Defenders of Our Nation

The Korean conflict never sent cutters into gun duels, but it changed the service forever—turning early advisory work in Seoul into a global web of ocean stations, AIRDETs, LORAN, and port security that cemented the Coast Guard as an independent military branch in wartime.

In the pre‑dawn chaos at Cat Lai, a rocket‑hit ammunition barge began to burn with fifteen thousand tons of explosives nearby. Engineman Robert Yered ran toward the flames, helping put the fire out and preventing the destruction of three ships and an Army terminal—then came home to live as a quiet groundskeeper few realized was a Silver Star hero.

Eight thousand Coast Guardsmen served in Vietnam—interdicting, rescuing, training, and building LORAN and ATON systems that proved critical to the war effort.

From World War II convoys and Cold War port security to Desert Storm, Deepwater Horizon, and pandemic response, the Reserve has spent 85 years surging into crises at home and overseas—providing the extra force the service needs when the stakes are highest.

Carrying a Speed Graphic through bombs, bullets, and surf from Sicily to Salerno, Normandy, and Southern France, Coast Guard photographer Robert Sargent turned one LCVP’s approach to Omaha Beach into “Into the Jaws of Death”—an image that came to define D Day even as the man behind the lens faded into a footnote.

As new mission threats have evolved, the Coast Guard’s canine team capability has also evolved.

With the need for maintaining security zones at anchorages, in the seaway, and alongside ships offloading military cargoes, the role and training for port security forces emerged as a priority for the Coast Guard.

From Hamilton’s “few armed vessels” to cutters and LEDETs in modern war zones, a small revenue force evolved into a full-fledged armed service that has answered every call from the age of sail to the Global War on Terrorism.

A wrench for a weapon. Haze, shellfire, and the first air‑sea clash in home waters—told through a daring low‑level attack that sent a marauding U‑boat diving for its life.

Whiteouts, razor ice, and lurking U‑boats—inside the little-known Arctic campaign where sled patrols, convoys, and daring rescues kept a vital lifeline alive.