Lifesavers Around the Globe

“SOS! SOS! This is the Prinsendam. We have fire in the engine room and we are dead in the water. SOS!” The order to “Abandon ship” came shortly after 5 a.m.. The ship was beginning to list, and the captain suspected that lower decks were taking on water. The almost 500 passengers and other crewmembers had to leave.

In the Great Galveston Hurricane, Harry Claiborne demonstrated great devotion to duty. He manned the light in the worst sea and weather conditions and saved hundreds of storm victims.

A Coast Guard Aviation Survival Technician fights to rescue the crew as the freighter breaks in two.

The crew sprang to their places at the oars, and when the next sea lifted the craft, the soldiers pushed it out and the oars were put in motion. The rescuing party was off on their perilous errand.

Chief Gus Jablonski was a critical figure in the early days of helicopter development. His technical knowledge and hands-on skills helped helicopter turn Igor Sikorsky’s fragile machine into a tool that could do useful work for the military.

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

Dropping more than 33 inches of rain in portions of North Carolina, the storm caused widespread destruction that people could never have imagined.

The storm grazed the Florida Keys and slipped into the sheltered waters of the Gulf of Mexico before unleashing devastation in Texas.

In Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands, the Coast Guard was Semper Paratus in responding to both hurricanes Irma and Maria.

The day war was declared on the Empire of Japan, President Franklin Roosevelt referred to Dec. 7, 1941, day of the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, as “a date which will live in infamy.” Little did he know the nation would face a similar date nearly 60 years later.