Posted on 10/22/2018 7:10:50 PM PDT by uscga77
President Trump had some great things to say about the U.S. Coast Guard tonight in the great state of Texas. He spoke about the brave response to Hurricane Harvey. Semper Paratus
The USCG do a great job. They have been doing good things since long before I watched them at their academy across from the subase in Groton while I was in the service. They sailed a ship to Rota Spain while I was getting to my sub one time. I’m talking mast and canvas sailed a wooden ship. I don’t remember the ships name, but crossing the Atlantic in anything is not for sissies. Drug interdiction and rescues etc are daily duty. Nice Trump put out a good word. MAGA.
An oft-neglected branch of our armed services. Deserving of the recognition.
The USN is very tech driven. They want more of it, always. For good reason: If the radar is down, they'll sit in dock because their weapon system is crippled without it. When we updated one of their ships, they were excited about it.
On the other hand, the USCG is very operations driven. They will go into a hurricane in a leaky canoe if that's what it takes to go find that lost sailor. If the radar goes down, they'll just send a coastie up on deck with binoculars and keep going. They're heroes and take a lot of pride in their willingness and ability to go into adverse conditions with little support and still do their missions successfully. I admired them immensely and still do. But when it came to getting new stuff the USCG was sort of "meh" at all our upgrades. Sort of like "Okay, sure, that's pretty nice I guess. The old one worked okay though. This better not break down on us". I sometimes felt like if we just left the old stuff behind and put a little polish on it, they'd have been just as happy. They took "can-do" attitude to a whole next level!
I really enjoyed working for those guys though even if they were sort of skeptical of shiny new tech. Just such great people!
Wasn’t it named the “Eagle”?
Wasn’t it named the “Eagle”?
ping
Every cadet mans the Eagle before they graduate - still to this day. She is a beauty.
Love our puddle pirates!
retired Coastie here chipping in.
Yes, that’s the USCGC Eagle, formerly known as the Horst Wessel, the old Kriegsmarine Navy “Tall” ship which - though not of a wooden hull - was in most other respects a true sailing ship. We took her as war booty after Germany surrendered in ‘45.
While in OCS, our class sailed her from Chesapeake bay to the Azores. Good memories, couple a scares in stiff weather but a seaworthy ship with a Captain who knew her well.
Sheesh, that was almost 20 years ago for me... where in the hell does the time go?
Semper Par...
the JG
Not a wooden hull
4 months ago.
Thanks for your great words. I don’t know what the funding level is for the Coast Guard today. I would think a lot better than the old days. The Coast Guard has always been the poor brother in the armed services. In any case, we would have to literally beg, borrow and steal to stay operational. I won’t go into the details but some were quite fun. It made for a kind of resourcefulness that we took pride in. As an engineer, you had to be a generalist always needing to learn about something you didn’t know before. That went for both enlisted and officer. That really was necessary for being on a ship that was a prototype. Often our machinery was one of a kind and so not supported by our supply system. Again we prided ourselves in finding a way to patch things up, make them work and go on patrol.
If I remember correctly, there were three of those sailing barks taken from the Germans after WWII. The Coast Guard got one, the Portuguese got one, and I think the third went to Norway or Sweden.
I am pretty sure the Coast Guard originated the saying about “We have done so much, for so long, with so little, that now we can do anything with nothing, forever.”
USCG ET3 (E4)
1971-1975
two years outside CONUS,
Italy and Turkey
LORAN stations
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