America S Coast Guard

Since its founding more than two hundred years ago, the United States Coast Guard has rescued over a million people. On any given day, "Coasties" respond to 125 distress calls and save over a dozen lives. Yet despite having more than 50,000 active-duty and reserve members on every ocean and on our nation's coasts, great lakes, and rivers, most of us know very little about this often neglected but crucial branch of the military. In Rescue Warriors, award-winning journalist David Helvarg brings us into the daily lives of Coasties, filled with a salty maritime mix of altruism and adrenaline, as well as dozens of death-defying rescues at sea and on hurricane-ravaged shores. Helvarg spent two years with the men and women of the Coast Guard, from the halls of their academy in New London, Connecticut, to the frigid, storm-tossed waters of Alaska's Bering Sea, to the northern Persian Gulf, where they currently guard Iraqi oil terminals. The result is a masterpiece of adventure reporting---the definitive book on America's "forgotten heroes."

Provides detailed history and technical design information on each and every type of small rescue craft ever used by the United States Life-Saving Service and United States Coast Guard.

While the Coast Guards many battles at sea in the War on Drugs are widely known, its participation in the ground offensive is not. Indeed, the Guard didnt just send its cutters to interdict narcotics-laden vessels attempting to bring their illicit cargo into Uncle Sams territorial waters, it sent ground troops to foreign lands to train their forces and, when necessary, directly engage the enemy. But to create the type of force needed was no small task and would not be without tribulation, both from within and outside the organization. The road traveled to complete the mission was laden with obstacles. This is not a story about the Coast Guard you know, or think you know. Rather, this is a story about the other side, the side that history nearly forgot; not the standard, but the antithesis of standard. It is a story that will undoubtedly make even the most seasoned Coast Guardsmen question their understanding of the organization to which they belong. To be sure, This is not your fathers Coast Guard.

More a book about Coast Guard heritage than an academic history, this book focuses on a variety of relatively unknown Guardsmen who personify the service’s core values. The author highlights contributions of a variety of individuals, from seamen to admirals on active duty, as well as reservists, auxiliarists, and civilian members of Team Coast Guard. These heroes, representing a great diversity in age, sex, race, and ethnicity, set an example worthy of emulation and serve as role models for today’s Coast Guard men and women.

How does the U.S. Coast Guard create, instill, and maintain leadership throughout a 40,000 member force spread across the United States? A former Commandant of the U.S. Coast Guard and a best-selling author combine their knowledge of the subject to offer a formula for success. Donald T. Phillips, who has written eight books on leadership, asserts that the Coast Guard is a superlative example of an organization with effective leadership, loaded with leaders at all levels. From a guardsman scraping barnacles off buoys in the Gulf of Mexico to the captain of a cutter in the Gulf of Alaska to the Commandant in Washington, they know exactly what leadership is, how it works, an d why it is important. This case study in leadership uses the Coast Guard as an example for other organizations who want to imbue leadership to every single one of its members. An effective leadership beacon, the book is replete with tangible examples, vivid anecdotes, and explicit guidelines on how to instill leadership throughout an entire organization. Stories abound on Coast Guard efficiency, innovation, and heroism and many are used to illustrate the service's effectiveness and to engage the reader. From the military and government communities to the business world, a variety of organizations can benefit from this outstanding leadership guide.

The intimate view of the U.S. Coast Guard's dramatic World War II record has long been considered a classic. First published in 1957 and out of print for years, the book is now available in paperback. Handsomely illustrated with more than two hundred photographs, the book serves as a unique memento of one of the most illustrious periods in the Coast Guard's two hundred year history. The author offers a story replete with incidents of devotion far beyond the call of duty--daring rescues, adventurous high-sea missions, heroic combat action--to clearly demonstrate the vital role the service played in the Allied war effort. A seasoned World War I veteran who joined the Coast Guard Temporary Reserve in 1942, Malcolm Willoughby has covered every aspect of the Coast Guard's involvement in the war at sea, in the air, and at home. From the invasion of Normandy, where Coast Guardsmen landed thousands of Americans and rescued some 1,500 stranded in the surf, to Guadalcanal, where they rescued three companies of Marines trapped on the beach, this chronicle vividly recounts these well-documented operations and little-known stories of individual triumphs and tragedies as well.