The Coast Guard Compass reports a memorial service for Chief Boatswains Mate Richard Patterson on June 16.
Frequent Contributor Bill Welles has a good article recounting the incident if you would like to know a bit more.
Sounds like BMC Patterson might be a good namesake for a Webber class cutter.
On 1 June, Peter Stinson asked “Can we build a shared experience for all Guardians?” We were not able to reach any consensus except that we needed a better appreciation of our history.
Thinking about this, I tried to come up with 10 things every Coast Guardsman should know about the history of the service. Actually this was a lot harder than I thought it would be. Mining the Coast Guard historians official site I found myself in a bit of a quandary. Too many details. Maybe too much history to distill into only ten line items. There were organizational milestones, individual achievements, innovations, desperate fights won and lost, new missions and missions that have disappeared.
I’m still working on my list, but I thought I would throw it out for your comment. What should every Coast Guardsman know about our history?
A nice tribute to Admiral Allen over at the “Information Dissemination” web site. The author goes so far as to refer to him as “the most influential Admiral of the early 21st century in the United States.”
The US Naval Institute Blog has a story about a deadly accident that occurred at Pearl Harbor on this date in 1944 while the fleet was preparing for the invasion of Saipan. In one of the pictures you will see a 180-foot WLB helping to deal with the aftermath. There is more information about the disaster here.
Coast Guard-manned LST 69 was one of the six LST vessels sunk; CG-manned LST 205 was heavily damaged and missed the invasion.
This and the Port Chicago disaster two months later led to stronger Coast Guard oversight of explosive loading.
Here is a little article (unfortunately this link is now broken) about an ordinary Coastie’s experience in WWII that, in addition to having a cute dog story, includes reference to a little remembered program that resulted in the Coast Guard manning 75 Tacoma Class Patrol frigates (PFs), beginning in October 1943. These ships were adaptations of the British “River” Class, a design similar in purpose to Destroyer Escorts, but built to merchant standards by the Maritime Commission.
The ships were 2238 tons full load, 304 feet in length, with a 36’6′ beam and 12’8″ draft. They were steam powered and used triple expansion reciprocating engines for 5,500 HP and a speed of 20 knots. They had a range of 9500 nmi at 12 knots. The ships were typically armed with three 3″/50s, two twin 40mms, nine 20mms, a “hedgehog” multiple ASW mortar, depth charges, and eight depth charge projectors (K-Guns).
Twenty-three of the class were converted to serve as weather ships with the aft 3″/50 replaced by a balloon shelter and the crew reduced from 190 to 176. They replaced Coast Guard manned merchant ships that had been providing the service previously.
The battle, with subsequent rescue, referred to in the article, was the Battle off Samar, an inspiring story, worth a look if you are not familiar with it.
Recently ran across a site dedicated to the Spanish American War.
There was a section dedicated to the Revenue Cutter Service. I found the stories I had expected about the HUGH McCULLOCH and the HUDSON. Also found that Captain Satterlee, who commanded TAMPA when she was sunk during WWI had participated.
What surprised me was the level of participation by the light house service. Four tenders were involved in the blockade of Cuba and one of their officers did a little spying, “On 11 June, Lieutenant Victor Blue of SUWANNEE (formerly MAYFLOWER) went ashore to make a visual reconnaissance of Santiago Bay and the ships in it. Guided by a member of the Cuban insurgent forces, he passed through enemy lines and observed the Spanish squadron on 12 June. His report confirmed that all of Admiral Cervera’s squadron had in fact entered the bay, thus enabling the blockade by heavy ships of the Navy to be concentrated at that point, without having to worry about threats to the troop convoys preparing to depart from Tampa. SUWANNEE’s night station among the blockading forces was two miles from Morro Castle as part of a picket line to detect any sortie by (Spanish torpedo boat destroyers) FUROR and PLUTON for a torpedo attack. She missed the battle, however, being one of the ships detached to Guantanamo bay for coaling at the time.”
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