|
 “Were
such a reminder necessary, I feel sure that the splendid record of
its forbear, the Revenue-Cutter Service, in all the previous wars in
which this country has engaged, would serve as an incentive to the
officers and men of the present Coast Guard to maintain unsullied
its past reputation for heroic deeds in battling the Nation’s
enemies.” U.S Secretary of Treasury William McAdoo
McAdoo wrote the above words to U.S. Coast Guard Commandant
Ellsworth Bertholf on Friday, April 6, 1917, the day Congress
declared war on Germany.
That same day, the U.S. Navy’s communications center in
Arlington, Virginia, transmitted the code words “Plan One,
Acknowledge” to Coast Guard cutters, units and bases throughout the
United States. This coded message initiated the service’s transfer
from the Treasury Department to the Navy placing the service on a
wartime footing.
Prior to World War I, President William Taft’s
administration had nearly disestablished the U.S. Revenue
Cutter service, the Coast Guard’s predecessor service, as a
cost-cutting measure. Taft proposed to dismantle the service
and distribute its assets and missions between the Navy and
other federal agencies. But contemporary events convinced
American political leaders to scrap this plan. In April
1912, the Royal Mail Ship Titanic struck an iceberg and sank
in the North Atlantic. The accidental sinking of this
“unsinkable” passenger liner and the consequent loss of life
shocked the public on both sides of the Atlantic, initiating
the 1913 Safety of Life at Sea Convention in England and the
establishment of the International Ice Patrol. Originally
supported by the Navy, this patrol tracked icebergs and
reported their location to ships in the North Atlantic. Soon
after the establishment of the International Ice Patrol, the
Navy could no longer spare ships for patrols, so the Revenue
Cutter Service assumed the duty.
 In
1914, another service-related event took place when war erupted in
Europe. As the conflict spread to other parts of the globe,
President Woodrow Wilson saw the benefit of retaining the Revenue
Cutter Service as an armed sea service. And, when combined with the
U.S. Life-Saving Service, the assets and personnel of the two
agencies would prove effective in guarding the nation’s shores both
by land and at sea. On Jan. 28, 1915, Wilson signed the “Act to
Create the Coast Guard,” combining the Life-Saving Service and the
Revenue Cutter Service into one agency. The act went into effect on
January 30, establishing the United States Coast Guard as a military
agency that would serve as a branch of the Navy during conflicts.
After the Coast Guard’s formation, it became clear that the
service would play a vital role in future U.S. naval operations.
From 1915 through early 1917, the Navy and Coast Guard collaborated
to develop mobilization plans transferring the service from the
Treasury Department to the Navy in time of war. In early 1915,
Bertholf began meeting with his Navy counterparts and developed a
20-page report that evolved into the confidential document
“Mobilization of the Coast Guard when Required to Operate as a Part
of the Navy.” This document included the Coast Guard’s “Mobilization
Plan No. 2” for combining the two services in peacetime and
“Mobilization Plan No. 1” for combining the two services when war
was declared.
Soon after the Navy transmitted the April 6 “Plan One,
Acknowledge” message, the Coast Guard answered the call. For
example, at 6:00 pm, San Francisco-based cutter McCulloch received
telephone instructions from its division commander to put into
effect Mobilization Plan Number One. By 7:25 pm, the cutter received
a similar “ALCUT (all cutters)” message from Coast Guard
Headquarters. In response, the McCulloch transmitted to the local
Navy commander a coded radiogram reading “Commanding Officer, U.S.S.
Oregon. Mobilization orders received. Report McCulloch for duty
under your command.” In addition to McCulloch, nearly 50 cutters and
280 shore installations came under Navy control.
|
Coast Guard cutter McCulloch, which received the coded message “Plan
One, Acknowledge” on April 6, 1917, as did all Coast Guard units,
stations and bases. Photo courtesy of National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration)
|
World War I proved the first true test of the Coast Guard’s
military capability. During the conflict, the service performed its
traditional missions of search and rescue, maritime interdiction,
law enforcement and humanitarian response. Meanwhile, the service
undertook new missions of shore patrol, port security, marine
safety, and convoy escort duty while playing a vital role in naval
aviation, troop transport operations and overseas naval missions. By
war’s end, these assignments had become a permanent part of the
Coast Guard’s defense readiness mission.
The war cemented the service’s role as a military agency. Nearly
9,000 Coast Guard men and women would participate in the war. This
number included over 200 Coast Guard officers, many of whom served
as warship commanders, troop ship captains, training camp
commandants and naval air station commanders. In all, Coast Guard
heroes received two Distinguished Service Medals, eight Gold
Lifesaving Medals, almost a dozen foreign honors and nearly 50 Navy
Cross Medals, dozens more than were awarded to Coast Guardsmen in
World War II.
|
Coast Guard boat station crew at Quonocontaug, R.I., dressed in
their World War I uniforms. (Coast Guard Collection)
|
World War I also served as a baptism of fire for the Coast
Guard. During the war’s nearly 19 months, the service would
lose almost 200 men and five ships. These ships included two
combat losses. On Aug. 6, 1918, U-140 sank the Diamond
Shoals Lightship after her crew transmitted to shore the
location of the marauding enemy submarine, but no lives were
lost. However, on Sept. 26, 1918, after escorting a convoy
from Gibraltar to the U.K., Cutter Tampa was torpedoed by
UB-91. The cutter quickly sank killing all 131 persons on
board, including four U.S. Navy men, 16 Royal Navy personnel
and 111 Coast Guard officers and men. It proved America’s
greatest naval loss of life from combat.
In the years
following the war, the Coast Guard would develop into a
robust military agency. Prohibition saw the service become
the lead agency fighting the “Rum War,” increasing the Coast
Guard’s size and technological sophistication. In this war
against liquor smugglers, the service operated 31 of the
Navy’s four-stack destroyers. It was the first time in
history that Coast Guard crews had manned Navy warships.
Prohibition also saw the first congressional funding for
Coast Guard aviation to help fight the rumrunners; and, the
establishment of the Coast Guard Intelligence Office, a
leading federal intelligence branch that would also decipher
enemy codes in World War II. And, 1932 saw the completion of
the modern Coast Guard Academy, which produced many of the
service’s combat leaders of WWII.
World War I would
prove the first true test of the modern Coast Guard’s
military capability. This baptism of fire also cemented the
service’s place among American military agencies and
prepared it for the challenges it would face in World War
II.
By William H. Thiesen, Atlantic Area Historian, USCG
Provided
through
Coast
Guard
Copyright 2017
Comment on this article |
