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war and social upheaval: World War II America Military Services: U.S. Coast Guard
World War II America Military Services: Coast Guard
Figure 1.--While normally an independent service, during war time Coast Guard is transferred to the Navy. And here the Navy needed all the help it coukld do, especially with handling the vast number of small craft needed to fight the War. A major part of the Allied war effort was amopphisbious invsion. And here tens of thousands of small boats were needed--not only to land troops, but the must larger task of landing supplies. And it was the Coast Guard that had the expertise in handling small craft. The americans in particular launched a dizzing variety of small craft, including the all omprtant Landfing Ship Tank (LST). The press capotion here read, "Coasdt Guardsman Gets a Young Friend at Leyte: Coast Guardsman James C.W. Lunde, a Coast Guard combat photographet of Park Ridge Ill., finds an interesting young Filipino friend atb Leyte, who carefully investigated the shinynbuckler on the Coast Guardsman's battlke helmet. Lunde, a veteran of several Pacific invasionsd, went ashore with the first assault troops from a Coast Giard-manned LST to record a vivid pictorial account of American forces' return to the Philippines." The photograph would have been taken about October 1944.
The U.S. Coast Guard is a part of the Treasury Department with a mission to ensure our Nation's maritime safety, security and stewardship. It is respnsible for a range of coastal activies like navigation and life saving, since World War II, the stewarship role has taken on more imprtance, but since the 9-11 attacks, security has taken on more prominance. While normally an independent service, during war time Coast Guard is transferred to the Navy. This occurred shortly before Pearl Harbor (November 1941). And the Coast Guard during World War II played a vital role. The Navy 's expertise is with large naval vessesls, but the War created a huge need for boats of varying design and puroses. And here it was the Coast Guard that had the expertise in handling small craft. Of course during the War, it was the Navy's large ships, both carriers and big-gun battleships and cruisers that make the headlines and get most of the coverage an as the Coast Guard puts it, their 'service and sacrifice is lost in that shadow'. World War II historians just typically overlook or meerly briefly mention the Coast Guard's role. That role and the Service's responsibolities were immediately expamded upon transfer to the Navy. And that role include operatiins in both the Atalntic and Pacific. Noine other than Fleet Admiral Chester Nimitz applauded the performance of Coast Guard men and women, writing in the introduction of Malcolm Willoughby’s The U.S. Coast Guard in World War II, “I know of no instance wherein they did not acquit themselves in the highest traditions of their Service, or prove themselves worthy of their Service motto, ‘Semper Paratus’—‘Always Ready.’”
