The U.S. Coast Guard is America’s oldest maritime agency. It was
formed in August 1790 to enforce trade laws, prevent smuggling, and
protect shipping from pirates. The Coast Guard was called by many
names over the years. It received its current name on January 28, 1915,
when it was officially established as a military service and branch of the
armed forces. The Coast Guard became part of the Homeland Security
Department in 2003.
Like other branches of the armed forces, the Coast Guard serves its
country in time of war. But it does much more than that. In the late 1700s, it was assigned the task of preventing the
transport of slaves from Africa to the United
States. Between 1794 and 1865, it captured
around five hundred slave ships. In the 1880s,
the Coast Guard transported reindeer to Alaska,
providing a much-needed source of food for the
people who lived there.
The Coast Guard is often called on to perform search and rescue after natural disasters.
The Mississippi River flooded in 1937, and the
Coast Guard rescued nearly forty-nine thousand
people and more than eleven thousand head of
livestock. In 1952, a severe storm damaged two
tankers off the New England coast. The Coast
Guard saved sixty-two people from the broken
ships. Twenty-four guardsmen earned medals
that day.
Drug interception became increasingly important in the 1970s. Between 1963 and 1979,
the Coast Guard seized 304 vessels and confiscated more than $4 billion in contraband. As
the illegal narcotics import trade grew throughout the 1980s, the Coast Guard expanded its interception efforts.
The Coast Guard has served in nearly every
war in American history since the late 1700s.
During wartime, the organization has two primary roles. Its first is to help the U.S. Navy by
providing additional ships and manpower. Its
second role is to participate in special missions.
Following the September 11, 2001, terrorist
attacks, when terrorists hijacked four American
airliners and crashed them into the World Trade
Center in New York, the Pentagon in Virginia,
and a field in Pennsylvania, Coast Guard units
were among the first to respond, providing assistance and security.
As of 2007, the Coast Guard had just over forty thousand men and
women on active duty and another eight thousand in the reserves.