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

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

May 2

1882  An Act of Congress (22 Stat. L., 55, 58), in an attempt to protect the Lifesaving Service from the evils of the “spoils System,” declared that “the appointments of District superintendents, inspectors, and keepers and crews of life-saving stations shall be made solely with reference to their fitness and without reference to their political or party affiliations.”

1932  Northern Pacific Halibut Act re-enacted Act of June 7, 1924, after Convention with Canada and made it unlawful to catch halibut between November 1^st and February 15^th  each year in territorial waters of United States and Canada and on high seas, extending westerly from them, including the Bering Sea.  Coast Guard enforced this Act.

1942  Coast Guard plane V-167 rescued two from a torpedoed freighter.

1942  Coast Guard prewar search and rescue procedure discontinued for security reasons.

1943  CG-58012 exploded and sank off Manomet Point, Massachusetts.  No lives lost.

USCGC Sangamon

1995  Part of the Upper Mississippi and Missouri Rivers rose above the flood stage, flooding areas in Nebraska, Iowa, Missouri, Illinois, and Kentucky.  Coast Guard Disaster Response Units conducted SAR duties and assisted local authorities.  On May 16, MSO St. Louis closed all 366 miles of the Missouri River to all traffic.   The Secretary of Transportation authorized the involuntary recall of 300 reservists.  However, only 143 were called to duty.  Coast Guard Forces Paducah was at the epicenter of flood-relief operations with five DRUs working in Cape Girardeau, Missouri, and the Olive Branch, Illinois, area.  Coast Guard aircraft, including an HH-60 Jayhawk from AIRSTA Clearwater (the 2nd District had no air station) provided daily over-flight and SAR missions.  CGC Sangamon was used as a staging platform for those working near Meridosa, Illinois.  Two DRU teams aided Meridosa and surrounding communities with emergency evacuations, ferrying emergency supplies, and reinforcing threatened levees.  Coast Guardsmen were also called in to Slidell, Louisiana, where the evacuated 285 flood victims to safety.

Ran across the video above. Thought it might be interesting.

USCGC Cleat (WYTL-65615)

The Acquisitions Directorate (CG-9) reports,

May 1, 2025 —The Coast Guard today released a request for information (RFI) to inform the development of its acquisition strategy to recapitalize its light and medium domestic icebreaking capabilities.  Industry sources are invited to submit information on existing icebreaking-capable vessels or vessel designs that are ready for construction or already in production. The Coast Guard will use these responses to inform future program activities to recapitalize the domestic icebreaking capabilities provided by the 140-foot icebreaking tug and 65-foot small harbor tug.

You can access the RFI here.

There are a couple of things that may be surprising.

• First the description of the two types of interest “DOMICE-M” domestic icebreaker, medium and “DOMICE-L,” domestic icebreaker, light. The 2,500 HP 140s are a long way from medium icebreakers by the Coast Guard’s usual medium icebreaker definition, 20,000 to 45,000 HP.
• Second that that there seems to be an aversion to any increase in size. The “VESSEL PRELIMINARY CAPABILITY PARAMETERS” specifically requests  information only on vessels the same size or smaller than the exiting 140 foot WTGBs and 65 foot WYTLs, and the expected performance is essentially no better than the existing classes and could be worse.

Significantly the 65′ WYTLs are currently being treated more like station boats than commissioned ships. The intention is to continue that might be thought of as a reason to restrict length to 65 feet or less. Still that might be unnecessarily restrictive. It may require fewer people to run a particular 70 foot vessel than a particular 64 foot boat, but manning requirements are not included in the RFI. Reading between the lines it appears they actually want a smaller vessel than the 65 footers.

The constraint on length of the 140 replacement is even harder to understand. The range requirement clearly indicates these vessels will deploy for several days with presumably a mixed gender crew. Like the WTGBs they will probably have davits and a small ship’s boat. In District 9, on the Great Lakes, when not breaking ice, the WTGBs perform some of the functions Webber class WPCs perform in other districts. Speed and icebreaking are almost mutually exclusive, but a bit more waterline length does make a couple of extra knots easier.

USCGC LIBERTY (WPB 1334), Credit to Gillfoto, 23 November 2012

Below is a news release from Coast Guard News.

It is the end of an era as the last of 49 Island class cutters leaves Coast Guard service. These boats continue to do useful work for other navies and coast guards as they are transferred under the Excess Defense Article (EDA) program.

The Surface Acquisitions Logistics Center at the Coast Guard Yard runs the EDA program doing necessary maintenance, sea trials, foreign crew training, and vessel transport and close-out.

110 foot Island class cutters have been transferred to Pakistan, the Republic of Georgia, Costa Rica, Ukraine, the Philippines, Tunisia, and Greece. Additional units are expected to go to Cameroon and Ecuador.

Decommissioned 87 foot WPBs and 210 foot WMECs

87 foot Marine Protector class WPBs have been transferred to Ghana, Lebanon, the Philippines, and Uruguay.