William H. Thiesen, Ph.D.

Units and personnel of the United States Coast Guard and its predecessor services have served with distinction in every major American conflict since the founding of the United States and the Persian Gulf War of 1990-1991 and operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm proved no exception to this rule.

The United States Coast Guard has been a steward of the nation’s maritime environment for nearly 200 years. For 50 of those years, the National Strike Force has helped protect the American people and the environment from the impacts of dangerous chemical discharges and hazardous material releases, and other natural and manmade disasters.

When Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton established the service in 1790, the stated purpose of the revenue cutters was law enforcement. However, after its founding, ships of the United States Revenue Cutter Service assisted vessels in distress as was the custom for mariners at sea.

In 1790, Alexander Hamilton established a small fleet of coastal law enforcement vessels to patrol off East Coast seaports. Over the next 235 years, the service experienced rapid growth in its responsibilities, missions, and organization.

Walsh’ s career spanned some of the most eventful years in Coast Guard history, including Prohibition, World War II and the post-war modernization of the service.

Station was totally destroyed, all property and effects belonging to station lost, except boats, but their whereabouts are unknown except that of lifeboat, which was saved but is badly stoved and is lying about a mile and a half back from the beach at Texas City.

In the evening of April 20, 2010,, the Deepwater Horizon oil rig blows up. The explosion results in the deaths of 11 workers and, within two days, the loss of the rig. The resulting spill of over 200 million gallons of crude oil became the largest discharge of oil in U.S. waters. This was the catalyst for the largest response for an environmental disaster in the Service’s history.

At the tail end of D-Day at Gold Beach, after being sent back out to sea, their landing craft’s engine failed, and they found themselves drifting helplessly into a minefield. The Royal Signalmen shouted for help, but nearby watercraft were too busy to pay attention. Then when all seemed lost a United States Coast Guard vessel appeared out of nowhere.

After refitting late in the summer of 1800, the master and crew of revenue cutter Pickering boarded their vessel at Newcastle, Delaware, for their next Caribbean war patrol. It would be the last time they set foot on dry land.

In the early 1930s, Coast Guard Commandant Frederick Billard decided to acquire state-of-the-art flying boats capable of performing rescues by landing on the open sea. The first aircraft designed from the start for Coast Guard use, these new amphibians became known as the Coast Guard’s “FLBs” (for Flying Lifeboats).