Happy birthday to you.

Semper Paratus.

In my recent trip to Normandy I visited the American cemetery. On the far side of the Memorial from the reflecting pool (see below) there is a long wall with a large frieze listing, by service, the names of the 1,577 brave men who went missing in action during the invasion (the number is less now, due to finding the remains of several dozen - these are marked with a small brass rosette).




Source of this beautiful image: http://whatdoiknow.typepad.com...rmandy/dscn1008.html

There are also many headstones bearing this inscription:



For me, the saddest of all was panel for the U.S. Coast Guard. It lists just one name, Seaman First Class Bernard L. Wolfe. There are other Coastguardsmen buried at the American Cemetery at Normandy:

MOMM3 August B. Bunick
S1C Fletcher P. Burton, JR
S1C Jack Albert De Nunzio
S1C Leslie Fritz
BM2C Harry L. Siebert, Jr.C
RM3C Stanley Wilczak

A total of 574 died in action during WWII, seven more died in Viet Nam, and one in Iraq.

All told, the USCG knows of 695 Coastguardsmen who were killed in action, but that number is probably higher.

Thank you one and all.

Semper Paratus! 227 and going strong.

Happy birthday for sure! While a small overall number I understand the KIA data for the USCG reflect a significantly high percentage of loss based on how small the service is. Not sure if it is still the case but my long time high school best friend went in the USCG and was told at the time ( 1980's) there were fewer people in the USCG than the NYPD.
If anyone has data I would appreciate knowing how many USCG personnel have been lost in lifesaving / rescue/ law enforcement efforts? Certainly more than in combat operations

quote:

Originally posted by captain127:
Happy birthday for sure! While a small overall number I understand the KIA data for the USCG reflect a significantly high percentage of loss based on how small the service is. Not sure if it is still the case but my long time high school best friend went in the USCG and was told at the time ( 1980's) there were fewer people in the USCG than the NYPD.
If anyone has data I would appreciate knowing how many USCG personnel have been lost in lifesaving / rescue/ law enforcement efforts? Certainly more than in combat operations

The NYPD comparison still goes on today, but the comparison is only true if comparing NYPD employees in total to active duty members and civilian employees (leaving out reservists and auxiliary members), which I think is a fair comparison.

I don't have any info on deaths. When I was in (2005-2009) I don't recall any deaths relating to missions, but I might be incorrect.

I worked with the USCG port security units druing Gulf War I. Happy birthday to the Coast Guard!

I did a four year enlistment in the USCG between 1976 and 1980. I was planning on completing a 20 year career , however the second ever worst President (Carter) starved me out of the service and back into the real world.
Two year on the High Endurance Cutter Jarvis USCGC-725 and two years at the Marine Safety Office -Port of Corpus Christi.
I struck my Boatswain Mate rating while on the Jarvis and was a small boat coxswain operating a 32'harbor patrol boat up and down the port.
I tried real hard to get transferred over to Port Aransas to run SAR missions on their 41 footers but it wasn't to be.
God has a plan for all of us and I wouldn't be where I'm at or doing what I do now if my plans had worked out the way that I wanted them to.
I see that now looking back over the years that have gone by since.

quote:

Originally posted by m58:
I did a four year enlistment in the USCG between 1976 and 1980. I was planning on completing a 20 year career , however the second ever worst President (Carter) starved me out of the service and back into the real world.
Two year on the High Endurance Cutter Jarvis USCGC-725 and two years at the Marine Safety Office -Port of Corpus Christi.
I struck my Boatswain Mate rating while on the Jarvis and was a small boat coxswain operating a 32'harbor patrol boat up and down the port.
I tried real hard to get transferred over to Port Aransas to run SAR missions on their 41 footers but it wasn't to be.
God has a plan for all of us and I wouldn't be where I'm at or doing what I do now if my plans had worked out the way that I wanted them to.
I see that now looking back over the years that have gone by since.

Welcome to the forum, shipmate. Thank you for your service. Good to see more of us here.

I'd be interested to know haw many coasties we have on this forum, i know of about 10.

I just went over 13 years Active and Reserve.

quote:

Originally posted by sjp:
I'd be interested to know haw many coasties we have on this forum, i know of about 10.

I'm one,
Maddy is one too (he lives nearby although we have never met)
Kornesque (I think I spelled it right
and several other I can't recall right now.

Thank you to all of my brothers in arms; Army, Airforce, Navy, Marines and Coast Guardsmen.

Retired Coastie here. CGA class of 82. Cutter Valiant 82-84, flight school, Falcons at Cape Cod and ATC Mobile, with a HQ tour thrown in for good measure. Retired in 2002. Father was '54, 30+ year man and my older brother was '81, "only" did 5 years after. Semper Paratus!

quote:

Originally posted by sjp:
I'd be interested to know haw many coasties we have on this forum, i know of about 10.

I started a thread to get the answers.

I have probably mentioned this on here before but I served from 81-85. First on the USCGC Boutwell WHEC 719 and then on the 41's at Station Seattle.

Every year on Coast Guard day my wife always acknowledges my service by sending me something special to work, mainly so others around me will be conscience there is a Coast Guard.

Coast Guard day always brings back one fond memory for me. I entered boot camp at Alameda CA (the man's boot camp) a few days before Coast Guard day. We were turned over to our Company Commander on the day the base was having it's official Coast Guard day celebration. From the forming barracks we could here the band playing and the forming CC told us "I'm glad I'm not in your shoes your new CC isn'the going to be happy today, he's probably mad because he's missing out on free beer at the picnic cause he's meeting you."

I went to boot camp at Alameda as well. Many happy memories of picking crushed oyster shells out of the palms of my hands and my knee caps after completing a morning training cycle on the Grinder. Spent a lot of time hi-porting a M-14 rifle around the compound as well while singing "We are Delta of the night, we can't do anything right." Wasn't much fun then but the years have made the memories priceless.