Enforcers on the Seas

On the evening of March 8, 1973, Coast Guard cutter Dauntless made the Coast Guard’s first-ever seizure of a marijuana smuggler when it stopped the sport fisherman Big L at the western edge of the Bahamas.

Following a decades-long pause that began soon after the end of Prohibition, the Coast Guard was once again called upon to combat maritime drug smugglers in the early 1970s.

With a seizure of opium near the entrance to San Francisco Bay in November 1886, cutters of the Revenue Marine Service began a fight against maritime drug smuggling that continues to this day.

Joe led the tactical law enforcement specialists that comprised his Drug Interdiction Assist Team through the rivers of Central America, resulting in one of the largest drug busts of its time.

Not every American amphibious assault in the Pacific was a bloodbath. Some were executed with considerable strategic acumen and tactical guile. Eniwetok would be Hoyle’s finest and toughest hour as a Beachmaster.

Vessel boarding has been a time-honored skill set of the Coast Guard since its founding in 1790.

Native Americans have been members of the Coast Guard and its predecessor services for well over 200 years.

In the early 1990s Coast Guard Intelligence made extensive contributions to mass migration preparation and response.

While 1980 is most remembered for the arrival of 125,00 Cuban refugees during the Mariel Boatlift, thousands of Haitians also arrived in south Florida by sea that same year. They were collectively referred to as “Cuban-Haitian Entrants.”

"On August 31 the American Steamer George E Starr was seized on Puget Sound by a detail of four officers and 18 men sent from the Wolcott. Two Chinese subjects, together with a quantity of opium, were discovered secreted on board. "