Coast Guard Cutter Active and partnership agencies interdict a migrant vessel, approximately 20 miles off the coast of Point Loma (San Diego), California, Jan. 27, 2025. The crew of Active, the Coast Guard Cutter Terrell Horne and U.S. Customs and Border Protection members worked together to interdict this illegal migrant operation, which had 21 individuals aboard. (U.S. Coast Guard courtesy photo)

Below is a District 11 (California) news release.

We have seen a noticeable increase in West Coast migrant interdictions near the Southern border that suggested much increased human trafficking. This is apparently in response to that increase.

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

March 29

1867  The lighthouse at Timbalier Bay was destroyed in a hurricane.  The brick tower “was leveled to the ground and covered with from three to six feet of water.”  The Lighthouse Board commended the keepers, “who faithfully performed their duty, barely escaping with their lives, and living for some days in an iron can buoy . . .”

Members of the Overland Relief Expedition

1898  Lieutenants David Jarvis and Ellsworth P. Bertholf and Surgeon Dr. Samuel J. Call of the Revenue cutter Bear reached Point Barrow, Alaska, after a 2,000 mile “mush” from Nunavik Island that first started on December 17, 1897, driving reindeer as food for 97 starving whalers caught in the Arctic ice.  This Overland Rescue was heralded by the press and at the request of President William McKinley, Congress issued special gold medals in their honor.

1938  By an Executive Order of this date, President Franklin Roosevelt enlarged substantially the number of “personnel in the Lighthouse Service who are subject to the principle of the civil service,” which allowed advancement in the Service based solely on individual merit.

1984  Coast Guard AIRSTA Cape May and Group Cape May responded to severe flooding in southern New Jersey and Delaware after a late winter storm struck the area on March 29, 1984.  Coast Guardsmen evacuated 149 civilians from Cape May and Atlantic City.

1985  The last lightship in service with the Coast Guard, CGC Nantucket I, was decommissioned, thus ending 164 years of continuous lightship service by the U.S. Government.  Nantucket I was the last of the U.S. lightships and the last of the Nantucket Shoals lightships that watched over that specific area since June of 1854.  Launched as WLV-612 in 1950 at Baltimore, the ship also stood watch as the light vessel for San Francisco and Blunts Reef in California, at Portland, Oregon, and finally at Nantucket Shoals.  Nantucket I also spent time in service as a “less-than-speedy” law enforcement vessel off Florida.

Photograph of Ellsworth P. Bertholf, Commandant of the U.S. Revenue Cutter Service from 1911 to 1915 and Commandant of the U.S. Coast Guard from 1915 to 1919. Coast Guard photo.

2005  The keel was laid for the first of the new 418-foot National Security Cutters, CGC Bertholf (WMSL-750), named for Commodore Ellsworth Bertholf, former commandant of the U.S. Coast Guard.  Bertholf was constructed at Northrop Grumman Ship Systems in Pascagoula, Mississippi.  The cutter was christened on November 11, 2006 after being launched on September 29, 2006.  The Coast Guard commissioned Bertholf on August 4, 2008.

March 30

1867  The United States signed the Alaska purchase treaty with Russia.

Admiral Russell R. Waesche, Sr., USCG Commandant 1936 to 1945

1942  By Presidential proclamation, the Coast Guard was designated as a service of the Navy to be administered by the Commandant of Coast Guard under the direction of the Secretary of the Navy, similar to the administration of the Marine Corps.

As Commandant from 1936 through 1945 Waesche insured the successful integration of the U.S. Lighthouse Service, a purely civilian agency, with the Coast Guard in 1939 as ordered by President Franklin Roosevelt. He also presided over the greatest expansion of the USCG in its history and made sure the service maintained its separate identity while it was under the administrative control of the U.S. Navy. Admiral Waesche saw his small peacetime fleet swell with Coast Guardsmen manning more than 750 cutters, 3,500 miscellaneous smaller craft, 290 Navy vessels, and 255 Army vessels. The Coast Guard participated in every major amphibious operation. Furthermore, activities at all Coast Guard air stations were increased as aviators engaged in anti-submarine and convoy escort operations and performed numerous search and rescue missions. In 1943 Waesche also secured Congressional support for the Coast Guard’s return to the control of the Treasury Department as quickly as possible after the end of the Second World War. In doing this, the service avoided the problems that occurred after the end of the First World War when the Navy attempted to maintain its control of the Coast Guard.

Admiral Waesche earned praise from the Secretary of the Navy for his stewardship of the Coast Guard during the Second World War.

After the longest tenure as Commandant, Admiral Waesche retired from the Coast Guard effective 1 January 1946. He died later that year on 17 October 1946 and was buried at Arlington National Cemetery on 21 October. Two weeks after he retired Navy Secretary James Forrestal decorated Admiral Waesche with the Distinguished Service Medal for “exceptionally meritorious service to the government of the United States in a duty of great responsibility as Commandant, United States Coast Guard.”

In March 1946 President Harry S. Truman nominated the ten top U.S. wartime generals and admirals to retain permanently their wartime ranks. At the same time the President announced the formation of an “elder statesmen’s organization” for national defense consisting of those ten officers. Admiral Waesche was one of those officers so-designated.

Though largely responsible for the efficient expansion of the service, Admiral Waesche also improved the traditional functions of the Coast Guard. The activities on the Great Lakes and the inland waterways were extended and intensified. His administration placed increased emphasis on maritime safety, icebreaking, and aids to navigation. As Commandant he also took a keen interest in the work in the field and frequently made personal inspections of district units and activities. In short his tenure as Commandant was one of the most successful in the service’s distinguished history.

Admiral Waesche received an honorary degree as Doctor of Engineering from Purdue University in February, 1944. He was elected President of the Society of American Military Engineers in May, 1944. He was survived by his wife, Agnes R. Cronin, and four sons, three of whom entered military service. His oldest son, Russell Randolph Waesche, Jr., later retired from the Coast Guard as a flag officer.

gCaptain reports, “Coast Guard Icebreaker ‘Storis’ To Achieve Initial Operating Readiness by August 2025.”

“[The vessel] should achieve its initial operating capability operating up in the Arctic August of this year,” Alaska Senator Dan Sullivan stated during a joint session of the state’s legislature.

The ship still will not have been modified to its final form, but it is probably a good idea to get some experience with the ship.

The complete buildout and conversion of the vessel will take an additional year, according to Sullivan. The USCG previously stated that selection of the crew of 60 will begin in Summer 2026. It is unclear how the vessel will be staffed for the 2025 patrol.

The crew of Coast Guard Cutter Mohawk (WMEC 913) identifies a sailing vessel suspected of illicit activity while underway in the Eastern Pacific Ocean, Feb. 19, 2025. During a law enforcement boarding, the crew discovered approximately 637 pounds of cocaine hidden onboard. (U.S. Coast Guard photo, courtesy Cutter Mohawk)

Below is a news release. The story on this interdiction caught my attention.

Mohawk’s crew jointly interdicted a go-fast style vessel with James’ crew off the coast of Colombia, seizing more than 5,900 pounds of cocaine. Coordinating with a maritime patrol aircraft, Mohawk’s pursuit caused the go-fast vessel to jettison bails of cocaine overboard for later recovery. James’ crew proceeded to stop the go-fast vessel and apprehend three suspected narcotics smugglers for future prosecution.

Why wasn’t Mohawk able to complete the interdiction?

Only thing I could figure was that Mohawk did not have a HITRON helicopter. There is no mention of a HITRON detachment assigned to MOHAWK. There is this statement that suggests MOHAWK had no helicopter.

Furthermore, the Mohawk’s crew participated in training evolutions with James’ embarked Helicopter Interdiction Tactical Squadron aviation detachment and MH-65 Dolphin helicopter.

Mohawk interdicted a sailboat and a fishing vessel, but it looks like the go-fast outran her. Fortunately another cutter with HITRON detachment was there to backstop them. 

Why did we send a 270, equipped with both a flight deck and hangar, from Key West to the Eastern Pacific without an airborne use of force capability? Is there a shortage?

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

March 25

1911  The Treasury Department directed the keepers of life-saving stations to keep a lookout through the beach patrol for stray buoys washed ashore, to secure such buoys when it could be done, and to report their discovery or action to the nearest representative of the Lighthouse Service.

March 26

“Coast Guard Cutter John F. McCormick (WPC 1121) crew transits through the San Francisco Bay, Saturday, March 4, 2017, during their voyage to homeport in Ketchikan, Alaska. The cutter was named after McCormick who received the Gold Lifesaving Medal in 1938 for his exceptional skill in maintaining control of the 52-foot motor lifeboat Triumph while responding to a vessel in need near the Columbia River Bar under treacherous conditions, allowing the crew to recover a crewmember that had been washed overseas. Coast Guard photo by Petty Officer 2nd Class Loumania Stewart”

1938  The US Coast Guard motor lifeboat Triumph departed from the Point Adams Station, located near Hammond, Oregon at the mouth of the Columbia River.  It proceeded out to the bar and stood by while several crab boats crossed in.  The tug Tyee with a barge load of logs in tow was attempting to cross out.  Tyee passed too close to the life buoy and the barge drifted into the outer break on Clatsop Spit.  Triumph, while attempting to assist Tyee, lost Surfman Richard O. Bracken overboard in the breakers of Clatsop Spit.  Bracken would have been drowned had it not been for the skill of BN (L) John F. McCormick, Officer-in-Charge of Triumph, and the cooperation of the crew, namely CMOMM (L) Albert L. Olsen and Surfman Harold W. Lawrence.  In making the rescue, Triumph was carried broadside on the face of a wave a distance of approximately 50 yards.  The masts had been completely submerged, then the boat righted itself.  Bracken had been washed overboard by the force of the sea.  McCormick, acting with exceptional skill, maneuvered Triumph against the strong current, into the breakers and picked up the drowning man.  Olsen remained in the engine room during all these maneuvers, stayed at the controls under perilous conditions, and rendered commendable service.  McCormick was awarded a Gold Life-Saving Medal for this rescue while Olsen and Lawrence were awarded Silver Lifesaving Medals.

Within three days, the 77th Division had secured the major islands of Kerama Retto.

1945  Coast Guardsmen participated in the landings at Geruma Shima, Hokaji Shima, and Takashiki in the Ryukyu Islands.

The Kerama Retto island group lies 15 miles west of Okinawa.

Douglas R5D-3; “OFF TO HEAT AN ICEBERG: A 1,000-pound thermite bomb enclosing a cluster of small bomblets, each capable of burning at a temperature of 4,300 degrees Fahrenheit, rides under the wing of a Coast Guard UF-2G amphibian plane toward an iceberg target in the foggy Grand Banks region of Newfoundland. The temperature of one bomblet equals half the sun’s surface temperature. This bomb was one of twenty cluster bomb of thermite and petroleum types air-dropped on selected icebergs during heat destruction tests made by the International Ice Patrol force in June, at the height of the 1959 heavy ice season. Above the bomb carrier is a large passenger type Coast Guard R5D plane, one of three used on regular ice observation flights out of Argentia, Nfld. The more modern R5Ds this year replaced old World War II B-17 bomber type plane with plexiglass noses where ice observation instruments and carries a crew of about seven. Ice is observed from many windows. Averaging 6 to 8 hour ice observation flights, the R5D patrols an area of about 14,000 square miles in the Grand Banks region. The R5D plane here wears one of the new paint schemes currently being tested for easy air visibility by the U.S. Coast Guard on its various planes. In place of the dull silver gray and orange trim formerly used, the new dress is made of glowing fluorescent colors–orange nose, wing tips, tail and body strip with black edgings, and main body in brilliant white.”; Photo No. 5854; 17 July 1959; photographer unknown.

1946  The International Ice Patrol resumed after being suspended during World War II.

A U.S. Coast Guard Sikorsky HH-52A Seaguard helicopter (s/n 58-1357) demonstrates its ability to land on water on Lake Pontchartrain, Louisiana (USA), 23 September 1964.

1963  A Coast Guard HH-52 based from Air Station Salem, Massachusetts, landed in the water off Fort Weatherall, Newport, Rhode Island to rescue a man overboard from the radar picket ship USS Protector.  “Using the new platform, the crew of the HH-52A retrieved the man, helpless and incoherent, from 39-[degree] F waters. He was flown to the Naval Hospital, Quonset Point without incident.  This is the first rescue fully exploiting the unique capabilities of the new HH-52A helicopter.”

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

March 24

1909  Muskeget, Massachusetts: the schooner Vigilant parted moorings and stranded one mile south of the station.  The owner applied to the keeper at 10:30 p.m. for assistance.  Surfmen proceeded to the scene, carried out an anchor and line, and hove the schooner into deep water.  During the storm the owner was sheltered and supplied with meals at the station for two days.  But for the security afforded by an additional anchor and cable loaned by the crew, Vigilant would have stranded a second time.

1920  The Coast Guard established its first air station on this date at Morehead City, North Carolina.  The station was closed on July 1, 1921 due to a lack of funding.

1989  The tanker Exxon Valdez grounded on a reef in Prince William Sound, Alaska, spilling 10.1 million gallons of crude oil.  This was the worst oil spill in U.S. history to date.  Coast Guard units responded and prevented the entire cargo from spilling, cleaned up the oil which did spill, and conducted an investigation into the causes of the accident.  The spill provided the impetus for the passage of the Oil Pollution Act of 1990, which greatly increased the Coast Guard’s role in protecting the nation against spills.

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

March 23

95 foot Cape Class WPB

1974  The 40-foot sailing vessel Lorisel II reported she was aground one mile southeast of North Rock, Bahamas, off the eastern shore of Bimini.  An HU-16 aircraft and CGC Cape Shoalwater were dispatched to assist.  The aircraft located the vessel and a local island boat was diverted to remove two women and a child from Lorisel II.  Cape Shoalwater re-floated the vessel, returned the passengers, and the Lorisel II got underway with no apparent damage.

2001  Two Coast Guardsmen, BM2 Scott Chism and SN Christopher Ferreby, gave their lives in the line of duty when their small boat CG-214341 capsized on Lake Ontario.  Their loss led to important changes in the small boat community’s training, equipment, and operations.

From: U.S. COAST GUARD Newsfeed unofficial, Facebook page, March 23, 2015  ·

F/V ALASKA RANGER

2008  Two Coast Guard helicopters worked with the F/V Alaska Warrior to save 42 of 47 crewmen from the sinking F/V Alaska Ranger in an Easter Sunday blizzard amidst 20-foot waves.  There was flooding in aft steerage of Ranger and the doors would not close.  The ship’s shell was rusty and flat-bottomed, built for Gulf of Mexico.  It was located 120 miles west of Dutch Harbor in the Bering Sea.  CGC Munro’s HH-65 Dolphin pulled five fishermen from the water, three of whom had to be cut free from the netting and ropes.  The HH-60 Jayhawk from St. Paul Station in the Pribiloff Islands lifted 15 sailors out of the sea and onto the sister ship, F/V Alaska Warrior.  Warrior also saved 22 lives on its own.  The crew of Munro received the Coast Guard Unit Commendation and aviators LT Brian J. McLaughlin, LT Timothy L. Schmitz, LT Steven M. Bonn, LT Greg S. Gedemer, Petty Officer 2nd Class O’Brien Hollow, Petty Officer 2nd Class Robert R. DeBolt, and Petty Officer 2nd Class Alfred V. Musgrave received Air Medals.

2012  The 9th Coast Guard District concluded Operation Taconite, its annual ice-breaking operation in the western Great Lakes, thereby officially bringing the 2011-2012 icebreaking season to a close.  Under control of Coast Guard Sector Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan, Operation Taconite was carried out in Lake Superior, the St. Mary’s River, the Straits of Mackinac, and northern Lake Huron.  Operation Taconite began December 21, 2011.  Working together during this year’s ice-breaking season were crews aboard U.S. Coast Guard Cutters Mackinaw, Alder, Hollyhock, Mobile Bay, Neah Bay, Katmai Bay, Biscayne Bay, and Thunder Bay, the latter being temporarily assigned to the Great Lakes from its homeport of Rockland, Maine.  Together these eight cutters spent 1,668 hours breaking ice and assisted more than 60 vessels.

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

March 22

1794  Congress declared that no American citizen may carry slaves from the United States to another nation or between foreign nations.

Elmer Stone, Coast Guard Aviator #1

1917  Third Lieutenant Elmer Stone, USCG, graduated from Pensacola Naval Aviation Training School, thereby becoming the service’s first aviator.  Third Lieutenant Stone was designated as Naval Aviator #38 and later Coast Guard Aviator #1.

1919  The Acting Secretary of the Treasury advised that light keepers and the officers and crews of vessels were not entitled to the benefits of the Public Health Service free of charge after retirement.

1969  ENC Morris S. Beeson, on CGC Point Orient, was killed in action during a boarding in Vietnam.

ENC Morris S. Beeson, on CGC Point Orient

A Note from The Virtual Wall

While the majority of US naval units were drawn from the Navy, the Coast Guard provided a number of smaller ships well suited to coastal patrol and close-in support for the riverine forces. Chief Petty Officer Beeson was killed in a small boat operation south of Chu Lai. The incident is described in the USNAVFORV History for March 1969:

“On the 22nd the small boat from the USCGC POINT ORIENT was checking fishing craft close inshore 56 miles north of Qui Nhon. While proceeding to board the three sampans caught in a restricted zone heavy automatic weapons fire was received from three positions to the north and west. A crewman was struck and killed instantly by the first burst of fire. In the incident three of the five sampans hailed by the small boat stopped their engines instead of evading up the river with the other two. Because restricted area violators had frequently been evading, the incident appeared to be a deliberate ambush with the sampans luring the small boat close to the shore line.”

The incident occurred at Tam Quan Point which forms the northern border of Tam Quan harbour, Binh Dinh Province.

Beeson Hall, the USCG Division 12 headquarters in Da Nang, was the only Coast Guard facility named for any of the Squadron One Coast Guardsmen killed in action in Vietnam.

2003  Three Iraqi sailors were captured in the northern Persian Gulf, the first Enemy Prisoners of War (EPOWs) taken by Coast Guard forces deployed in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom.  The 24-member crew of USCGC Adak (WPB-1333) plucked the Iraqi sailors from the sea after they had jumped overboard when their patrol boat was destroyed by coalition forces.  The EPOWs were taken aboard Adak and later transferred to an undisclosed location.

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

March 21

1791  Hopley Yeaton of New Hampshire was commissioned as “Master of a Cutter in the Service of the United States for the Protection of the Revenue.”  He is often listed as the first commissioned seagoing officer of the United States.  His commission was signed by George Washington and attested to by Thomas Jefferson.  However, seven other commissions for officers of the Revenue Cutter Service were signed on the same date.  Yeaton’s claim to being first is tied to the fact that he is at the top of the list of officers.  He commanded the Revenue cutter Scammel, stationed in Portsmouth, New Hampshire and the list is based on the cutters’ homeports from north to south.  Thus, Yeaton was first on the list, having command of the cutter in the northernmost port.

Elmer Stone, Coast Guard Aviator #1

1916  On this date Third Lieutenant Elmer Stone, USCG became the first Coast Guard officer ordered to flight training.  He reported on April 1, 1916 to Pensacola Naval Aviation Training School.

2013  CGC Midgett, returned to its homeport of Seattle, Washington, after its 75-day counter-narcotics patrol in the eastern Pacific Ocean.  While on patrol in the eastern Pacific in late February, the crew successfully interdicted a 30-foot fishing vessel that was carrying 1,100 pounds of cocaine hidden inside the vessel.  Midgett’s boarding team confiscated the drugs and detained the suspected smugglers.  Midgett’s crew also visited Bahia Malaga, Colombia, for a partnership exercise with the Colombian Navy. The ship hosted the Colombian Navy’s chief of staff, pacific operations commander, and several other senior personnel for a tour of the ship.  After departing Seattle in early January 2013, Midgett and its 170-member crew first underwent a three-week drill in San Diego that included more than 300 training exercises in navigation, medical response, damage control, engineering, combat systems, seamanship, and anti-terrorism force protection.  The crew’s successful performance earned them several battle readiness awards as well as certification by shipboard training teams.

U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Polar Star (WAGB 10) sits moored at the U.S. Antarctic Program’s NSF McMurdo Station in Antarctica during Operation Deep Freeze, Feb. 16, 2025. Operation Deep Freeze is one of many operations in the Indo-Pacific in which the U.S. military promotes security and stability across the region. (U.S. Coast Guard photo by Petty Officer 2nd Class Briana Carter)

2014  CGC Polar Star returned to its homeport of Seattle, Washington, following a 108-day deployment in support of Operation Deep Freeze 2014.  Polar Star originally departed Seattle on December 3, 2013 and made port calls in Honolulu, Sydney, Australia, McMurdo Station, Antarctica, and Tahiti, French Polynesia.  Having completed a reactivation that began four years ago, this deployment marked the first time in six years that a U.S. icebreaker provided support to Operation Deep Freeze. In January 2014, Polar Star departed Sydney to assist in the rescue effort of two ships, the Russian vessel Akademik Shokalsiky and the Chinese vessel Xue Lon.  Both of these vessels were beset in 15 feet of sea ice near Commonwealth Bay, Antarctica.  While Polar Star was en route to assist, the shifting ice conditions allowed the two ships to break free from the ice prior to the Coast Guard icebreaker’s arrival.  In Antarctica, Polar Star broke a navigable shipping lane through 12 miles of ice in McMurdo Sound, encountering ice up to 10 feet in thickness.  The shipping channel was used by the tanker ship Maersk Peary to deliver approximately three-and-a-half million gallons of fuel to McMurdo.  The channel was also used by the cargo ship Maersk Illinois to deliver more than 500 containers of supplies to operate McMurdo and South Pole stations for the next 12 months.  The crew of the Polar Star also delivered and deployed nearly one mile of fuel hose to Marble Point, an air station 20 miles west of McMurdo. In February 2014, prior to departing Antarctica, Polar Star hosted Coast Guard VADM Peter Neffenger, then-Deputy Commandant for Operations, who visited Antarctica to observe the operations of the U.S. Antarctic Program.