Landing Craft

After being transferred from the Coast Guard to the Navy in World War II, Poulin saw action in the Atlantic and Pacific while participating in many invasions while assigned the USS Leonard Wood.

On Dec. 25, 1944, after a six-week campaign to liberate the Philippine Island of Leyte, Allied forces under General Douglas Macarthur were mopping up the last vestiges of Japanese resistance.

While many are familiar with the Allied landings in Normandy in June 1944, few know about the landings that took place several months prior in Italy.

In 1942, Native American Joseph Robert Toahty deployed for Guadalcanal, the Allies’ first amphibious operation of World War II.

While Omaha saw the worst fighting on D-Day, Utah beach would prove a career highlight for Seaman First Class Robert Ward.

Eighty years ago, on June 6, 1944, Allied troops stormed the beaches of Normandy, France, in what was the largest amphibious invasion of World War II. Among those 15 Coast Guardsmen killed in action at Normandy was 21-year-old John “Jack” Albert DeNunzio.

One of the most reproduced photographs to come out of June 6, 1944—D-Day was captured by Coast Guard Chief Photographer’s Mate Robert F. Sargent and entitled “Into the jaws of death.” Sargent.

“DeVita, drop the ramp!” For a few seconds I froze, because I knew when I dropped that ramp, the machine gun bullets will come into the boat. And then for the third time he yelled, punctuated with colorful profanity and I dropped the ramp. The bullets that were hitting the ramp came into the boat.

Facing kamikaze attacks, Joseph Gerczak provides an example of unrelenting courage.