Free Republic

Eight years after the U.S. Coast Guard and the NAACP signed a voluntary agreement to work together to boost the number of African-Americans at its 1,000-cadet service academy, the annual enrollment and graduation figures for blacks remain in single digits. ... Under a House bill, sponsored by Oberstar and Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., the Coast Guard subcommittee chairman, members of Congress would nominate candidates for the academy. ... On a 385-11 vote last month, the House advanced the legislation to the Senate. The Coast Guard Academy historically has taken pride in viewing itself merit-based and choosing its applicants without regard...

ARLINGTON, Nov. 12, 2009 – When Coast Guard Lt. Hannah Bealon was growing up, she was intrigued by the stories of her uncles’ courage and sacrifice in the Vietnam War. Coast Guard Lt. Hannah Bealon, right, shares a moment with Ruthanna Weber, a 94-year-old World War II veteran and an original member of Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service, or WAVES, at a Veterans Day ceremony at the Women in Military Service for America Memorial in Arlington, Va., Nov. 11, 2009. DoD photo by John Kruzel  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. “At an early age, I knew I wanted...

A senior Coast Guard official removed earlier this year from his command position in Alaska is facing a long string of charges within the agency, including sodomy, indecent acts and conduct unbecoming an officer and gentleman. The U.S. Coast Guard filed 31 violations of the Uniform Code of Military Justice against Capt. Herbert Hamilton. It did not provide details of the alleged offenses, which also include fraud, adultery, indecent language and soliciting another to commit an offense.

Investigators are trying to determine why a U.S. Coast Guard C-130 airplane and a U.S. Marine Corps attack helicopter collided on Thursday night, likely killing nine crew members. Aircraft and ships are scouring the ocean off San Diego for any signs of survivors of the nighttime collision, but Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said the crash likely killed both the plane's seven crew members and the two-person crew of the AH-1W Super Cobra helicopter.Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Ian Gregor said the crash occurred minutes after control of the C-130 was handed off from FAA controllers to military air controllers.

BreakingNews San Diego media: 9 missing after collision of Coast Guard C-130 and Marine Cobra helicopter off the SD coast. BNO News working to confirm.

WASHINGTON, Oct. 16, 2009 – Coast Guard searchers today found crash debris believed to belong to a missing Air Force pilot’s F-16 jet that collided yesterday with another F-16 near the South Carolina coast during a night-training exercise, an Air Force spokesman said today. “The Coast Guard has found some debris in the ocean that is apparently from our missing F-16,” Robert Sexton, chief of public affairs at Shaw Air Force Base in Sumter, S.C., said during a telephone interview with American Forces Press Service. Shaw Air Force Base is the home of the 20th Fighter Wing, to which the...

PORTLAND, Maine — A new Coast Guard rule has closed down fishing grounds around a remote Maine island following the discovery of unexploded bombs on the ocean bottom from when the Navy used the rocky outcropping as an aerial bombing range. The Coast Guard put the rule into effect last week. It establishes a safety zone banning mariners from the shallow lobster-rich waters around Seal Island.

Station Telephone Numbers: Main (202)767-1194 OOD (202)680-0112 Fax (202)767-1193 Mailing Address: Commanding Officer U.S. Coast Guard Station Washington D.C. Building 91 Bolling AFB Washington DC 20032

Here is video of CNN's Jean Meserve explaining how they mistook a Coast Guard Training Exercise on the Potomac River in Washington D.C. today, for a real live-fire incident. Meserve explained they heard audio from the Coast Guard saying "10 rounds have been expended." There were boats on the river that appeared to be trying to evade the Coast Guard as well. Eventually, they got the word from the Coast Guard that it was a training exercise and no rounds had ever been fired. With the exercise coming on September 11, it caused quite a stir for about half an...

WASHINGTON, Sept. 3, 2009 – Global climate change is a hotly debated topic, and the U.S. government is looking to Alaska to assess how it may affect the nation. White House and federal agency officials participating in the new Ocean Policy Task Force traveled throughout Alaska and the Arctic from Aug. 17 to 21 to observe activities in the region and meet with local leaders and industry representatives. Coast Guard Commandant Adm. Thad W. Allen, who took part in the trip, discussed in a Sept. 1 “DoDLive” bloggers roundtable how the increasingly accessible and active Arctic region has significant security,...

Today, my daughter, FReeper Anoreth (since 11/29/03) graduates from Coast Guard Basic Training. We're also celebrating "The Boy," son of FReeper AnAmericanMother, who is graduating today from Marine Corps Basic. And "ForgotenKnight," grandson of Monkey Face, recently deployed with a Stryker unit to Afghanistan. Other FReepers with children (grandchildren, nieces and nephews, etc.) in the military, please join us in celebrating all our family members who are serving our country in the military.

Here is raw video (above) of one person swept into the Atlantic off the coast of Maine at Acadia National Park being saved after a "rogue wave" fueled by Hurricane Bill pulled spectators into the Ocean. Below is a video report . . . . . (Watch Videos)

Ryan Alexander Jenkins, wanted in the murder of model Jasmine Fiore, led authorities on a high-speed boat chase several miles off the coast near Blaine, Wash., law enforcement sources told The Times today. Authorities tracked Jenkins to a marina in Blaine on Wednesday night and came upon his car and empty boat trailer, the sources said, who spoke on the condition that they not be named because it was an ongoing investigation. The engine of the car was still warm and the U.S. Coast Guard was alerted. A Coast Guard cutter came upon a speed boat several miles off the...

WASHINGTON, Aug. 5, 2009 – Petty Officer 1st Class Joseph Ruggiero’s heroic actions more than five years ago saved lives and earned him the first Purple Heart awarded to a Coast Guardsman since the Vietnam War. Petty Officer 1st Class Joseph Ruggiero became the first Coast Guardsmen since the Vietnam War to earn the Purple Heart for valor. Courtesy photo   (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. Ruggiero entered the service May 1, 2000, not knowing what the future would hold for him. His father, who served in the U.S. Marines in Vietnam, also served in the federal government for...

"The tall ship Unicorn, which grounded on rocks Wednesday morning about 400 yards off Nonamesset Island in the Elizabeth Islands chain, just off Martha's Vineyard, has been freed, the U.S. Coast Guard announced Wednesday afternoon. The Coast Guard said the ship was refloated with the assistance of the commercial tug Jaguar." "The cause of the incident is not yet known. The Unicorn claims to be the only all-female-crewed tall ship in the world. According to the Unicorn's Web site, the ship was operating under a program called Sisters Under Sail, with plans to sail the East Coast from Baltimore to...

U.S. Coast Guard Historian's Office Official WebsiteSemper Paratus - the US Coast Guard anthem

Please join us in the campaign to show Gratitude to our US Military. Go the following link to the Gratitude Campaign and email the link to everyone you know: THE GRATITUDE FOR OUR MILITARY CAMPAIGNLet's show our military how grateful we are for their service all over this country. It's a neat video you can download to distribute in emails, thumbdrives, and any other way you can too. Thank you.

PASCAGOULA -- First lady Michelle Obama will sponsor the Coast Guard's third Legend-class national security cutter, which is about 25 percent complete at Northrop Grumman Shipbuilding's Pascagoula yard, officials said Monday. In August 2007, the Coast Guard awarded Northrop Grumman a $285.5 million contract to construct the Stratton. The 418-foot cutter, WMSL 752, is named in honor of Dorothy C. Stratton, the first female commissioned officer in the Coast Guard. Stratton served as director of the SPARS, the Guard's women's reserve, during World War II.

The keel for the new National Security Cutter Stratton — which will be a sister ship of theCutter Berthoff, seen here on her builder’s trials — was laid Monday at Northrop GrummanShipbuilding in Pascagoula. PASCAGOULA — First lady Michelle Obama will serve as the sponsor of the third National Security Cutter, Stratton. Officials celebrated the ship’s construction Monday as the U.S. Coast Guard and Northrop Grumman laid the ship’s keel at the Pascagoula shipyard. Rear Adm. Ronald J. Rábago announced at the ceremony that Obama will serve as the Stratton’s sponsor and she will attend the christening ceremony at...

USGS HomeContact USGSSearch USGS Earthquake Hazards Program  HomeEarthquake CenterRegional InformationAbout EarthquakesResearch & MonitoringOther Resources You are here: Home » Earthquake Center » Latest Earthquakes - World » Magnitude 7.8 - OFF WEST COAST OF THE SOUTH ISLAND, N.Z. Latest Earthquakes USAWorldEQ Notification Service Feeds & DataAnimations Recent Earthquakes:Last 8-30 DaysEarthquake Archives Lists & MapsSearch EQ DatabaseEQ Summary PostersScientific Data About EQ MapsDid You Feel It?Fast Moment TensorsMedia InfoPAGERSeismogram DisplaysShakeMaps Magnitude 7.8 - OFF WEST COAST OF THE SOUTH ISLAND, N.Z. 2009 July 15 09:22:32 UTC Versión en Español DetailsSummaryMapsScientific & TechnicalAdditional Info Where can I find...? Earthquake Details Magnitude...

An MH-60 Jayhawk helicopter crew from Air Station Kodiak prepares the rescue of a French kayaker from the Bering Sea Saturday July 4, 2009. The crew hoisted Jean Gabriel Shelala, 28, from his kayak 40 miles north of St. Lawrence Island at about 4:15 p.m. The 28-year-old is attempting to circumnavigate the world using a specially designed kayak. He departed from Emmonak on June 27. Chelala is reportedly in good condition, but asked for the assistance Saturday. (AP Photo/US Coast Guard - Brian Myers)

WASHINGTON, D.C. - House Coast Guard & Maritime Transportation Ranking Member Frank A. LoBiondo (NJ-02) has introduced legislation to provide immunity to U.S. merchant mariners who wound or kill pirates while responding to a pirate attack. H.R. 2984, the "U.S. Mariner and Vessel Protection Act," was introduced in response to the recent hijacking of the U.S.-flagged Maersk Alabama by Somali pirates, during which the pirates kidnapped the ship's captain. The bill directs the U.S. Coast Guard to certify firearms training for merchant mariners on U.S.-flagged merchant vessels. Any trained mariner using force and the owner, operator or master of said...

      ~The FReeper Canteen Presents~ Happy Birthday United States Coast Guard Auxiliary! Semper Paratus The United States Coast Guard Auxiliary was established on June 23, 1939 by an act of Congress as the United States Coast Guard Reserve and re-designated as the Auxiliary on February 19, 1941. The mission of the U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary is to contribute to the safety and security of our citizens, ports, waterways and coastal regions, as directed by the United States Coast Guard. On June 23, 1939, Congress established the Coast Guard Reserve, a volunteer civilian organization, to promote boating safety and...

Canada and the U.S. signed an agreement Monday designed to increase border security by allowing the RCMP and the U.S. Coast Guard to team up and ride in each others' vessels during border patrols. Known as the Shiprider program, the new rules intend to improve security and eliminate jurisdictional grey areas in Canada-U.S. waterways. Without the new program, vessels must stop at the border and call upon the other country's officials for help. The Shiprider program has been used as a pilot program over the past few years to catch smugglers and criminals on joint waterways. Public Safety Minister Peter...

SAN DIEGO — The Coast Guard says a Navy helicopter with five people aboard has crashed into the ocean 13 miles south of San Diego near the Coronado Islands.

The Coast Guard says a Navy helicopter with five people aboard has crashed into the ocean 13 miles south of San Diego near the Coronado Islands. More Navy Copter Down (from AP) Prayers up.prisoner6

WASHINGTON, May 18, 2009 – A North American Aerospace Defense Command exercise designed to test the command’s aerospace defense capabilities in the national capital area has been rescheduled after inclement weather last week forced its postponement. Exercise Falcon Virgo, originally planned for the May 15-16 overnight period, now is scheduled for May 19-20. Air Force F-16 Fighting Falcon jets, Coast Guard Dolphin choppers and Civil Air Patrol Cessnas will participate in the exercise over the nation’s capital and its suburbs. A number of Falcon Virgo exercises have taken place since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, officials said. The most...

FORT LAUDERDALE, Florida (Reuters) – The U.S. Coast Guard will require U.S.-flagged ships sailing around the Horn of Africa to post guards and ship owners to submit anti-piracy security plans for approval, a Coast Guard official said on Tuesday. The new requirements, which respond to a surge of piracy off the coast of Somalia, allow ship owners to decide whether to use armed or unarmed guards, Coast Guard Rear Admiral James Watson told shipping industry representatives at a maritime security meeting in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. The revised Maritime Security Directive, highly anticipated by the shipping industry, was signed on Monday...

NEW LONDON, Conn. - The U.S. Coast Guard Academy says Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano will give the keynote speech at the Connecticut school's 128th commencement next month. The graduation ceremony is set for May 20 at the New London campus. --snip-- Napolitano was on CNN's "State of the Union" show Sunday defending an intelligence report by her agency that veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan could be susceptible to recruitment by right-wing extremists.

WASHINGTON, April 15, 2009 – Somali pirates fired on a U.S.-flagged merchant vessel south of the Gulf of Aden today, military officials reported. Pirates attacked the motor vessel Liberty Sun with small arms and rocket-propelled grenades. The crew put out a distress call received by the U.S. Coast Guard. “The pirates were not successful in their attempt to board the vessel,” said Navy Lt. Nate Christensen, a spokesman for the Navy’s 5th Fleet in Bahrain. “The USS Bainbridge, [which] was in the general vicinity, responded to ensure Liberty Sun wasn’t in peril.” The pirates had fled by the time the...

Bogota (AP) - It's a game played out regularly on the high seas off Colombia's Pacific coast: A U.S. Navy helicopter spots a vessel the size of a humpback whale gliding just beneath the water's surface. A Coast Guard ship dispatches an armed team to board the small, submarine-like craft in search of cocaine. Crew members wave and jump into the sea to be rescued, but not before they open flood valves and send the fiberglass hulk and its cargo into the deep. Colombia has yet to make a single arrest in such scuttlings because the evidence sinks with the...

Attempts to free a stuck anchor caused the boat carrying four football players to turn over and capsize, according to a report released by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission on Friday. According to the report, the problems for the boaters started when they attempted to pull their anchor up so they could head back to port.

NASSAU, Bahamas, March 10, 2009 – Coast Guardsmen from District 7, Tactical Law Enforcement Detachment, are taking part in Tradewinds 2009, a U.S. Southern Command-sponsored exercise designed to increase maritime security. Coast Guard Chief Petty Officer Gustavo Tirado demonstrates defensive techniques during compliant boarding training for servicemembers from the Dominican Republic Defence Forces at Royal Bahamas Defence Force Base in Coral Harbour, Bahamas, March 6, 2009. U.S. Marine Corps photo by Sgt. Sheila M. Brooks  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. The Coast Guardsmen trained servicemembers from partner nations in compliant and noncompliant boarding March 6 to 8 at...

MANAMA, Bahrain, March 9, 2009 – U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Boutwell left Karachi, Pakistan, today after a four-day port visit to participate in the international naval exercise Aman 2009, marking the first time a U.S. ship has pulled into Pakistan since May. The 10-day exercise, which began March 5, focuses on air, surface and maritime security training. It includes representatives from 38 countries, as well as ships from 11 nations that include the United States, United Kingdom, Pakistan and Australia. The at-sea portion of the exercise is being conducted primarily in the North Arabian Sea, off the coast of Pakistan....

Two days before NFL player Marquis Cooper took a doomed fishing trip with three friends in Florida Gulf Coast waters, a friend urged him to buy a life-saving device used to locate boats in distress. Cooper hadn't heard of the gadget, an emergency position indicating radio beacon (EPIRB). And he didn't purchase one before his excursion on Saturday, according to the St. Petersburg Times.

WASHINGTON, March 4, 2009 – The Coast Guard is used to being in high demand, overworked and underequipped, but the pursuit to modernize in the midst of fiscal ambiguity is the real challenge, Coast Guard Commandant Adm. Thad W. Allen said yesterday. “The fact that demand for Coast Guard services exceeds our capacity has always been the case,” Allen said during his State of the Coast Guard address at the National Press Center here. “But as the nation faces fiscal uncertainty, we'll have to make difficult financial choices and manage resources to buy down risk in the most critical areas.”...

As the Coast Guard ended its search for three missing football players whose boat tipped over in high Florida seas, the lone survivor said two of those lost gave up after hours in the frigid water and the third tried to swim to safety. South Florida player Nick Schuyler told investigators that all four of the friends on a fishing excursion were initially wearing life vests and clinging to the 21-foot boat belonging to Oakland Raiders linebacker Marquis Cooper. But two to four hours after the boat capsized, one of the NFL players removed his life jacket and let...

The Coast Guard called off its search for three missing football players at sunset Tuesday. The news came after crews combed choppy waters off the Florida Gulf Coast for a third full day since NFL players Marquis Cooper and Corey Smith and a third friend William Bleakley disappeared. Their fishing boat capsized in stormy seas Saturday evening. One of the four on the excursion, Nick Schuyler, survived.

Nick Schuyler was taken via helicopter to Tampa General Hospital. Officials are still searching for former Buccaneers Corey Smith and Marquis Cooper, along with ex-USF football player William Bleakley.

DEVELOPING: The Coast Guard has found an overturned boat with one person clinging to it in the search for missing NFL players. Search crews found the boat about 30 miles off the Gulf Coast of Florida. Corey Smith, a free-agent defensive end who played for the Detroit Lions last season, and Marquis Cooper, an Oakland Raiders linebacker, are two of the four people aboard the boat that didn't return from a fishing trip Saturday. Will Bleakley and Nick Schuyler, both former University of South Florida players, were also aboard. The identity of the man hanging on to the boat could...

UPDATE: A family member tells us that the Coast Guard has found a boat with one person clinging to the side. We will have the details posted here as we learn them. http://www.tampabays10.com/news/local/story.aspx?storyid=101513&catid=8

<p>Overturned boat found in Gulf of Mexico with 1 person clinging to it. No word if it is one of the missing NFL players.</p>

Detroit Lions defensive end Corey Smith and Oakland Raiders linebacker Marquis Cooper were among four boaters missing Sunday off Florida's Gulf Coast, the Coast Guard and Smith's agent said. Smith and Cooper were on a 21-foot vessel that left Clearwater Pass on Saturday morning for a fishing trip and did not return as expected, the Coast Guard said Sunday. Crews used a helicopter and a 47-foot boat to search a 750-square mile area west of Clearwater Pass on Sunday -snip-

The Coast Guard is in search of a fishing boat 50 miles off the coast of Clearwater, FL. Reportedly, the boat is carrying three NFL players, including one who plays for the Detroit Lions. The 21-foot boat apparently left Clearwater Pass on Saturday with four people aboard and likely encountered choppy conditions in the Gulf of Mexico.

WASHINGTON, Feb. 18, 2009 – The Coast Guard is actively engaged in implementing the president’s counter-piracy action plan, senior Coast Guard officials said. Capt. Charles Michel, chief of the Office of Maritime and International Law, and Capt. Michael Giglio, chief of law enforcement, discussed the Coast Guard’s international counter-piracy efforts yesterday with bloggers and online journalists. “Piracy goes back many, many years -- many thousands of years, actually -- about the time that man started first taking onto the water in ships,” Michel said. “Piracy is essentially an act of violence or depredation conducted on the high seas from...

CLEVELAND - The Coast Guard says several hundred people are trapped on a slab of ice about 8 miles wide that has broken free and is floating away from the Ohio shoreline of Lake Erie.

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — The U.S. Coast Guard says it will no longer respond to distress calls sent by analog signal starting Feb. 1. The agency is switching to digital frequencies and says the new equipment cannot process signals transmitting on 121.5 or 243.0 MHz. The Coast Guard said Wednesday in a statement that the switch to digital will provide a more stable and powerful signal that could improve response times. The agency said mariners and aviators should upgrade their equipment to include a digital 406-MHz distress radio beacon and register it [snip]

AT SEA ABOARD USS SAN ANTONIO, Jan. 21, 2009 – Navy and Coast Guard boarding teams are working together to ensure safe operations in the Gulf of Aden, Arabian Sea, Red Sea and Indian Ocean as part of Combined Task Force 151, a multinational counter-piracy task force. Coast Guard and Navy teams board suspect vessels to detect, deter and disrupt piracy activities. "This is a law-enforcement operation to deter piracy and make the waters safe for all nations," Coast Guard Lt. j.g. Greg Ponzi, officer in charge for Coast Guard Law Enforcement Detachment 405, said. Each boarding team for CTF...

The Coast Guard and National Transportation Safety Board released this Coast Guard video of US Airways flight 1549 landing in the Hudson River . . .