A U.S. Coast Guard C-130 participates in forward arming and refueling point (FARP) operations during Arctic Expeditionary Capabilities Exercise (AECE) in Adak, Alaska on Sept. 18, 2019. US Marine Corps Photo
I am seeing strong indications that DOD may reopen the former US Naval Air Station Adak.
Adak, one of the Aleutian Islands, approximately 877 nautical miles South of the Bering Strait. About 901 nmi from Kodiak, about 2075 imi from Vladivostok.
Why do we care?
For the Coast Guard, it is a potential forward operating base for fixed wing aircraft monitoring fishing in the Bering Sea, and a fueling/replenishment stop for cutters on Alaska Patrol.
For Defense it puts assets in place to protect allied shipping and movements between the US and Asia and to prevent the passage of potentially enemy shipping and movements between the Russian Arctic and China, North Korea, and Russia ports in Asia via the Northern Sea Route and the Bering Strait.
The Coast Guard and DHS should add their voices in support of the idea.
Ports along the Northern Sea Route have seen a quadrupling of cargo since 2003 from 26.4 million tons in 2003 to 104.8 million tons by 2019 (if slipping to 96 million tons last year (2020) due to Corona). They now handle as much cargo every year as the entire Baltics, which have stagnated for more than a decade.
1846 Eleven cutters were assigned to cooperate with Army and Navy in the Mexican War. Cutters McLane, Legare,Woodbury, Ewing, Forward, and Van Buren were assigned to the Army. Cutters Wolcott, Bibb, Morris, and Polk were assigned to the Navy.
1888 Secretary of Treasury was authorized to establish anchorage grounds New York Harbor, adopt suitable rules, and “take all necessary measures” for their enforcement.
1963 The Honorable Douglas Dillon, Secretary of the Treasury, at a ceremony at Cape May Receiving Center, awarded Life-Saving Medals to three enlisted men of the Coast Guard in recognition of their heroic action and performance of duty at the risk of their own lives. Boatswain’s Mate First Class John C. Webb, coxswain of CG-36455 was awarded the Gold Life-Saving Medal and his crewmen, Engineman Third Class Anthony D. Lloyd and Seaman Ray Dwayne Duerre were each awarded a Silver Life-Saving Medal. The awards were based on their rescue of three persons from a stranded pleasure craft disabled approximately two miles northwest of Cape Alava, Washington, on June 1, 1962.
May 17
1999 The Coast Guard “kept the peace” when the Makah Indian tribe hunted and killed a gray whale in Neah Bay, Washington. The Makah were guaranteed the right to hunt whales in their 1855 treaty with the U.S.
May 18
1920 Coast Guard officers and enlisted personnel were granted the same pay, allowances and increases as the Navy.
1820 Congress declared the foreign slave trade to be piracy and instituted the death penalty for any U.S. citizen engaged in the slave trade.
USRC Naugatuck/aka E. A. Stevens (1862) Photo #: NH 58871 Line engraving published in Harper’s Weekly, circa spring 1862, when the gunboat was operating in the Hampton Roads area, Virginia. U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph. http://www.history.navy.mil/photos/sh-usn/usnsh-n/naugatck.htm
1862 Semi-submersible ironclad USRC Naugatuck participated in bombardment of Drewry’s Bluff (James River) after accompanying USS Monitor in its engagement with CSS Virginia and engaging in an attack on Sewell’s Point. USRC Naugatuck would continue in service until 1889.
US Coast Guard Academy, New London, CT. Hamilton Hall center foreground.
1931 Treasury Secretary Andrew W. Mellon laid the cornerstone of Hamilton Hall, the first building under construction at the “new” Coast Guard Academy in New London, Connecticut.
The Cunard-White Star limited liner RMS Olympic, sister to the Titanic, passes very close aboard to the LV-117 on the Nantucket station in early January 1934. The light ship had been rammed already once that year in the fog, and the following May the Olympic actually collided with LV-117 and sent it to the bottom in seconds. Four crewmen went down with the ship while the Olympic rescued the remaining seven crewmen. Three of these men died later from injuries and exposure. The British Government paid for the construction of LV 112 as reparation for the accident. ref: US coast Guard
1934 The White Star Line passenger vessel RMS Olympic, in a dense fog, rammed and sank the lightship LV-117 on the Nantucket Shoals station. Olympic, which had been homing in on the lightship’s radio beacon very accurately, failed to steer clear in time. Seven of the lightship’s 11 crewmen were killed. The White Star Line agreed to fund a new lightship.
USS Forsyth (PF-102) Tacoma Class frigate. As a weather ship, she would have had the after 3″ gun replaced by a balloon shelter.
1945 On 12 May, the Coast Guard-manned frigate USS Forsyth (PF-102) was called off her weather station to search through haze and fog for a German submarine that was attempting to surrender. Three days later Forsyth joined Sutton (DE-771) in accepting the surrender of U-234 at 46º 39′ N. x 45º 39′ W. This submarine was carrying a German technical mission and supplies, including a cargo of uranium, to Tokyo. Earlier, two Japanese passengers on board committed suicide rather than surrender.
USS/USCGC Bangor (PF-16/WPF-16) Photographed in 1945-1946, while configured as a weather reporting ship with a balloon hangar aft. Courtesy of Donald M. McPherson, 1974. U.S. Navy photo NH 78996. USS Forsyth would have looked like this at the time.
USCGC Modoc
1975 USCGC Modocseized the Polish fishing vessel Kalmar 10 miles off Monterey, California, for fishing inside the 12-mile limit and escorted her to San Francisco.
USCGC Gallatin WHEC -721 (378), USCGC Rockaway WHEC-377 (311), and USCGC Spencer WHEC-36 (327) moored at Governor’s Island
1996 The Coast Guard formally closed Governors Island. The Army left the base in the early 1960s and the Coast Guard took it over on June 3, 1966 as a way to consolidate its operations in the New York Area. At the height of Coast Guard involvement on the island over 4,600 people lived and worked there.
Governors Island U.S. General Services Administration map; indicates U.S. Coast Guard usage, 1995
1997 Coast Guard Auxiliarist Frank Mauro, while assigned to Coast Guard UTB 41351, rescued nine victims who had been forced into the water after the strong current crushed their boat. He was awarded the Gold Lifesaving Medal for his heroic actions.
Naval News has an interesting post which includes the Video above. While the primary focus is on Singapore’s new class of “Multi-Role Combat Vessel,” there is also discussion about two classes of vessels that might provide inspiration for future cutter designs, Singapore’s “Littoral Mission Vessel” and Finland’s ice capable corvette. and how carbon fiber is used in these ships.
Singapore has been very successful in efforts to reduce manning requirements, and their contractor SAAB is a leader in carbon fiber structures.
1908 An Act of Congress (35 Stat. L., 160, 162) delegated to the Lighthouse Board the duty of caring for and maintaining the anchorage buoys previously placed by the United States in the harbors of New York and Philadelphia.
The United States Navy flagship USS Valcour (AGF-1) shown in her final configuration, in a photograph released in November 1972. It may look familiar to Coast Guard old timers like myself since she was a member of the Barnegat class. In the 50s and most of the 60s, the Coast Guard had 18 ships of this class. The last, USCGC Unimak was not decommissioned until 1988.
1951USS Valcourwas rammed by the collier Thomas Tracy. CGC Cherokee responded and assisted in extinguishing the resulting fires and towed the Valcour to Norfolk. Thirty-seven Navy sailors perished.
On the morning of 14 May 1951, two months after she returned to Norfolk from her second Middle East tour, Valcour headed out to sea for independent ship exercises. While passing the collier SS Thomas Tracy off Cape Henry, Virginia, she suffered a steering casualty and power failure. As she veered sharply across the path of the oncoming collier, Valcour sounded warning signals. Thomas Tracy attempted to make an emergency turn to starboard but her bow soon plowed into Valcour‘s starboard side, rupturing an aviation gasoline fuel tank. An intense fire soon broke out aboard Valcour and, fed by the high-test aviation gasoline, spread rapidly. To make matters worse, water began flooding into Valcour‘s ruptured hull. Although fire and rescue parties on board Valcour went to work immediately, the gasoline-fed inferno forced many of Valcour‘s crew to leap overboard into the swirling currents of Hampton Roads to escape the flames that soon enveloped Valcour‘s starboard side. The situation at that point looked so severe that Valcour‘s commanding officer, Captain Eugene Tatom, gave the order to abandon ship.
USS Valcour (AVP-55) moored pierside, circa 1948-51, prior to collision, location unknown. Photo from 1952 cruise book. Photo credit: Carl Musselman via Navsource
Coast Guard Cutter Cowslip, a bay-class buoy tender underway in Astoria. The Cowslip was decommissioned December 2002.
1997 The 757-foot containership Ever Grade collided with USCGC Cowslip 10 miles upriver from the mouth of the Columbia River near Astoria, Oregon. The buoy tender suffered significant damage from a glancing blow along her port side. Visibility at the time was less than 20 yards due to thick fog in the area. The Cowslip was repaired and returned to service.
U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Thetis (WMEC 910) a 270-foot Famous-class cutter, conducts a counter-narcotics patrol in the Caribbean Sea, June 19, 2022. The Cutter Thetis is homeported in Key West. Florida. (U.S. Coast Guard photo)
2020 The Coast Guard Cutter Thetis (WMEC-910) and crew returned to Key West on May 14, 2020, after a 65-day Caribbean Sea patrol in support of Coast Guard 7th District. Thetis worked with Coast Guard cutters Spencer (WMEC-905), Resolute (WMEC-620), Raymond Evans (WPC-1110), Kathleen Moore (WPC-110), Richard Etheridge (WPC-1102), and Coast Guard Air Station Miami. The cutter Thetis’s crew was part of an increased Coast Guard presence along the north coast of Haiti, Cuba, and Dominican Republic to prevent a surge of illegal immigration and human smuggling that could be fueled by COVID-19. Employing an Air Station Miami MH-65 Dolphin helicopter crew, the Thetis crew deterred vessels from attempting an illegal exodus. The cutter Thetis crew responded to two search and rescue cases and acted as on-scene commander in the search for a man reported missing off the Motor Tanker Jialong Spirit over 200 miles north of Dominican Republic. The cutter Thetis crew also assisted in the successful evacuation of a crew member with a medical emergency off the Motor Tanker Maersk Batam over 100 miles southwest of Puerto Rico. The cutter Thetis crew also conducted training with Coast Guard Air Station Clearwater MH-60 Jayhawk helicopter aircrews to qualify pilots for shipboard operations in preparation for the upcoming hurricane season and with U.S. Army MH-6 Little Bird helicopter aircrews from the Special Operations Aviation Training Battalion in Jacksonville, FL.
The War Zone has an interesting post about the vulnerability of conventionally powered ships during yard periods with a focus on the loss of USS Bonhomme Richard and the contrasting policies applied to nuclear powered ships.
SAN DIEGO (July 12, 2020) The U.S. Navy amphibious assault ship USS Bonhomme Richard (LHD-6) on fire at Naval Base San Diego, California (USA), on 12 July 2020. On the morning of 12 July, a fire was called away aboard the ship while it was moored pier side at Naval Base San Diego. Base and shipboard firefighters responded to the fire. Bonhomme Richard was going through a maintenance availability, which began in 2018. The fire was extinguished on 16 July.
Coast Guard ships are subject to the same hazards and potentially might benefit from the same safeguards.
1905 An Executive Order extended the jurisdiction of the Lighthouse Service to the noncontiguous territory of Guam Island.
1952 The Coast Guard announced the establishment of an Organized Reserve Training Program, the first in U.S. Coast Guard history. Morton G. Lessans was sworn in as the first member of the Organized Air Reserve on December 12, 1951.
1986 CGC Manitou stopped the 125-foot Sun Bird in 7th District waters and her boarding team discovered 40,000 pounds of marijuana hidden aboard. The boarding team then located the vessel’s builder’s plate and learned that the Sun Bird was the decommissioned “buck-and-a-quarter” cutter Crawford. The former cutter and her 14-man crew were taken into custody. A newspaper article describing the incident noted: “If Crawford was a person, Miami would have probably seen it blush…The ex-Coast Guard cutter received more publicity for smuggling the drugs than for its 20-year Coast Guard career.”
1906 In part due to the lobbying efforts of the Maritime Association of the Port of New York, Congress authorized the construction of a cutter “equipped to cruise for and destroy derelicts and obstructions to navigation” for the Revenue Cutter Service. The Service contracted with the Newport News Shipbuilding and Drydock Company to build this “derelict destroyer,” which was christened USRC Seneca. She was commissioned in 1908.
United States Coast Guard Lieutenant C. B. Olsen is awarded with the Flying Cross Medal in Washington DC. A close up of Lt. C. B. Olsen . US Secretary of Treasury Henry Mogenthau pins up the medal on the uniform of the Lt. and shakes hand with him. Location: Washington DC. Date: May 25, 1938.
1938 Lieutenant C. B. Olsen became the first Coast Guardsman to be awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross. He earned the award for “heroism in removing Lieutenant Colonel Gullion, U.S. Army, who was stricken with acute appendicitis, from the Army transport ‘Republic‘” after making an open-water landing near the freighter.
“Miami, Florida Air Station, at Dinner Key, Under General Muster, accompanied as well by Lieutenant C. B. Olsen, Commanding., 2 Jan. 1935.” “HERE is a group of magnificent American flying men seen with Lt. Olsen, commanding. As usual, he is in disguise so some effort may be required to identify him.”
The Long Blue Line: Clarence Samuels—the U.S. military’s Afro-Latino color barrier buster! A signed photo of Lt. Clarence Samuels commanding a Coast Guard vessel near the end of World War II. (U.S. Coast Guard Collection)
1939 Boatswain’s Mate First Class Clarence Samuels was appointed as a Chief Photographer’s Mate (Acting), becoming the first African-American photographer in the Coast Guard and only the second Coast Guard photographer in the entire history of the Service. (He had an amazing 27 year career including command of several ships.)
USCGC Wachusett (WPG/WHEC 44) No caption; 28 January 1966; Photo No. 040166-04; photographer unknown.
1957CGC Wachusett, on Ocean Station NOVEMBER, halfway between Honolulu and San Francisco, rescued the two-man crew who had bailed out of a U.S. Air Force B-57 because of a fuel shortage.
1984 The Coast Guard was a primary participant in the 1984 Louisiana World Exposition in New Orleans. The Coast Guard Barque Eagle was opened to the public and the fair’s organizers also chose the Coast Guard as the official honor guard for the exposition. The service was also responsible for the exposition’s waterfront security.
1998 ADM Robert Kramek, Commandant of the Coast Guard, commissioned the Coast Guard’s Leadership Development Center (LDC) in New London. The LDC consolidated the leadership training courses of the service, including Officer Candidate School, Chief Warrant Officer Indoctriniation School, the Chief Petty Officer Academy, Command and Operations School, Officer in Charge/Executive Petty Officer Course, and the Leadership and Quality Institute in one central location at the Coast Guard Academy.
GULF OF AQABA (Feb. 13, 2022) The U.S. Coast Guard Sentinel-class cutter USCGC Glen Harris (WPC 1144) sails near a U.S sail drone explorer during the International Maritime Exercise/Cutlass Express (IMX) 2022, Feb. 13, 2022. IMX/CE 2022 is the largest multinational training event in the Middle East, involving more than 60 nations and international organizations committed to enhancing partnerships and interoperability to strengthen maritime security and stability. (U.S. Army photo by Cpl. DeAndre Dawkins)
“U.S.-based Saildrone will deploy four large unmanned surface vessels in Danish waters next month to conduct maritime surveillance missions and help protect critical undersea infrastructure…Four 10-meter Voyager USVs equipped with a suite of intelligence-gathering sensors and AI data fusion will be sent to Denmark to support the Danish military gain better maritime awareness.”
USRC HUDSON At the Norfolk Navy Yard, Portsmouth, Virginia, 21 April 1898 being outfitted for service in the Spanish-American War, which included adding additional armament, armor plating, and a new coat of “war paint” U.S. Coast Guard History website
A veteran of the Civil War and the Spanish-American War, Lt. Frank Newcomb served for over 40 years in the U.S. sea services. He was a progressive thinking man and considered one of the finest officers of the Revenue Cutter Service. (U.S. Coast Guard photo)
1908 The Revenue Cutter Service was authorized to enforce Alaska game laws.
USCGC Durant (serving as Coast Guard WDE 489), 1952-1954. Photo credit: Nick Tiberio, Shelton, Conn. Balloon shelter has been added. Armament retained from late WWII appears to include 3×3″/50, two twin 40mm, a quad 40mm, and two 20mm mounts.
1945 In the morning, four days after Nazi Germany surrendered unconditionally to the Allies, the Coast Guard-manned destroyer escorts USS Vance and USS Durant, underway off the Azores escorting their last convoy to the Mediterranean, sighted a light ahead of the convoy. They closed to investigate. Durant illuminated the target, which was the surfaced German submarine U-873, which had been at sea for 50 days. Vance, while screened by Durant,hailed the “erstwhile enemy” over her public address system, established her identity, and then ordered her to heave to. On board were seven officers and 52 enlisted men. Vance placed a 21-man prize crew on board the captured U-boat and delivered the prize at Portsmouth, New Hampshire, on May 16, 1945.
U.S Coast Guard 1309, San Diego Air & Space Museum
1963 Air Station San Francisco intercepted a teletype message from Fort Point Lifeboat Station to CG Radio Station San Francisco stating that the 36-foot F/V Pirate II had lost its engine and would be blown onto Seal Rocks within twenty minutes. Coast Guard HH-19G helicopter CGNR-1309 was dispatched to assist. The helicopter, commanded by LCDR Warren S. Petterson, located the fishing vessel in heavy surf and commenced “Operation Tugbird” by lowering a tow cable to Pirate II. The helicopter then towed the vessel out of the surf and to a distance of one-half mile off shore where CG-82328 successfully took over.
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