Based on the Coast Guard Historian’s timeline, https://www.history.uscg.mil/research/chronology/
With inspiration from Mike Kelso

May 10

1800  Congress forbade citizens to own an interest in vessels engaged in the slave trade or to serve on such vessels.

1956  President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed Public Law 519, which brought all previously uninspected vessels on navigable waters carrying more than six passengers for hire under inspection laws.  These were chiefly party-fishing motorboats, excursion sailboats, and ferry barges.  Public attention had been focused on the inadequacy of existing inspection laws by the hundreds of lives lost on uninspected vessels.

USCGC Point Grey (WPB-82324) note her M2/81mm piggyback forward, at least three M2s over the stern, and nearly a dozen Coasties on deck preparing the away boat

1966  CGC Point Grey was on patrol near South Vietnam’s Ca Mau peninsula when her crew sighted a 110-foot trawler heading on various courses and speeds.  Suspicions aroused, Point Grey commenced shadowing the trawler.  After observing what appeared to be signal fires on the beach, the cutter hailed the vessel, but received no response.  The trawler ran aground and Point Grey personnel attempted to board it.  Heavy automatic weapons fire from the beach prevented the boarding and two crew and one Army passenger were wounded aboard Point Grey. USCGC Point Cypress, USS Brister (DER-327) and USS Vireo (MSC-205) came to assist.  During the encounter the trawler exploded.  U.S. Navy salvage teams recovered a substantial amount of war material from the sunken vessel.  This incident was the largest, single known infiltration attempt since the Vung Ro Bay incident of February 1965 and was the first “suspicious trawler interdicted by a Market Time unit.”

At about 04:30, Point Grey encountered a steel-hulled trawler trying to make a landfall near the mouth of the Cua Bo De River. The Coast Guard cutter received heavy .50-caliber gunfire when she tried to force the trawler to heave to for inspection but, while requesting assistance in the form of Brister and Vireo, succeeded in forcing the enemy ship aground. At a hasty conference on board Brister, it was decided to attempt to salvage the grounded gun runner. While Point Grey approached the trawler with a towline from Vireo, Brister launched her motor whaleboat to assist. The Coast Guard cutter received a withering machine gun fire from insurgents ashore as she neared the enemy. She answered that fire promptly, and Vireo joined in with 150 rounds of 20-millimetre (0.79 in). Brister, her battery masked by the cutter, could not bring her 3-inch (76 mm)/50 caliber guns to bear on the enemy. Ultimately, the Coast Guard cutter had to break contact and move off in order to get her wounded crewmen medical assistance. Vireo covered her retirement with more 20-millimeter fire and provided a haven for Brister‘s motor whaleboat while air strikes were called in to silence the enemy machine gun emplacements. Further air strikes eventually destroyed the trawler,

USCGC Point Cypress (WPB-82326) off An Thoi, 1 November 1968. US Navy photo K60600

Based on the Coast Guard Historian’s timeline, https://www.history.uscg.mil/research/chronology/
With inspiration from Mike Kelso

May 9

1862  USRC Miami a 115-foot schooner-rigged steamer landed President Abraham Lincoln on Confederate-held soil the day before the fall of Norfolk.  The President had decided “to ascertain by personal observation whether some further vigilance and vigor might not be infused into the operations of the Army and Navy” during General George McClellan’s Peninsula campaign.  The President, Secretary of State Salmon P. Chase, Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton, and Brigadier General Egbert Ludovickus Viele departed Washington, D.C., on board the cutter on May 5.

1939  President Franklin D. Roosevelt announced Reorganization Plan II that transferred the Bureau of Lighthouses to the Treasury Department for consolidation with the Coast Guard. The plan took effect on July 1, 1939.

USCGC Icarus (WPC-110) arriving at Charleston Navy Yard with prisoners of war from the U-boat U-352, 10 May 1942, US Navy photo

1942  CGC Icarus attacked and sank the German submarine U-352 off Moorehead City, North Carolina, and then rescued and took 33 prisoners-of-war, the first German prisoners taken in combat by any U.S. force in World War II. Maurice D. Jester, who had enlisted in the Coast Guard in 1917 commanded Icarus. 

Lt. Cmdr. Maurice D. Jester

The Coast Guard Cutter Legare (WMEC 912) conducts joint training evolutions with the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Maurice Jester (WPC 1152), and the French naval ship Premier-Maître L’Her (F792), off the coast of Long Island, New York, on March 16, 2024. Legare worked with Premier-Maître L’Her for a series of engagements and exercises designed to demonstrate interoperability with a critical NATO partner. (U.S. Coast Guard photo courtesy of Legare)

Based on the Coast Guard Historian’s timeline, https://www.history.uscg.mil/research/chronology/
With inspiration from Mike Kelso

May 8

Curtiss NC seaplane. Plane number four of four built, named NC-4, sometime after the translatlantic test flight, 1919. Visible is the fourth pusher engine which was added for that flight. US Navy photo.

1919  First Lieutenant Elmer F. Stone, USCG, piloting the Navy’s flying boat NC-4 in the first successful trans-Atlantic flight, took off from the Naval Air Station at Rockaway, New York, at 1000 hours on May 8, 1919, together with the NC-1 and NC-3.  Although the NC-1 and NC-3 did not complete the journey, the NC-4 successfully crossed the Atlantic and landed in Lisbon, Portugal on May 27, 1919.  Stone was decorated that same day by the Portuguese government with the Order of the Tower and Sword.

NC-4 in Naval Aviation Museum.

1926  Congress standardized the retired pay of Coast Guard officers with that of all the other armed services.

1975 – Overhead view bow-on of CGC Chase (WHEC 718). USCG photo 240220-G-G0000-1002.JPG

1985  CGC Chase was crippled by an engine room fire that put the cutter out of service for almost six months.  One crewman, MK3 Nicholas V. Barei III, was killed during the incident.

USCGC Cape Shoalwater (WPB 95324)

1985  The largest cocaine seizure by the Coast Guard (to date) was made when Coast Guard units seized the Goza Now with 1,909 pounds of cocaine.  The unlit speedboat, or “go-fast,” was first located by the CGC Cape Shoalwater as it raced towards Miami.  An AIRSTA Miami helicopter was dispatched to investigate and then began chasing it as it neared Miami Beach.  As they approached the shoreline, the three-man crew of the go-fast jumped overboard and escaped but a TACLET seized the abandoned Goza Now and her illicit cargo.  District 7 got a “Bravo Zulu” from Attorney General Edwin Meese.

USCGC Ocracoke ships out from Guantanamo Bay Monday, May 12. JTF Guantanamo photo by Army Pfc. Eric Liesse

1987  Coast Guard units, including USCGC Ocracoke (now Ukrainian Navy patrol vessel P192S Sumy), made the largest seizure of cocaine by the Coast Guard (to date).  They discovered 3,771 pounds (1.9 tons) aboard the La Toto off the northwest coast of St. Croix.

USCGC Storis

The US Naval Institute news service reports,

Two Louisiana-based shipbuilders are teaming up to pitch the Coast Guard on designs for the Arctic Security Cutter, according to a statement from the companies.

Bollinger Shipyards and Edison Chouest Offshore approached the service with multiple designs in response to the Coast Guard’s request for information for new designs for the icebreaker, a Bollinger spokesperson told USNI News Tuesday.

Based on the Coast Guard Historian’s timeline, https://www.history.uscg.mil/research/chronology/
With inspiration from Mike Kelso

May 7

A HC-130H in a legacy paint scheme in the foreground, and a newer HC-130J

1969  HC-130H CGNR 1453, stationed at Air Station Kodiak, flew over the geographic North Pole, becoming the first Coast Guard aircraft to do so.  The aircraft commander was LCDR Melvin J. Hartman and the copilot was LT Larry Minor.  The purpose of the flight was ice reconnaissance of a potential route for super tankers from the North Slope of Alaska to the east coast of the U.S.  According to a summary of the flight published in the Commandant’s Bulletin: “COAST GUARD AIRCRAFT FLIES AROUND THE WORLD NONSTOP…During the course of this flight, the aircraft circled the north pole, crossing all meridians in eighty seconds.”

USCGC Southwind near port of USCG Base Berkley, after returning from a 27,000 mile tour of the Arctic.

1969  CGC Southwind returned to Baltimore, Maryland after circumnavigating the globe, becoming only the second cutter to do so.

USCGC Manitou (WYT-60) Operating in the Arctic Ice, during World War II. Note her ice-breaking bow. Photo was taken in Greenland. Catalog #: 26-G-3497

1979  During a city-wide strike by tugboat operators and longshoremen in New York City that began on April 1, 1979, Mayor Ed Koch of New York asked for federal assistance.  The Secretary of Transportation, Brock Adams, at the behest of President Jimmy Carter, ordered the Commandant, ADM John B. Hayes, to direct the commanding officer of the Third Coast Guard District, VADM Robert I. Price, “to cooperate with Mayor Koch in the movement of sanitation barges within the harbor.”  Beginning on May 7, 1979,  the cutters Sauk, Manitou, and Red Beech began moving 16 garbage scows from a Staten Island landfill site to refuse pick-up points in Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, and the Bronx.  Although the Group received an anonymous bomb threat that proved to be a hoax, the towing effort was carried out without incident.  These three cutters were relieved of “garbage duty” in June by the cutters Snohomish and Chinook.

Astronaut Commander Bruce E. Melnick, USCG

1992  Astronaut and Coast Guard CDR Bruce Melnick made his second space flight when he served as a Mission Specialist aboard the space shuttle Endeavour on her maiden flight, Space Shuttle Mission STS-49, which flew from May 7-16, 1992.  During this mission, astronauts rescued and repaired the Intelsat VI satellite.  Melnick, by this point, had logged more than 300 hours in space.

Crew of the Coast Guard Cutter James Rankin readies to set the Francis Scott Key buoy, June 2, 2017, where a ship carrying the author of “The Star-Spangled Banner” was anchored during the Fort McHenry bombardment in the War of 1812.

2004  CGC James Rankin set the historic “Francis Scott Key” buoy off of Fort McHenry, Maryland, near the Key Bridge in Baltimore, Maryland.  The buoy marks the spot where the British warship on which Francis Scott Key, the author of the Star Spangled Banner, was held aboard during the bombardment of Fort McHenry by the Royal Navy during the War of 1812.  Each year the buoy is set in the spring, marking the historic location of the event, and is then removed in the fall.

Based on the Coast Guard Historian’s timeline, https://www.history.uscg.mil/research/chronology/
With inspiration from Mike Kelso

May 6

1796  Congress increased the monthly compensation of Revenue Marine officers to masters $50; first mates $35; second mates $30; third mates $25 and mariners $20.

1896  President Grover Cleveland placed the Lighthouse Service within the classified federal civil service.

USRC MORRILL. Photographed by the Detroit Photographic Co. Library of Congress photo No. LC-D4-9016

1898  The cutter Morrill participated in an engagement at Havana, Cuba on May 6-7, 1898 during the Spanish-American War.  Her officers were awarded Bronze Medals by the authority of a joint resolution of Congress that was approved on March 3, 1901.

USS Moberly (PF-63) Off San Francisco, CA in early 1946.
Naval Historical Center photo NH 79077

1945  The Coast Guard-manned frigate USS Moberly (PF-63), in concert with USS Atherton, sank the U-853 in the Atlantic off Block Island.  There were no survivors.

USS Moberly and USS Atherton share credit for the sinking.

Lightship Huron LV 103/WAL 526

1958  During her 50 plus year career, the Huron Lightship WAL-526 at Port Huron, Michigan, survived many a Great Lakes storm without the loss of a single crewmember until on this date when Seaman (Boatswain Mate Striker) Robert G. Gullickson lost his life while attempting to swim for assistance to save another shipmate, CS1 Vincent Disch, after their small boat was swamped by a freighter’s wake and sank.  Disch was rescued, but Gullickson was lost at sea and his remains were never recovered.  Gullickson was posthumously promoted to BM3 for his rescue attempt and for sacrificing his life for his shipmate.

USCG HH-3F Pelican on the water, demonstrating its amphibious capability. This was also the first HH-3F delivered to the Coast Guard.

1994  The last HH-3F Pelican helicopter in Coast Guard service was retired.  This ended the Coast Guard’s “amphibious era,” as no aviation asset left in service was capable of making water landings.

2003  CGC Walnut completed its 20-day humanitarian mission in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom.  Walnut marked the navigational channel of the Khawr Abd Allah waterway leading from the North Arabian Gulf to Iraq’s critical port of Umm Qasr.  The cutter completely replaced 30 buoys and repaired an additional five along the 41-mile waterway, vastly improving the navigational safety of the waterway for humanitarian aid sailing to the port and providing a critical step towards the economic recovery of the people of Iraq.  The majority of the equipment used in the navigational improvements was located in a warehouse in Umm Qasr and was inspected and upgraded to ensure that the buoys matched as closely as possible to the charted channel.  Walnut was originally deployed to the North Arabian Gulf with an oil spill recovery system in the event the regime of Saddam Hussein committed any acts of environmental terrorism. When those threats did not materialize, the cutter conducted maritime interdiction operations enforcing U.N. Security Council resolutions, participated in the search for two downed United Kingdom helicopters, and patrolled and provided assistance to captured Iraqi offshore oil terminals.

The crew of the Coast Guard Cutter Active, a 210-foot Medium Endurance Cutter homeported in Port Angeles, Wash., conducts an at sea refueling of the Coast Guard Cutter Oliver Berry, a fast response cutter homeported in Honolulu, in the Eastern Pacific Ocean, Sept. 17, 2017.
The Active’s crew recently returned home from a 65-day counter narcotics patrol in the Eastern Pacific Ocean where they interdicted more than 1,500 kilograms of cocaine valued at more than $49 million.
U.S. Coast Guard courtesy photo.

2014  CGC Active returned to its homeport of Port Angeles, Washington, following a 70-day deployment.  During their deployment, the cutter and crew covered more than 11,500 miles on a counter-drug enforcement patrol in the Eastern Pacific, including patrolling waters off the coast of Central America.  The crew conducted multiple at sea boardings, seizing more than 2,300 pounds of cocaine worth an estimated $37 million.  While on a port call in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico to resupply the cutter, Active’s crew participated in a community relations event where they painted and helped set up a playground at the local Children’s Cancer Center.

Another image of the Huangpu-build OPV for CCG at berth. Note rotating AESA on main mast. Image via Chinese social media.

A Naval News post, “New Offshore Patrol Vessel launched for China Coast Guard,” actually includes information about more than one new class of China Coast Guard cutters.

Notably, these new ships all have 76mm guns and modern multi-mode radars.

Looking at the photo below, I have used the same caption that is included in the post, and added some links, but it really appears too small to be based on the Type 052D destroyer design which is over 500 feet long and 7500 tons full load.

Take a look.

The Type 052D-derived CCG hull at Jiangnan. Note Type 382 radar on main mast, H/PJ-26 main gun, sizeable aviation hangar. Image Chinese social media.

Based on the Coast Guard Historian’s timeline, https://www.history.uscg.mil/research/chronology/
With inspiration from Mike Kelso

May 5

John M. “Muddy” Waters Jr. USCG

1947  The first meeting of the permanent International Civil Aviation Organization was held in Montreal, Canada with the Coast Guard being represented by LT John M. Waters, USCG. (Great biography here.) His book, Bloody Winter, about the convoy battles during the Winter of 1942-43 is highly recommended.

1950  Congress approved the Uniform Code of Military Justice for the “government of the armed forces of the United States.”

1973  The last Coast Guard personnel assigned to Vietnam departed for the United States.

2004  The Coast Guard presented the Purple Heart to BM3 Joseph Ruggiero in Miami for injuries sustained in action against the enemy while defending the Khawr Al Amaya Oil Terminal in Iraq on April 24, 2004.  Ruggiero’s shipmate, DC3 Nathan Bruckenthal, was killed in this same bombing and was posthumously awarded the Purple Heart.  They were the first Coast Guard recipients of the Purple Heart since the Vietnam War.

Based on the Coast Guard Historian’s timeline, https://www.history.uscg.mil/research/chronology/
With inspiration from Mike Kelso

May 4

1882  The Secretary of the Treasury was authorized to discontinue any lifesaving station, transfer apparatus, appoint keepers, etc.

1910  Congress required every passenger ship or other ship carrying 50 persons or more, leaving any port of United States, to be equipped with a radio (powerful enough to transmit to a 100-mile radius) and a qualified operator.

Members of the US Coast Guard Auxiliary anti-submarine forces, colloquially referred to as the “Corsair Fleet”

1942  ADM Ernest J. King, Chief of Naval Operations and Commander in Chief, U.S. Fleet, requested the Coast Guard organize a coastal picket force utilizing suitable civilian craft. The Coast Guard Auxiliary led the initial efforts with responsibility eventually falling to the Coast Guard officer in each Naval District. Many Auxiliarists volunteered both their vessels and crew for service in the Coast Guard Temporary Reserve. The signature vessels were the large, rugged sailing yachts assigned to offshore patrols, later nicknamed “The Corsair Fleet.”

Coast Guard manned USS Pride (DE-323) February / March 1945: underway in the North Atlantic. Photo credit Andy Cisternino
RM1c, USCG.

1944  The Coast Guard-manned destroyer escort USS Pride (DE-323), USS Joseph E. Campbell (DE-70), the American built Free French destroyer escort Sénégalais and the British escort destroyer HMS Blankney sank U-371 which had damaged Coast Guard manned USS Menges (DE-320) the previous day. USNI story about USS Pride by her CO, Captain Ralph R. Curry, U. S. Coast Guard (Retired), here.

Location where USS Menges was damaged and U-371 was sunk.

U-371 “… was unlucky enough to be the first victim to an Allied sub-hunting tactic in the Mediterranean Sea known as Swamp. This tactic simply called for the area of a known or suspected U-boat to be packed with surface escorts and patrol aircraft. They would then systematically and continually search the area and force the U-boat to remain submerged until its batteries ran out or try to escape at night on the surface. Either was almost hopeless.

U-371 was spotted recharging her batteries on the surface off Djidjelli on the Algerian coast during the night of 2/3 May 1944 and was immediately detected and the area was swamped with 6 escorts and 3 aircraft squadrons. They hunted the boat until the early morning of 4 May when Oblt. Fenski had to surface the boat and save his crew. He had managed to fight back and torpedoed and damaged the US destroyer escort USS Menges and the French destroyer escort Sénégalais before calling it quits.”

1963  CGC Morris and CG-95318 escorted the annual Newport Harbor, California to Ensenada, Mexico Yacht Race which commenced May 4, 1963 and upon conclusion of the race made an informal visit to Ensenada.

USCGC Morris