Naval History Blog

 CDR Frank A. Erickson, USCG, struggled to keep his Sikorsky HNS-1 helicopter in the air as high winds drove blinding snow squalls and sleet into him. A fierce storm swept the Atlantic coast and forced authorities to ground aircraft and close airfields, however, Erickson persevered because men’s lives depended upon him.

Captain Frank A. Erickson, USCG

Devastating explosions ripped USS Turner (DD 648) apart as she lay anchored off Ambrose Light near Lower New York Bay, during the morning watch on 3 January 1944. The fires cooked-off ammunition and despite the crew’s gallant attempts to save their ship, she sank within hours. Rescuers brought survivors to the nearby hospital at Sandy Hook, and the wounded urgently needed blood plasma.

Erickson took off from Floyd Bennett Field in New York and fought gusting winds that tore through the corridors of downtown Manhattan. Reaching Battery Park, he picked up two cases of the precious fluid, and with the cargo lashed to the helicopter’s floats, he then delivered the plasma in the first helicopter lifesaving operation. The intrepid pilot afterward observed that the “weather conditions were such that this flight could not have been made in any other type of aircraft.”

Born near Portland, Oregon, Erickson enlisted in the Navy and became a midshipman before he resigned and enlisted in the Coast Guard. He received an appointment to the Coast Guard Academy and commissioned as an ensign in 1931. After service on board cutters before World War II, he transferred to Honolulu and witnessed the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.

Erickson subsequently became instrumental in the early development of helicopters and pioneered some of the techniques that the Navy and Coast Guard adapted, before he retired at the rank of Captain to Corpus Christi, Texas, in 1954.

For more about CAPT Frank Erickson, click here.

Executive Order 9666 – Directing the Return of the Coast Guard to the Treasury Department

December 28, 1945

 WHEREAS Executive Order No. 8929 of November 1, 1941 (6 F.R. 5581), directed that from that date and until further orders the Coast Guard should operate as a part of the navy, subject to the orders of the Secretary of the Navy; and

WHEREAS the need for the operation of the Coast Guard as a part of the Navy no longer exists, its primary mission in operating as a part of the Navy having been accomplished;

NOW THEREFORE, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and statues of the United States, including Title I of the First War Powers Act, 1941 (55 Stat. 838), and as President of the United States, it is hereby directed that on and after January 1, 1946, the Coast Guard shall operate under the Department of the Treasury; and thereupon all authority, powers, and duties conferred upon or vested in the Secretary of the Navy by any law, proclamation or Executive order affecting the Coast Guard, enacted or promulgated during the period the Coast Guard has been operating as a part of the Navy and now in effect, shall, to the extent that they affect the Coast Guard, vest in and be exercised by the Secretary of the Treasury.

This order is subject to the following exceptions, provisions, and conditions:

1. In the interest of expeditious demobilization and other exigencies of the Naval Service, such Coast Guard vessels, facilities, and personnel as the Secretary of the Treasury and the Secretary of the Navy may mutually agree upon shall continue to operate as a part of the Navy, subject to the orders of the Secretary of the Navy, for such additional time beyond January 1, 1946, as the agreement may provide.

2. The Coast Guard shall continue, for such period as may be mutually agreeable to the Secretary of the Treasury and the Secretary of the Navy, Air-Sea Rescue functions and the maintenance and operation of mid-ocean weather stations and air-sea navigational aids, under the directional control of the Navy; and all vessels, facilities, equipment and supplies required by the Coast Guard in connection with the maintenance and operation of such activities and not required by the Naval Establishment are authorized to be transferred to the jurisdiction of the Department of the Treasury for the use of the Coast Guard.

3. In the initiation, prosecution, and completion of disciplinary action, including remission and mitigation of punishments for any offense committed by any officer or enlisted man of the Coast Guard, the jurisdiction shall depend upon and be in accordance with the laws and regulations of the department having jurisdiction of the person of such offender at the various stages of such action.

4. In effecting the transfer herein prescribed no change shall be made until June 30, 1946, in existing methods of appropriation accounting, or in existing methods of disbursement for the Coast Guard, which shall continue until that date to be performed as heretofore by officers of the Navy or Coast Guard designated under existing regulations for that purpose. The appropriation accounts of the Coast Guard shall be kept on the general ledgers of the Navy Department until June 30, 1946 after which date they shall be transferred to the Treasury Department.

The said Executive Order No. 8929 of November 1, 1941, is hereby revoked.

HARRY S. TRUMAN

THE WHITE HOUSE,

December 28, 1945

Air Station Savannah by Ken Smith

The Coast Guard Art Program has a corps of volunteer, professional artists who donate their talents to help tell the Coast Guard’s story. 

The artists capture the daily missions the 41,500 men and women of the Coast Guard perform including homeland security, search and rescue, marine environmental protection, drug interdiction, military readiness, and natural resource management. 

The collection also recounts the Coast Guard’s history from the early beginnings of our great nation into World War II, through the perils of Vietnam, Desert Storm, and Operation Iraqi Freedom.

Today, the collection contains some 1,850 works and is displayed prominently in other majopr government locations such as the Department of Defense and congressional offices.

The Coast Guard is honored to have original artwork available for temporary loan, free of charge for public display at patriotic events, museums, libraries, and many other venues.

For information on the Coast Guard Art Program, please contact Mary Ann Bader by phone at 202-372-4643 or email. Mary.A. Bader[@]uscg.mil

Hopefully the next 220 years are as good as the first 220 years.  Enjoy this video about the Coast Guard Historian’s office and Coast Guard Museum.  Semper Paratus!

In response to the sinking of the White Star ocean liner Titanic after colliding with an iceberg the previous month, on 15 May 1912 the Hydrographic Office recommended that the Navy establish an ice patrol in the vicinity of the steamer lanes in the North Atlantic. The Navy designated USS Birmingham (CL 2) and USS Chester (CL 1) to alternate on the patrol.

Birmingham departed Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on 19 May 1912, marking the first American ice patrol. An International Ice Patrol was established in 1914, with the Coast Guard assuming the responsibility for the United Sates.