National Coast Guard Day observed annually on August 4. This is a day set aside to celebrate and honor the courageous work of the Coast Guard.
The United States Coast Guard is one of the five US Armed Forces. It is a maritime, military and multi-missioned service. It operates under the Department of Homeland Security during peacetime, but can be transferred to the US Navy by the President of the United States any time deemed necessary, or by Congress during war times.
When Hurricane Katrina struck the Atlantic coast of America, the US Coast Guard saved over 33,500 lives. An estimated 24,000 of these lives were rescued from peril in severely dangerous conditions.
HOW TO OBSERVE
In America, there are thousands of events nationwide for you to get involved in and show your support. Post on social media using #NationalCoastGuardDay.
HISTORY
The founding of the United States Coast Guard can be traced to an act of Congress on August 4, 1790. The Coast Guard consisted of 10 vessels which carried out the enforcement of various trade and humanitarian duties.
From Wikipedia:
Coast Guard Day is held every August 4 to commemorate the founding of the United States Coast Guard as the Revenue Marine on August 4, 1790, by then-Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton. On that date, U.S. Congress, guided by Hamilton, authorized the building of a fleet of the first ten Revenue Service cutters, whose responsibility would be enforcement of the first tariff laws enacted by the U.S. Congress under the U.S. Constitution.
The U.S. Coast Guard received its present name through an act of the U.S. Congress signed into law by U.S. President Woodrow Wilson on January 28, 1915 that merged the Revenue Cutter Service with the U.S. Life-Saving Service, and provided the nation with a single maritime service dedicated to saving life at sea and enforcing the nation’s maritime laws.[4][5][1]
The U.S. Coast Guard began to maintain the country’s maritime aids to navigation, including operating U.S. lighthouses, when President Franklin Roosevelt announced plans to transfer of the U.S. Lighthouse Service to the Coast Guard in May 1939. Congress approved the plan effective 1 July, 1939.[6][1] On 16 July 1946, Congress permanently transferred the Department of Commerce Bureau of Marine Inspection and Navigation to the Coast Guard, thereby placing merchant marine licensing and merchant vessel safety under Coast Guard regulation.[7][1]
After 177 years in the Treasury Department, the Coast Guard was transferred to the newly formed Department of Transportation effective April 1, 1967.[8][1] As a result of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, the U.S. Coast Guard was transferred to the new U.S. Department of Homeland Security in 2003.[1]
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