For a number of years, we have printed a calendar for our students serving in the armed forces.  In previous years, the theme for the pictures was “Our Athletes Don’t Play Games” with pictures of service members provided by the Department of Defense and Department of Homeland Security.  This year, we altered the theme to “A University of Heroes.”  Somehow in the changing of the theme and printing format, our marketing department left out the Coast Guard.  This was an inadvertent, but unfortunate error and we are reprinting the calendar.  The Coast Guard is the only branch of the Armed Services that resides outside of the Pentagon although it reports to the U.S. Navy in times of war or at the direction of the President.  There are approximately 40,000 men and women who serve on active duty with the Coast Guard.   For a short history of the Coast Guard, please see my birthday greeting article.

Meanwhile, students, alumni, and friends who are members of the Coast Guard, please accept my apologies.  Please also accept my sincere thanks for the many efforts that you engage in daily to keep our nation’s ports and waterways safe for all.

By 1775, the tenuous relationship between the British and the American colonies was at a breaking point.  The colonists were enraged by what they saw as unfair treatment at the hands of the British government.  The British boasted the most superior naval force in the world, and the colonists faced the daunting challenge of asserting American independence without a centralized naval fighting force.  On October 13, 1775, the Continental Congress, meeting in Philadelphia, voted to outfit two seafaring vessels.  The vessels were to be armed with ten carriage guns, swivel guns and a total crew of just fewer than two hundred men; their mission would be to intercept British naval ships carrying supplies and munitions to the British army in America.  These two ships would be the first of the United States Navy.

The debate over establishing the United States Navy was long and arduous.  Many felt that the endeavor was a fruitless waste of funds; they believed that the British Navy was far too superior for the United States to even compete.  Others, including John Adams of Massachusetts, were fervent supporters of the development of an American naval force.  It was not until the Congress received intelligence that two British ships were on their way from England to Quebec, unarmed and without a protection convoy that the pro-naval advocates began to gain support.  The vulnerability of the two British ships seemed too good an opportunity to allow pass.  Within only a few days of receiving the information, the Congress authorized the outfitting of the two American vessels.

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On August 4, 1790, Congress authorized the construction of ten vessels to “enforce tariff and trade laws and to prevent smuggling.”  Organized as the Revenue Cutter Service, the Coast Guard is the oldest continuous seagoing service in the United States.  In 1915, the Revenue Cutter Service was merged with the U.S. Life-Saving Service to become the modern Coast Guard.  In 1939, the Lighthouse Service was transferred to the Coast Guard and in 1946, the Bureau of Marine Inspection and Navigation was transferred to the Coast Guard.  In 2003, the U.S.C.G. was made a division of the newly created Department of Homeland Security.

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