Surface and Aviation Capabilities: Tip of the Spear

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.

Since the late 1800s, the United States Coast Guard and its predecessor agencies have played an essential role in U.S. polar operations. A new kind of ship, the icebreaker, evolved to serve U.S. commercial and strategic interests spread in the Arctic.

Drewry’s Bluff put the Revenue Marine’s gunboat E.A. Stevens to the test, marking a leap from wood and sail to iron and steam.

In 1926, the Coast Guard’s Loening OL-5 launched aviation for Prohibition interdiction, with Gloucester and Cape May air stations aiding cutters to counter rum-running.

It should come as no surprise that over 100 years ago a Coast Guard aviator was the first to pilot an aircraft across the Atlantic. Elmer Fowler Stone topped the list of applicants for the Revenue Cutter Service School of Instruction class of 1913, a small group that would feature several distinguished graduates in the history of Coast Guard aviation.

With the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, the War on Terror set in motion dramatic changes to the Coast Guard.