Category Archives: People

September 1918, Seneca and Tampa

Posted on by
2

September 1918 was a bad month for the Coast Guard, September 17 to 26, a particularly bad week. In that week, the service lost 122 men in two incidents. Eleven were lost out of the crew of the Cutter Seneca in an attempt to save the steam ship Wellington, and 111 Coast Guardsmen, along with 20 others, were lost when the Tampa was torpedoed and sank with all hands.

File:Seneca1908.jpg

Photo: Cutter Seneca (1908)

Here is a story about the memorial to these men at the National Cemetery in Arlington, VA, and efforts by the DC Chapter of the Chief Petty Officers’ Association to honor them.

Coast Guard Cutter Tampa crewmembers (1918). U.S. Coast Guard photo.

Photo: Crew members of the cutter Tampa

Previous posts about the loss of the Tampa before, here and here.

State of the Coast Guard Address/New Standing Orders (Pub 3)

Posted on by
Reply

The Commandant issued his State of the Coast Guard address today. You can access it here. I had trouble with the video, but the text is also there (Remarks from ADM Robert Papp (14 pages – 178.93KB)). It is a good speech, as you might expect. He spoke from Alameda, recognizing the increasing importance of the Pacific and the Arctic that together constitutes approximately 84% of the US EEZ.

It is worth the read. There weren’t too many operational specifics but there was reference one specific planned future operation, seasonal deployment of the Bertholf and buoy tenders to the Arctic.

The same page has a pdf download for what the Commandant likened to standing order, Coast Guard Publication 3-0 (Pub 3), Operations (56 pages – 5.55 MB).

Fall 2011 CG-9 Newsletter Available

Posted on by
Reply

The Acquisition Directorate has issued its Fall 2011 Newsletter, “Delivering the Goods.” It is available as a pdf here.

The news letter includes:

  • Information on the third National Security Cutter, Stratton, and her trip up the East Coast where she was toured by the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs and Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano
  • The appearance of the MH-60T, a prototype upgrade to the H-60, at the Innovation Expo in Tampa, Fla. The CG is piggy backing the development on an Army program
  • An award to the Interagency Alternative Technology Assessment Program that grew out of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill.
  • There is a profile of Giao Phan as the Deputy Program Executive Officer (PEO) and Deputy Director of Acquisition Programs who came to the US as a refugee from South Vietnam.
  • And Master Chief Ayers answers a question about changes to the stern ramp system from its original form on Bertholf to its new form on Stratton and relates it to con figuration management.

Eagle Cruise Facebook Page Photos

Posted on by
Reply

Some great photos of Eagle’s European training cruise are available on Facebook. They have already encountered some nasty weather that blew out some sails and did some minor damage (see #46). Check it out here. Looks like additional photos will be added over the duration of the cruise. Just clicking on the photos allows you to page through them quickly.

The State of the Coast Guard–Summary and Impressions

Posted on by
4

I’m not going to regurgitate the Commandant’s speech or try to explain it all, but I thought I would give a few impressions. I’m sure there will be some truly important things I will miss, sorry.

The speech transcript is available here. And if you want an expanded explanation of what the Commandant said in his speech, I would suggest that you go here, go down to the foot of the page (now also near the top on the right side) and download the pdf, “U. S. Coast Guard Commandant’s Direction, 2011.” It’s a slick 24 page explanation that expands on the themes of the speech.

Continue reading →

Two More Heroes for Two More Cutters

Posted on by
1

The Coast Guard Compass has continued to expand their coverage of the stories of the individuals the first 14 Fast Response Cutters are to be named for, adding two more since our last post on the subject.

Napier was a Life Saving Service Great Lakes station keeper in the late 19th century. William Trump was one of the many Coast Guardsmen involved in the Normandy invasion. You might also like to follow this link (also included in Trump’s story), that gives more detail about the Coast Guard and the Normandy invasion.

If you would like to catch up on stories previously published, they are linked here.

More Enlisted Heroes/FRC Namesakes

Posted on by
16

Earlier we noted that the Coast Guard Compass is posting a series of short histories highlighting the namesakes of the first fourteen Fast Response Cutters. We provided links to the first four in two previous postings:

Two more were linked in comments on a previous post:

Since then, they have posted three more:

For more information on the Cutter COMANCHE and her efforts to rescue the survivors of the Transport DORCHESTER which resulted in the death of Charles Walter David, Jr. go here.

Two More Hero Names for the Fast Response Cutters

Posted on by
3

Coast Guard Compass is continuing their series, telling the stories of enlisted Coast Guard heroes who are the namesakes of the new Fast Response Cutters. They have just added two more:

If you missed the first two, they were:

If you read the story of William Ray Flores, it also includes the story of his Coast Guard shipmates who made sure he received the recognition he deserved.

Since Robert J. Yered received four Bronze Stars in addition to the Silver Star that is discussed in the Coast Guard Compass, I suspect there is more to his story, but it does also briefly address the Coast Guard’s role in Vietnam.

Anniversary of the Loss of CG-1705

Posted on by
1

Today marks the first anniversary of the loss of CG-1705 in a mid-air collision with a Marine helicopter over waters off San Diego.

Fellow blogger Ryan Erickson has posted a movingly personal reflection on those events. Go take a look.

(Related posts: If you search CGblog for “CG 1705” you will find eleven posts related to this event.)