German submarines began Operation Drumbeat ("Paukenschlag"), sinking ships off the American coast. Many Coast Guard cutters were involved in rescue operations following German attacks on American shipping. The USCGC Icarus (WPC-110), a 165-foot (50 m) cutter that previously had been a rumrunner chaser during Prohibition, sank U-352 on 9 May 1942, off the coast of Charleston, South Carolina, and took 33 prisoners, the first Germans taken in combat by any U.S. force.  During the war the U.S. Navy credited Coast Guard forces with sinking or assisting in the sinking of thirteen of Hitler's U-boats.  U-157, U-175, U-352, U-371, U-550, U-606, U-626, U-853, U-857, U-866, U-869, I-12, RO-32.

 

Sinking of U-175

http://www.uscg.mil/...ry/img/U175.jpg

 

The Coast Guard-manned frigate USS Brownsville (PF-10) one of the 75 frigates manned by Coast Guard crews during World War II.

http://www.uscg.mil/...Brownsville.jpg

 

The campaign was not all one-sided as a number of cutters and Coast Guard-manned Navy warships were damaged or sunk by the enemy in both theatres of operation.  Some of the losses were heavy, including all hands of the weather ship U.S.S. Muskeget, all but two of the crew of U.S.S. Escanaba, C.G., and 158 out of 186 of the crew of U.S.S. Leopold.  The U.S.S. Alexander Hamilton, C.G., torpedoed and sunk in January, 1942, was the first U.S. naval vessel lost in combat after the tragic day at Pearl Harbor.  Other vessels were damaged in combat with U-boats, including the U.S.S. Campbell, C.G., and the U.S.S. Menges, but were salvaged and returned to duty.

 

The Coast Guard's first major participation in the Pacific war was at Guadalcanal. Here the service played a large part in the landings on the islands. So critical was their task that they were later involved in every major amphibious campaign during World War II. During the war, the Coast Guard manned over 350 ships and hundreds more amphibious type assault craft. It was in these ships and craft that the Coast Guard fulfilled one of its most important but least glamorous roles during the war--that is getting the men to the beaches.

 

http://www.uscg.mil/...iggett_LCVP.jpg

 

In the Second Battle of the Matanikau, part of the Guadalcanal Campaign, Douglas Munro was in charge of a detachment of ten boats which landed U.S. Marines at the scene. After successfully taking them ashore, he returned his boats to their previously assigned position and almost immediately learned that conditions ashore were different than had been anticipated and that it was necessary to evacuate the Marines immediately. Munro volunteered for the job and brought the boats to shore under heavy enemy fire, then proceeded to evacuate the men on the beach. When most of them were in the boats, complications arose in evacuating the last men, whom Munro realized would be in the greatest danger. He accordingly placed himself and his boats such that they would serve as cover for the last men to leave. It was thus that he was fatally wounded—protecting the men after he had evacuated them. He remained conscious sufficiently long only to say four words: "Did they get off?".  He is the only member of the Coast Guard to ever earn the Congressional Medal of Honor.

[Ariecho]

Thank you for letting us better understand what is behind this "forgotten" service. (+1)

[El3m3nttt]

Been a long time since I read a topic regarding the good ol' USCG thanks for posting this.

[sgtpepper500]

Nice information(+1)

[MM2ss]

Hey, the CG is even in Bahrain these days.  Those fellows do fine work, and while we might poke at them a bit, they do their part.

[Wunderwaffen1945]

nice aricle +1

[Blink309]

MM2ss, on 13 December 2012 - 06:22 PM, said:

Hey, the CG is even in Bahrain these days.  Those fellows do fine work, and while we might poke at them a bit, they do their part.

Bahrain, Kuwait, and Dubai as far as the middle east goes.

The US Coast Guard is partly responsible for the safety of the Port of Shuaiba in Kuwait, where nearly every piece of material for the Iraq / Afgan theater has entered the region since its re-capture in the first gulf war.

[Sampsonite]

Yes I am a retired "coastie" and I'm glad to see that someone recognized the part they played.

 

    Thank you all!!

[Appollosnos]

I just got around to watching some WW2 footage(collection of footage from national archives) and according to the overspeaker of the footage the Coast Guard also took part of retaking the Mariannas

[Windhover118]

What alot of people dont know is that in the early days of the United States, the Revenue Cutter service which eventually became the USCG was the only consistant naval pressence the US had. While the United States Navy is older than the Coast Gaurd, it went through periods of of construction and deconstruction, sometimes leaving the country without an actual Navy. The contributions made by the men and woman who serve and have served with the USCG cant be overstated.

[NargilFenris]

We are still in S. Korea and have been in Bahrain since 2003.

[Sampsonite]

Actually the US Coast Guard is older than the navy. United States Navy recognizes 13 October 1775 as the date of its official establishment, when the Continental Congress passed a resolution creating the Continental Navy. Soon after the end of the Revolutionary War, the last ship was sold and the Continental Navy was disbanded. Eleven years later, conflicts between American merchant shipping and pirates in the Mediterranean Sea led to the Naval Act of 1794, which created the U.S. Navy. The history of the United States Coast Guard goes back to the Revenue Cutter Service, which was founded on 4 August 1790 as part of the Department of the Treasury.

   So the fact that the navy was disbanded for eleven years actually makes the Coast Guard older even though the Navy's original date was first.

[Sampsonite]

I found out later through a retired Marine Corp Colonel that the Marines get a history lesson in Boot Camp of their service as we did too and Munro's sacrifice is in their service history. Having been in several base club inter service "skirimishes" I always noticed that in the process I was asked "what service" and once they found out we were Coasties, they never fought with us. Apparently the Marines have a special view of us, but I'll tell you I never met a Marine I didn't get along with.

 

That's what I love about this forum. It's like a history lesson every day.

[Blink309]

[NargilFenris]

Yeah the few marines I have come across didn't give us any grief. Usually I hear "I remember working with some Coasties, they were good guys to work/hang out with."

[Vyacheslav]

what is your Coast guard doing sailing all over the world O.o why doesnt it stay by the coast???? just wondered lol if someone could reply to this i would be grateful.

 

Vyach

[Windhover118]

Vyacheslav, on 15 December 2012 - 01:12 AM, said:

what is your Coast guard doing sailing all over the world O.o why doesnt it stay by the coast???? just wondered lol if someone could reply to this i would be grateful.

Vyach

The Coast Gaurd does stay by the coast, however, there is no rule says that coast has to be attached to the United States.

[Super_Dreadnought]

Vyacheslav, on 15 December 2012 - 01:12 AM, said:

what is your Coast guard doing sailing all over the world O.o why doesnt it stay by the coast???? just wondered lol if someone could reply to this i would be grateful.

Vyach

Because they are Americans, and sticking their noses into another nation's business is what they do?


:Smile_trollface:

[cmoneu]

Sempar Paratus - nice post  :Smile_honoring:

[Sampsonite]

In most instances the Coast Guard is involved in several missions but we here in the US only see the local parts. The small boats that go out and save lives are the ones that most people have seen so that's what they think we do. Foreign ship inspections of ships coming into the US and Pollution prevention are two other big ones that the public never see and they are major. Since 9/11 there are security teams in the major ports who are the local port security guys. Then there are the off shore missions, Drug intradicition, Migrant intradiction and border patrol are taking place in the Carribean and the southern coast of California every day. Then there are the Military readiness and force protection missions. USCG detachments and ships go out and deploy with the Navy and provide what they call force protection and military readiness where the CG provides security in foreign ports for US troops there, and military readiness is operating with the Navy usually to understand how the Navy operates because during time of war the CG falls under the control of the US Navy.  

   I think I covered it all so the Coast Guard has many missions which reminds me of one of our sayings " Doing more with less"

[NargilFenris]

Domestic and international ice breaking. From Great Lakes to Alaska, from North Pole to South Pole.

[Gohibniu]

Deadnought, on 15 December 2012 - 01:17 AM, said:

Because they are Americans, and sticking their noses into another nation's business is what they do?


:Smile_trollface:

That's a bit disingenuous. We wouldn't be having this conversation if Tojo, Stalin, Hitler or Mao had had their way with things.

[Sgt_Pork]

Go Coasties!