Lifestyles

Coast Guard cutter slicing through the waters

Petty Officer Lauren Downs

The Changing Of The Guard

The USCG-1, formerly the 83300, escorted the first waves of landing craft into the Omaha assault area on D-Day morning. Her crew pulled 28 survivors from a sunken landing craft out of the English Channel right off the beaches before 0700, June 6, 1944.

U.S. National Archives

You’ve read the story of the U. S. Coast Guard’s Portsmouth, New Hampshire, station in the January/February 2008 edition of Heartland USA magazine. Now here are some interesting facts you may not have known…

1790

The Department of Treasury establishes the Coast Guard’s direct ancestor, the United States Revenue Cutter Service. This is the first armed maritime law enforcement service of a young America, with a fleet of cutters—ten years before the creation of the U.S. Navy.

The crew aboard the USCG-6 with the cutter’s unofficial insignia painted on their helmets.

U.S. National Archives

1915

The United States Coast Guard is officially established.

1939

The U.S. Lighthouse Service is brought under Coast Guard jurisdiction.

1944

The Coast Guard helps land troops on Normandy during D-Day Operations.

Coast Guard 83-footers speed to rescue: Two cutters of the now-famous Coast Guard invasion rescue flotilla, which saved the lives of hundreds of men in the icy channel waters off France, speed toward another rescue. The little cutters maintain an unceasing patrol off the invasion coast.

U.S. National Archives

1967

The Coast Guard moves from the Department of Treasury to the Department of Transportation.

2003

The Coast Guard is placed under the Department of Homeland Security, and is assigned to protect the United States from terrorist attacks and respond with aid during times of natural disaster.