Advent Spiel for 5 December: The United States Coast Guard.
Dec. 12th, 2004 12:15 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
camwynYeah, I know, you didn't expect to see that one. Please note that in my original post about these things, I only said that I was going to be posting about people Doing Good Things, not that I was going to confine it to charities. I've been thinking for a bit, and the fact of the matter is that I didn't know who to do next. When I was at choir practice recently, though, one of the songs included a repeated request to 'save us'. I thought about it, and I figured- you know, that's not a bad idea. And after the amount of mockery I've heard people direct at the Coasties, largely out of misunderstanding, I felt that it would be a good idea to turn the spotlight on people who deserve more credit than they get for the service to which they dedicate much of their lives.
The Coast Guard came into existence on 4 August 1790, in the form of a ten-ship fleet authorized by the very first U. S. Congress. In those days their job description made them sound like a division of the IRS- 'enforce tariff and trade laws, prevent smuggling, and protect the collection of the federal revenue'.
Sounds pretty bureaucratic, right? Remember, though, this was 1790. The so-called golden age of piracy wasn't all that far in the past. The United States wasn't much more than a handful of ex-colonies drunk on having run the King's men back to England and Canada at that point in time. The navy proper barely existed, and as for the Marine Corps, Congress had taken it out of existence at the end of the Revolution. (They were reestablished in 1798.) Pirates, smugglers, slavers, and worse roamed the seas, especially since Britain no longer had much of an incentive to protect most of the sea lanes south of Canada. If someone didn't keep the ports open and safe from whoever might slip past the Navy, the fledgling country would founder like a ship in a bad storm.
That was officially the beginnings of the Coast Guard, at least according to the Coast Guard Historian's Office. The Revenue Service didn't actually get the name of United States Coast Guard until 1915, when they merged with a few other agencies...
- The U. S. Lighthouse Service, whose job it was to maintain the lights that were the only hope of safe passage into clouded, fogged-in, or night-darkened harbours;
- The Steamboat Inspection Service, a division of the Justice Department officially tasked to 'provide better security of the lives of passengers on board of vessels propelled in whole or in part by steam';
- The Bureau of Navigation, a wing of the Treasury department responsible for things like, oh, maintaining accurate charts of waters where ships might rip out their bellies if someone didn't show them the safe way to go;
- And the service which I think is most closely associated with them these days, the U. S. Life-Saving Service, responsible for rescuing those in danger at sea and along our shores.
I want you to take a good long look at that last one, folks. That's the biggie in my mind. Their anti-smuggling duties come pretty close behind, since these days 'smuggling' doesn't just mean 'drugs and counterfeit DVDs', it means 'desperate people' and 'women and children being trafficked into prostitution', but the duties of the old Life-Saving Service are just about the most important thing I can think of that these guys do. And they take them real seriously, too. They have a saying in the Coast Guard that I think is probably unparalleled among the other armed forces:
"You have to go out, but you do not have to come back."
Translation: laugh your ass off at these guys for not charging int combat. Go ahead and make fun of them for serving what you see as a cushy duty in a nice safe part of the world like North Carolina. Make snotty remarks about how their big jobs involve orders to chase Haitians and Cubans back to their islands. But remember, on the nights you find yourself at sea with the waves rising and the rain falling sideways in the winds gone mad, that it specifically says in the Instructions for United States Coast Guard Stations:
"In attempting a rescue the keeper will select either the boat, breeches buoy, or life car, as in his judgement is best suited to effectively cope with the existing conditions. If the device first selected fails after such trial as satisfies him that no further attempt with it is feasible, he will resort to one of the others, and if that fails, then to the remaining one, and he will not desist from his efforts until by actual trial the impossibility of effecting a rescue is demonstrated. The statement of the keeper that he did not try to use the boat because the sea or surf was too heavy will not be accepted unless attempts to launch it were actually made and failed [underlining added], or unless the conformation of the coast--as bluffs, precipitous banks, etc.--is such as to unquestionably preclude the use of a boat."
[1934 Instructions for United States Coast Guard Stations, Paragraph 28, page 4].
These men and women are not allowed to stop trying to save human lives at sea until they absolutely, positively cannot make it happen. It's in the rules.
These days the Coasties have the responsibility to protect the marine environment, police the waters of Alaska, and keep our waterways open when winter would otherwise bind them closed with ice. During time of peace they're part of the Department of Homeland Security- as I said, there's more to smuggling these days than just stuff you buy cheap on the street. There's more money in smuggling people these days than drugs. Drugs get you fined and jailed. Humans? Well, assuming you even get caught, you still have to be implicated in running the illegal immigrant ring, or tied to the women claiming they were forced into the sex trade. Very profitable business, that. Between having to sort out the situation of illegal immigrants intercepted at sea, and having to tag suspected terrorist vessels or ships that are believed to be part of criminal financial operations, the Coast Guard has their hands full in peacetime. In wartime, they're transferred to the Department of the Navy, and they risk their necks just like anyone else who gets into a boat in a zone where the locals are out to kill anything under the Stars and Stripes.
They've had bad patches in the past, although it would probably be wise to examine the historical record of those bad patches before coming to any conclusions. They're doing their best now. I don't believe that the current war in Iraq is making the world any safer for Americans, but I do believe that the work the men and women of the U. S. Coast Guard do every day and night of their lives makes our country and its people safer. They might not be Marines, but they still risk their lives for the rest of us.
They have to go out, but they don't have to come back. And knowing this, they still go out.
'I am the good shepherd, and the good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. Greater love than this no man hath than to lay down his life for his friends.'
The Coast Guard came into existence on 4 August 1790, in the form of a ten-ship fleet authorized by the very first U. S. Congress. In those days their job description made them sound like a division of the IRS- 'enforce tariff and trade laws, prevent smuggling, and protect the collection of the federal revenue'.
Sounds pretty bureaucratic, right? Remember, though, this was 1790. The so-called golden age of piracy wasn't all that far in the past. The United States wasn't much more than a handful of ex-colonies drunk on having run the King's men back to England and Canada at that point in time. The navy proper barely existed, and as for the Marine Corps, Congress had taken it out of existence at the end of the Revolution. (They were reestablished in 1798.) Pirates, smugglers, slavers, and worse roamed the seas, especially since Britain no longer had much of an incentive to protect most of the sea lanes south of Canada. If someone didn't keep the ports open and safe from whoever might slip past the Navy, the fledgling country would founder like a ship in a bad storm.
That was officially the beginnings of the Coast Guard, at least according to the Coast Guard Historian's Office. The Revenue Service didn't actually get the name of United States Coast Guard until 1915, when they merged with a few other agencies...
- The U. S. Lighthouse Service, whose job it was to maintain the lights that were the only hope of safe passage into clouded, fogged-in, or night-darkened harbours;
- The Steamboat Inspection Service, a division of the Justice Department officially tasked to 'provide better security of the lives of passengers on board of vessels propelled in whole or in part by steam';
- The Bureau of Navigation, a wing of the Treasury department responsible for things like, oh, maintaining accurate charts of waters where ships might rip out their bellies if someone didn't show them the safe way to go;
- And the service which I think is most closely associated with them these days, the U. S. Life-Saving Service, responsible for rescuing those in danger at sea and along our shores.
I want you to take a good long look at that last one, folks. That's the biggie in my mind. Their anti-smuggling duties come pretty close behind, since these days 'smuggling' doesn't just mean 'drugs and counterfeit DVDs', it means 'desperate people' and 'women and children being trafficked into prostitution', but the duties of the old Life-Saving Service are just about the most important thing I can think of that these guys do. And they take them real seriously, too. They have a saying in the Coast Guard that I think is probably unparalleled among the other armed forces:
"You have to go out, but you do not have to come back."
Translation: laugh your ass off at these guys for not charging int combat. Go ahead and make fun of them for serving what you see as a cushy duty in a nice safe part of the world like North Carolina. Make snotty remarks about how their big jobs involve orders to chase Haitians and Cubans back to their islands. But remember, on the nights you find yourself at sea with the waves rising and the rain falling sideways in the winds gone mad, that it specifically says in the Instructions for United States Coast Guard Stations:
"In attempting a rescue the keeper will select either the boat, breeches buoy, or life car, as in his judgement is best suited to effectively cope with the existing conditions. If the device first selected fails after such trial as satisfies him that no further attempt with it is feasible, he will resort to one of the others, and if that fails, then to the remaining one, and he will not desist from his efforts until by actual trial the impossibility of effecting a rescue is demonstrated. The statement of the keeper that he did not try to use the boat because the sea or surf was too heavy will not be accepted unless attempts to launch it were actually made and failed [underlining added], or unless the conformation of the coast--as bluffs, precipitous banks, etc.--is such as to unquestionably preclude the use of a boat."
[1934 Instructions for United States Coast Guard Stations, Paragraph 28, page 4].
These men and women are not allowed to stop trying to save human lives at sea until they absolutely, positively cannot make it happen. It's in the rules.
These days the Coasties have the responsibility to protect the marine environment, police the waters of Alaska, and keep our waterways open when winter would otherwise bind them closed with ice. During time of peace they're part of the Department of Homeland Security- as I said, there's more to smuggling these days than just stuff you buy cheap on the street. There's more money in smuggling people these days than drugs. Drugs get you fined and jailed. Humans? Well, assuming you even get caught, you still have to be implicated in running the illegal immigrant ring, or tied to the women claiming they were forced into the sex trade. Very profitable business, that. Between having to sort out the situation of illegal immigrants intercepted at sea, and having to tag suspected terrorist vessels or ships that are believed to be part of criminal financial operations, the Coast Guard has their hands full in peacetime. In wartime, they're transferred to the Department of the Navy, and they risk their necks just like anyone else who gets into a boat in a zone where the locals are out to kill anything under the Stars and Stripes.
They've had bad patches in the past, although it would probably be wise to examine the historical record of those bad patches before coming to any conclusions. They're doing their best now. I don't believe that the current war in Iraq is making the world any safer for Americans, but I do believe that the work the men and women of the U. S. Coast Guard do every day and night of their lives makes our country and its people safer. They might not be Marines, but they still risk their lives for the rest of us.
They have to go out, but they don't have to come back. And knowing this, they still go out.
'I am the good shepherd, and the good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. Greater love than this no man hath than to lay down his life for his friends.'
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no subject
Date: 2004-12-11 09:53 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-12-11 09:57 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-12-12 08:51 am (UTC)Anyone who wants to join the military to defend this country, I tell them to join the Coast Guard; the only branch of the service that does that under the auspices Homeland Security. No other branch does.
no subject
Date: 2004-12-12 10:58 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-12-13 02:59 am (UTC)Ours is organised differently to the US model but I think the traditions and levels of commitment are universal (We have the HM Coastguard and the RNLI, which is a charitable institution).
And speaking of wartime, there's more than a few U-boat commanders who had reason to curse the dedication of the US coastguard.
no subject
Date: 2004-12-13 11:37 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-12-13 07:22 am (UTC)Thanks for mentioning them.
no subject
Date: 2004-12-13 12:07 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-12-13 09:15 pm (UTC)Personally, I knew that the Guard were national. I just didn't realize until later how much stuff they actually did. That's a busy bunch o' folks.
no subject
Date: 2004-12-13 12:00 pm (UTC)*hugs* from GA!
no subject
Date: 2004-12-13 12:08 pm (UTC)