United States Coast Guard Facts for Kids

Quick facts for kids United States Coast Guard
Seal of the United States Coast Guard U.S. Coast Guard service mark
Founded	28 January 1915 (109 years, 2 months) (As current service) 4 August 1790 (233 years, 8 months) (As Revenue-Marine)
Country	United States
Type	Coast guard
Role	Port and waterway security Drug interdiction Aids to navigation Search and rescue Illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing Marine safety Defense readiness Migrant interdiction Marine environmental protection Ice operations Law enforcement
Size	40,558 active duty personnel 7,724 reserve personnel 21,000 auxiliarists 8,577 civilian personnel (as of 2020)
Part of	United States Armed Forces Department of Homeland Security
Headquarters	Douglas A. Munro Coast Guard Headquarters Building, Washington, D.C., U.S.
Nickname(s)	"Coasties" "The Guard"
Motto(s)	Semper Paratus Always ready
Colors	CG Red, CG Blue, White
March	"Semper Paratus"
Anniversaries	4 August
Equipment	List of U.S. Coast Guard equipment
Engagements	See list Quasi-War War of 1812 Seminole Wars West Indies Anti-Piracy Operations African Anti-Slavery Operations Mexican–American War American Civil War Spanish–American War World War I World War II Korean War Vietnam War Invasion of Grenada Invasion of Panama Persian Gulf War Operation Uphold Democracy Kosovo War War in Afghanistan Iraq War Operation Inherent Resolve
Commanders
Commander-in-Chief	President Joe Biden
Secretary of Homeland Security	Alejandro Mayorkas
Commandant	ADM Linda L. Fagan
Vice Commandant	ADM Steven D. Poulin
Master Chief Petty Officer of the Coast Guard	MCPOCG Heath B. Jones
Insignia
Ensign
Service Mark
Flag
Jack

The United States Coast Guard is one of the 5 branches of the military of the United States. It is a part of the United States Department of Homeland Security. The Coast Guard's purpose is to protect the people, environment, industry and security of the United States on seas, lakes and rivers. To do this, the Coast Guard uses boats, ships, helicopters and airplanes to stop smuggling and other crime and terrorism, and to rescue ships and boats in danger.

The Coast Guard traces its roots back to the United States Revenue Cutter Service, which was created by Congress on 4 August 1790. As such, the Coast Guard is the oldest continuous seagoing service of the United States.

The modern United States Coast Guard was started on January 28, 1915. This is when the U. S. Congress ordered the United States Revenue Cutter Service and the United States Life-Saving Service to merge into a single service. The Coast Guard can become part of the Department of the Navy during war, but it is not now. It became part of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security in 2003.

History

The U.S. Revenue Cutter Service (USRCS) was set up in 1790 when President George Washington signed an act allowing the building of 10 boats called "cutters". The service was first suggested in a letter by Alexander Hamilton as a way to collect tariffs which were being lost to smuggling. They were also tasked with making sure shipments of goods from the United States were getting through to markets in other countries. The first Coast Guard station was in Newburyport, Massachusetts. Until the re-establishment of the Navy in 1798, the Revenue Cutter Service was the only naval force of the early United States.

The modern Coast Guard can be said to date to 1915, when the Revenue Cutter Service merged with the U.S. Life-Saving Service when Congress formalized the existence of the new organization. In 1939, the Lighthouse Service was brought under the Coast Guard's purview. In 1942, the Bureau of Marine Inspection and Navigation was transferred to the Coast Guard. In 1967, the Coast Guard moved from the U.S. Department of the Treasury to the newly formed U.S. Department of Transportation, an arrangement that lasted until it was placed under the U.S. Department of Homeland Security in 2003 as part of legislation designed to more efficiently protect American interests following the terrorist attacks of 11 September 2001.

In times of war, the Coast Guard or individual components of it can operate as a service of the Department of the Navy. This arrangement has a broad historical basis, as the Coast Guard has been involved in wars as diverse as the War of 1812, the Mexican–American War, and the American Civil War, in which the cutter Harriet Lane fired the first naval shots attempting to relieve besieged Fort Sumter. The last time the Coast Guard operated as a whole within the Navy was in World War II. More often, military and combat units within the Coast Guard will operate under Navy or joint operational control while other Coast Guard units will remain under the Department of Homeland Security.

Images for kids

A boatswain's mate keeps watch on a small boat it heads for the USCGC Chandeleur in 2008
A Coast Guard Aviation Survival Technician assisting with the rescue of a pregnant woman during Hurricane Katrina in 2005
Logo of the Search and Rescue Program of the U.S. Coast Guard
An NRC FEMA First Team truck being loaded onto a Coast Guard plane for flight to Puerto Rico
Members of the U.S. Coast Guard Maritime Security Response Team (MSRT) hooking and climbing onto a target to show the skills needed to complete a variety of missions dealing with anti-terrorism, protecting local maritime assets, and harbor and inshore security patrols as well as detecting, stopping, and arresting submerged divers, using the Underwater Port Security System
A member of USCG Law Enforcement Detachment (LEDET) 106 performing a security sweep aboard a tanker ship in the North Persian Gulf in July 2007
Coast Guardsmen preparing to transport a portable pump to the 112-foot grounded fishing vessel Mar-Gun, March 7, 2009
Marine Corps Privates First Class William A. McCoy and Ralph L. Plunkett holding a sign thanking the Coast Guard after the Battle of Guam in 1944
United States Coast Guard Squadron One unit patch during the Vietnam War
USCG Districts
The Douglas A. Munro Coast Guard Headquarters building in St. Elizabeths West Campus
Insignia of the twenty-one different warrant officer specialties within the USCG
Recruit companies visiting Arlington National Cemetery for their one day of off-base liberty, which is their only break in an eight-week boot camp at the Coast Guard Training Center in Cape May, New Jersey
A C-37A Gulfstream in flight
An HC-130 Hercules in flight
An HH-60J Jayhawk conducting rescue demonstration
USCGC Gallatin test firing its Oto Melara 76 mm gun
The SIG P229R-DAK is the standard sidearm of the U.S. Coast Guard.
Photo showing a variety of Coast Guard uniforms. From Left: Service Dress White, Tropical Blue, Service Dress Blue, Winter Dress Blue, Camouflage Utility Uniform, Operational Dress Uniform
A United States Coast Guard cutter]]
A U.S. Coast Guard recruiter wearing the Winter Dress Blue uniform with garrison cap
The United States Coast Guard Ceremonial Honor Guard wears Full Dress Blue with white gun belts at the Tomb of Unknown Soldiers.
A Coast Guard chief warrant officer (CWO2, left) and an officer (commander, O-5, right) wearing Full Dress Whites
Coast Guardsmen in 2013 wearing ODUs
The U.S. Coast Guard Pipe Band in New York during the 2010 St. Patrick's Day Parade
Coast Guard cadets wearing Full Dress Blue (B) uniforms
Seal of the United States Coast Guard Reserve
Seal of the United States Coast Guard Deployable Operations Group

United States Coast Guard facts for kids

History

Images for kids

See also