Semper Paratus

It's hurricane season in the US and at Klementi Voroshilov we want to recognize the great work done by the US Coast Guard in keeping us safe from the hazards of heavy weather.  So let's take a look at the Coast Guard in an ASL context.

In every single scenario where you have a seaborne invasion, you have the Coast Guard, as they were the ones who operated the landing craft.  However, one shouldn't overlook the contribution the USCG made to the war effort by operating weather ships.  The ability to accurately forecast the weather (and the denial of that ability to the enemy) was a key piece of intelligence that gave the allies a real advantage on major actions, including D Day.  Finally, the USCG was instrumental in fighting off U boats and other anti-commerce raiders acting against our coasts and convoys.

Some of the key actions that should be highlighted.  With the fall of Denmark in Greenland in the Spring of 1940, the Danish dependency of Greenland became unmoored.  While today the status of Greenland is kind of a punchline, we should remember that between 1941 and 1945 Greenland was a US protectorate.  The USCG, later to be transferred from the US Department of the Treasury to the US War Department, took the lead in defending Greenland from foreign (both Allied and Axis) interference.

On the 12th of September, 1941--before the US entered the war--the Coast Guard Cutter Northland was conducting routine patrols around the Northeastern coast of Greenland when it came across the Norwegian ship Buskoe.  It was normal for Norwegian ships to be in the area to service several Norwegian outposts along the coast maintained as radio, weather and whaling outposts by agreement with Denmark.  However, by this time, Norway was occupied and run by a puppet fascist government.  The Northland's captain, Carl von Paulson, conducted a routine boarding to ensure there were no weapons aboard the Buskoe.  One of the crew of the Buskoe said that they had recently dropped a number of Germans ashore with radio equipment that were to monitor shipping and weather for U boats and Germany.  The Northland seized the Buskoe and sent ashore a party to capture the Germans, returning both the Buskoe and the radio crew to Boston for internment.

The Coast Guard was, therefore, the first US service branch to make contact with the enemy both on land and the first to seize a ship for internment.

The Coast Guard fought at Pearl Harbor, where Coast Guard Cutters added to the anti-aircraft volley at incoming Japanese aircraft.  Following Pearl Harbor, the Coast Guard would suffer the first shipping losses of the war, with the Alexander Hamilton was sunk by a German U boat off Iceland on the 30th of January, 1942 and the Coast Guard-manned transport Wakefield was severely damaged when bombed in Singapore while evacuating civilians.

But it wasn't only internationally that the Coast Guard saw action.  Coast Guardsman John Cullen, while conducting routine shoreline patrols, detected a team of Nazi spies being landed by U boat on LONG ISLAND NEW YORK!

The spies were later apprehended and hung.

In May of 1942, the Coast Guard Cutter Icarus sunk U352 off of the coast of North Carolina, beginning a heroic history of the Coast Guard's anti-submarine efforts during WWII.  During WWII, the Coast Guard would tally at total of at least 11 U boats.

But, as for ASL, the Coast Guard's most important roll is as crews for landing craft.  All landing craft came under the authority of the Coast Guard.  They are quite brave when manning the landing craft, with a morale of "8" (G12.11), after surviving a wreck they are quite brittle (G12.112.)  I would like to point out the example of Signalman First Class Douglas Munro, who won the Medal of Honor (the only Coast Guardsman to do so) during action on the beaches of Guadalcanal.

I missed Coast Guard Day (August 4) by a month, but here's a worthwhile quote from Howard Coble:  "The Coast Guard has long been known as the armed service that gets more done for less."  Salute!