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

January 27

1909 The schooner Nelson Y. McFarland issued a distress call after dropping anchor near the White Head, Maine, Life-Saving Service station.  Although anchored against the tide, she was becalmed, yet her stern swung so close to the ledge that “a change of wind or tide would have thrown the vessel upon the rocks.  A pulling boat and crew from the station responded to the call and the men rowed to the ship’s aid.  After a 3-hour, pull the surfmen succeeded in towing the schooner to a safe anchorage in Seal Harbor.”

USCGC Rush

1993 Communications Station Guam received a mayday broadcast from the M/V East Wood.  The ship’s radio operator claimed that the vessel had been taken over by hijackers and that there were 400 people in the vessel’s two main cargo holds.  Another transmission claimed that 10 persons were going to be thrown overboard.  The Coast Guard dispatched an HC-130 from AIRSTA Barbers Point and ordered CGC Rush to intercept.  A boarding team from the Rush seized the vessel and escorted it to an Army installation on the Marshall Islands.  There were 527 Chinese nationals and 10 crewmembers aboard.  The Chinese nationals were repatriated to China and nine of the crewmen were sent to Indonesia.  The 10th crewman was taken to Honolulu to investigate whether prosecution was possible under U.S. law.

Portrait of Governor Kristi Noem, 23 April 2023.

Below is a Department of Homeland Security news release.

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

January 24

USCGC Citrus, 1984, after conversion to a medium endurance cutter.

1968  Seifu Maru, a Japanese refrigerator vessel, reported a fire and requested clearance to enter Dutch Harbor, Alaska to combat it.  They also reported that two crewmembers had been overcome by smoke and requested their evacuation for hospital treatment.  Clearance was granted and CGC Citrus was ordered to proceed and assist in fighting the fire. The burning ship arrived in Dutch Harbor and advised that the fire was raging between the decks.  Fire fighting parties from Citrus began assisting the crew of the Japanese vessel. Coast Guard aircraft evacuated three patients from Seifu Maru to Kodiak for hospitalization.  The fire assistance rendered by Citrus in a four-day operation saved the Japanese vessel.

1984  MSO Memphis responded to what appeared to be a routine grounding when three barges being towed down river by the M/V Karman P. broke away 40 miles south of Memphis.  Initial reports passed to MSO Memphis by way of Group Lower Mississippi River said the tank barge APEX-3506, with one million gallons of slurry-grade number six oil had grounded with “no damage and no pollution.”  After a boarding team arrived and found the barge sinking and having no means to lighter the cargo, they called in the Gulf Strike Team.  Eventually, through the efforts of MSO Memphis, Gulf Strike Team, Atlantic Strike Team, National Strike Force Dive Team, and the Navy Superintendent of Salvage, as well as a private salvage firm, the barge’s cargo was lightered and the barge itself saved.

January 25

1799 Having existed essentially nameless for 8-1/2 years, Alexander Hamilton’s “system of cutters” was referred to in legislation as “Revenue Cutters.”  Some decades later, the name evolved to Revenue Cutter Service and Revenue Marine.

1940 The ocean station program was formally established on this date under orders from President Franklin Roosevelt.  The Coast Guard, in cooperation with the U. S. Weather Service, was given responsibility for its establishment and operation.  The program was first known as the Atlantic Weather Observation Service and later by thousands of Coast Guardsmen who served after World War II as the “Ocean Station” (OS) program.  Cutters were dispatched for 30-day patrols to transmit weather observations and serve as a SAR standby for transoceanic aircraft.  The program ended in the 1970s.

2004 A helicopter crew from AIRSTA Detroit helped rescue 14 people stranded on an ice floe about one mile west of Catawba Island, Ohio. (It happened again Feb. 7, 2023.)

Coast Guard Cutters Venturous (WMEC 625) and Hamilton (WMSL 753) rendezvous at sea, Nov. 21, 2024, in the Eastern Pacific Ocean. Venturous’ crew conducted a 40-day counter drug patrol within the Coast Guard Eleventh District area of responsibility in support of Joint Interagency Task Force – South. (U.S. Coast Guard photo)

A friend posted the following in response to a post I made on facebook.

The CG placed 20+ vessels into a special status: they are no longer operating nor are they crewed. The personnel and operational funds were redirected to other current and future needs. Current and future budgets should look to downsize shoreside administrative functions by simplifying business processes so that resources can be redirected to operational needs.

Current fleet compared to the fleet in 2000:

So, I decided to look at the current active fleet, first in comparison to the fleet in 2020. At that time, we had 12 WHECs, 32 WMECs, and 49 WPB110s, a total of 93 ships. Currently we have as best I can tell 10 NSCs, 23 WMECs, 58 WPC158s, and 3 WPB110s for a total of 94.

In terms of manpower, the fleet in 2000 required crews totaling 5703 while the current fleet requires a complement of 4785.

The full load tonnage of the fleet in 2000 was 92,168 tons; for the current fleet 102,596 tons. 

Decline before Renewal:

The first National Security Cutter was not commissioned until 2008 and the first Fast Response Cutter not until 2012.

Between 2000 and 2008 the Coast Guard decommissioned three WMECs and eight WPB110s. The 110s as a result of the failed attempt to lengthen them, for a total of 11 ships bring the total down to 82. That would have reduced the manpower requirement to 5347.

The future fleet: 

The currently projected fleet will include 11 NSCs, 25 OPCs, and 67 FRCs for a total of 103. Estimated manning (OPC unknown but I assumed 100, NSC assumed 126, that may be low) would be 5494, and a total tonnage of 185,651 tons full load.

We are moving toward a fleet with fewer large ships, but they will be significantly larger and a fleet of significantly more small ships each significantly larger.

The way the NSCs have been pushed and Webber class WPCs’ better seakeeping and greater number of programmed days underway probably translates into considerably more ship days underway.

In view of the deteriorating world situation, I would like to see some of the out-year OPCs replace by a more capable warship, perhaps smaller and in greater numbers.

I see a need to replace at least some of the WPB87 footers with high-speed craft capable both of speeding to a SAR case of shore and countering a terrorist attack–a true Fast Response Cutter.

A Japan Coast Guard helicopter approaches an Indian Coast Guard patrol vessel during a joint exercise off Chennai, India, January 2018 (Photo: The Asahi Shimbun via Getty) “It’s time for a “Quad” of coast guards,” David Brewster–This modest proposal could help bring stability and security to the Indo-Pacific, without the military fanfare.

Below is a State Department release of a joint statement by the US Secretary of State and foreign ministers of Australia, India, and Japan.

This article from the “The Strategist” suggests that this statement reflects the new administration’s position, and that it moves the Quad closer to a security agreement.

The fact that the Quad foreign ministers meeting was virtually Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s first official activity will be read as a sign of President Trump’s willingness to back the quartet, which after all was revived in 2017 during his first term in office.

Joint Statement by the Quad Foreign Ministers, Media Note, Office of the Spokesperson, January 21, 2025