INTRODUCTION

Speaking at the Coast Guard Academy commencement in 1988, Pres. Ronald Reagan said,

The fact is many young people have trouble choosing their life’s work. … But I know what I would say to young people who told me they were torn between different careers. If they said they wanted to help people in distress, guard our borders, conserve fisheries, battle drug smugglers, enforce maritime law, test their courage against stormy seas, defend America in times of war, and wear proudly each day the uniform of this great country—then I would tell them just one thing: I would tell them. Join the Coast Guard.

Joining the Coast Guard can be accomplished in several ways. Enlistment is one way for those who want to serve in any of 24 enlisted specialties. Officers are obtained in one of three ways. The first is a direct commission for an officer transferring from another armed service, such as an US Army aviator. Direct commissions are also available for qualified lawyers and graduates of federal or state maritime academies. The second way is to attend the 17-week Officer Candidate School for those with college degrees. The third way is to attend the Coast Guard Academy in New London, Connecticut. This book is about that third way.

Preparing officers for the Coast Guard is no easy task, as it is a complex organization. It all started with Alexander Hamilton, the first secretary of the treasury. In 1790, Hamilton convinced Congress to approve funding for 10 small sailing ships called cutters to enforce the customs laws in the new nation’s ports. This was the beginning of the Coast Guard, which was then known as the Revenue Cutter Service. The first mission of what would later become the Coast Guard was the enforcement of laws and treaties, and its home was the Treasury Department. Coast Guard ships have been called cutters ever since. The officers for the Revenue Cutter Service were obtained by political appointment.

In 1831, the revenue cutter Gallatin was directed to patrol the coast looking for mariners in distress. This was the beginning of the mission known as search and rescue. The next mission added was the Lighthouse Service in 1845. This mission grew into the aids to navigation mission, which entails nearly 100,000 short-range aids such as lighthouses, buoys, beacons, ranges, radar reflecting devices, and sound signals. In addition, 11 vessel traffic systems are manned and operated by the Coast Guard, as are all the electronic aids to navigation, which are worldwide in scope.

The boating safety mission started with the passage of the Motorboat Act in 1910. This was followed in 1914 by the International Ice Patrol being started by international agreement following the Titanic disaster, and it was again assigned to the Coast Guard. The next year, in 1915, the Life-Saving Service was combined with the Revenue Marine to become the Coast Guard.

The military preparedness mission had been a part of the service from its beginning; the Revenue Service participated in the Quasi-War with France in 1801 and was ordered into the Navy for the War of 1812. In 1917, the service was formally transferred from the Treasury Department into the Navy for World War I. One-third of the author’s class of 1963 served in Vietnam, earning 14 Bronze Stars and three Silver Stars.

Living marine resources have long been a mission of the Coast Guard. In 1932, the United States signed the Whaling Convention along with 21 other nations, and the Coast Guard was assigned enforcement responsibilities. Later that same year, the Northern Pacific Halibut Act was passed by Congress and again given to the Coast Guard to enforce. A tremendous increase in the mission was occasioned by the passage of the Fisheries Conservation Management Act in 1976. This gave the Coast Guard the responsibility for fisheries enforcement of primarily foreign fisheries vessels in US waters out to 200 miles, an area known as the economic enforcement zone (EEZ). In Alaska alone, the EEZ amounts to 900,000 square miles of ocean that must be patrolled. Given that enforcement requires boarding foreign vessels and inspecting their fishing logs and catches, this mission is complex and fraught with potential for international confrontations.

In 1940, Pres. Franklin D. Roosevelt invoked the Espionage Act of 1917, giving the Coast Guard responsibilities for ports and waterway security. Following the Pearl Harbor attack, war was declared, transferring the Coast Guard into the US Navy. During World War II, the Coast Guard expanded to a peak of 214,000 members, 90 percent of whom were reservists. The women’s arm was established in 1942 as the SPARS—the name was derived from a combination of the first letters of the Coast Guard motto: “Semper Paratus, Always Ready.” That same year, the Bureau of Navigation and Steamboat Inspection was transferred to the Coast Guard, establishing the mission of marine safety. This mission is a large one, giving the Coast Guard responsibility for virtually all aspects of the maritime industry, including the approval of plans and construction of all ships in US shipyards, licensing of merchant marine sailors, operation of all US ports, and operating offices in foreign ports doing business with the United States.

In 1967, the Coast Guard left its traditional home in the Treasury Department and became part of the Department of Transportation. The Coast Guard was now responsible for the operation of all US icebreakers in Arctic and Antarctic waters in a mission called ice operations. The Coast Guard’s law enforcement responsibilities have been increased over the years with the addition of the missions of drug interdiction, migrant interdiction, and other law enforcement. Marine environmental protection responsibilities greatly increased with the passage of the Water Quality Improvement Act in 1970 and the Oil Pollution Act of 1990, which came about as a result of the Exxon Valdez oil spill in 1988.

Following the 2001 attack on the World Trade Center, in 2003, the Department of Homeland Security was established. The Coast Guard, along with 21 other agencies, was transferred into what became the third-largest governmental agency. The increasing threat of cyberterrorism threatens many of the Coast Guard missions that rely on advanced technology. All of this had an impact on the academy and how it must prepare its graduates to be ready to hit the decks running upon entering the fleet.