News and Articles

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

Steel beam by steel beam, we’re climbing higher! Deck 3 is framed and Deck 4 is rising fast at YOUR National Coast Guard Museum. The view just keeps getting better!

The Coast Guard has a rich history of underwater operations. Since the early 1940s, the service has nurtured a diving capability that has become vital to modern Coast Guard missions.

That’s one BIG beam! The largest piece of steel in the National Coast Guard Museum project just went up — stretching 90 feet long and weighing in at 13.43 tons! This giant will run the entire length of the building from north to south, anchoring the bottom of Deck 3.

“Kill the engines,” Jackson ordered. In the eerie quiet, they heard a metallic tapping. Closer now, they saw a man in a second-story attic window, striking its metal bars with a quarter. He and his bedridden, 87-year-old mother had been trapped for days in water up to their necks. Jackson’s team sawed through the attic ceiling.

From evacuating stranded survivors to reopening critical waterways, the Coast Guard (USCG) performed heroically during Hurricane Katrina, but the widespread disaster exposed operational limitations that soon served as lessons learned and has resulted in sweeping changes in readiness, technology, and interagency collaboration.

The fact that all these aircraft, from all these agencies, completely avoided any major aerial mishaps has become known as the “Miracle of Katrina.”

Even before Katrina made initial landfall, the Coast Guard was closely coordinating with local vessels and the region’s maritime industry in order to help reduce loss of life and property – as well as avoid environmental impact. Beyond lifesaving, here are some of the ways the Coast Guard helped the nation recover after Hurricane Katrina.

From DC to CT! The National Coast Guard Museum team visited New London this week and saw progress in action. Beam by beam, floor by floor — the dream is rising!

Oftentimes during a crisis, an iconic image or object defines that moment. During the search and rescue effort following landfall of Hurricane Katrina, several of those images and relics became a hallmark of Aug. 29, 2005, the day the massive storm ravaged the Gulf Coast. To the men and women stationed at Coast Guard Air Station New Orleans, the air station’s sign became that iconic relic.