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Located within the Department of Homeland Security, the Coast
Guard performs several critically important missions, from
interdicting drug smugglers far out at sea to safeguarding the
marine environment. However, the Coast Guard is also one of the
nation's five armed services, and has fought in every major American
conflict since it's founding in 1790.
When the nation's first Department of Treasury Secretary,
Alexander Hamilton, founded the service that became the Coast Guard,
it did not have an official title. It was simply referred to as “the
cutters” or “the system of cutters.” Hamilton established this fleet
to enforce tariff laws, so these cutters were armed but manned by
civilian crews under the Treasury Department. Since the Continental
Navy was disbanded in 1785, there was no navy initially under the
Constitution and the cutters were the only maritime force available
to the new government. Between 1790 and 1798, Hamilton's cutters
were the only armed vessels protecting the coast, trade, and
maritime interests of the new republic.
Between 1797 and 1801, the U.S. and France fought an undeclared
naval war known as the “Quasi War.” However, without a navy early in
the conflict, American authorities conscripted revenue cutters to
help battle French privateers.
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Painting of the Revenue Cutter Massachusetts. Although the Revenue Cutter Vigilant was the first cutter to be launched, records concerning when it actually entered service were lost in the fire at the Treasury Department in 1833. Tradition has it that the cutter Massachusetts, launched in July 1791, was the first to actually enter service as a commissioned vessel of the U.S. government. (U.S. Coast Guard
courtesy photo)
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With an urgent need for naval vessels trumping the need for law
enforcement vessels, Congress passed legislative acts authorizing
the president to employ the cutters to defend American sea coasts
and commercial vessels, deploy Marines to serve aboard cutters, put
cutters under the same wartime rules, regulations and compensation
as the re-established U.S. Navy and transfer cutters from the
Treasury Department to the Navy Department in time of war. These
legislative acts dictated the use of civilian-manned cutters in
wartime until 1915, when Congress altered the status of the service
from a civilian agency to a military one.
With the exception
of the Barbary Wars, the Revenue Cutter Service participated in
every American naval conflict of the 1800s. With each new conflict,
the service added new combat roles.
The War of 1812 marked the beginning of cutters
engaging in shallow water combat operations, a wartime mission the
service has conducted ever since.
During the Seminole Wars,
cutters attacked war parties, broke up rendezvous points, rescued
survivors of raids, transported troops and supplies and wrested
inland waterways from Seminole control.
During the Mexican
War, revenue cutters continued their earlier combat missions and
added the assignment of blockading enemy ports.
In the Civil
War, cutters undertook new missions of shore bombardment, command
ship duty and offshore blockade enforcement.
The Revenue
Cutter Service also rendered conspicuous service during the
Spanish-American War with cutters serving in Caribbean theater and,
for the first time, in combat operations outside the Western
Hemisphere, including the Battle of Manila Bay.
In January 1915, President Woodrow Wilson signed the “Act to
Create the Coast Guard,” merging the U.S. Life-Saving Service with
the U.S. Revenue Cutter Service. The act formally designated the new
“Coast Guard” as a military service.
On April 6, 1917, the
day the U.S. formally entered World War I, Coast Guard activities
transferred from the Treasury Department to the Navy.
During
the1900s, the Coast Guard underwent a great deal of change,
including the introduction of aviation to the service, a merger with
the U.S. Lighthouse Service, a rapid influx of assets and personnel,
formation of the Coast Guard Reserve and Coast Guard Auxiliary,
racial and gender integration of the service, the development and
implementation of new technologies, such as long-range navigation
(LORAN) stations and the helicopter, and the addition of the former
Bureau of Marine Safety and Navigation (which became permanent in
1946).
In wars of the 20th century, including World War I, World War II,
Korea, and Vietnam, the Coast Guard performed combat missions as
well as traditional service mission such as aids to navigation,
search and rescue, marine safety, convoy escort duty, troop
transport and amphibious operations, port security and beach
patrols.
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The Coast Guard's newest National Security Cutter, the 418-foot Cutter Hamilton. As the 4th cutter out of planned eight Legend-class cutters, the Hamilton is scheduled to be commissioned and homeported in Charleston, South Carolina, Dec. 6,
2014. U.S. Coast Guard photo by Coast Guard Aviation Training Center Mobile.)
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The service has also fought in modern conflicts. In
operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm, Coast Guard law
enforcement detachments (LEDETs) helped clear enemy oil
platforms and boarded hundreds of foreign-flagged commercial
vessels. The service deployed Reserve port security units
(PSUs) and flew aviation missions to monitor spills from
sabotaged Iraqi oil platforms.
During Operation Iraqi
Freedom, Coast Guard LEDETs have provided maritime
interdiction and boarding support while PSUs deployed to
ports in Bahrain, Kuwait and Iraq. Coast Guard assets and
personnel also provided oil terminal security, maritime
environmental response expertise and aids-to-navigation to
mark the Khor Abd Allah River shipping channel.
Whether equipped with civilian-manned sailing cutters of
the18th century or modern National Security Cutters manned
by military personnel, the Coast Guard has always been
prepared to fulfill its defense mission. Regardless of the
maritime threats and challenges confronting America today
and tomorrow — whether it's rescuing mariners in distress,
protecting our nation from illegal drugs, preventing and
responding to oil spills, or safeguarding the nation against
military threats – the Coast Guard continues to protect the
nation from threats to its maritime interests at home and
abroad and will always be Semper Paratus, or always ready,
whenever and wherever needed.
By William H. Thiesen, Atlantic Area Historian, USCG
Provided
through
Coast
Guard
Copyright 2016
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