If you`re considering this profession, take a lifeguard course at the Red Cross to see if you have what it takes. With this lifeguard preparatory course, you will learn how to properly perform crawling, underwater swimming and towing buddies. As of December 2021, the authorized strength of the U.S. Coast Guard was 44,500 active soldiers[16] and 7,000 reservists [Note 2]. The service`s troops also include 8,577 full-time civilian federal employees and 31,000 uniformed U.S. Coast Guard volunteers. [2] The service maintains an extensive fleet of approximately 250 coastal and deep-sea cutters, patrol boats, buoy tenders, tugs and icebreakers; as well as nearly 2,000 small and special boats. It also has an aviation department consisting of more than 200 helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft. [17] While the U.S.
Coast Guard is the second smallest in the United States. Branches of military service In terms of membership, the service itself is the 12th largest naval force in the world. [18] [19] The United States Coast Guard (USCG) is the Maritime Security, Search and Rescue, and Law Enforcement Division of the United States Armed Forces[7] and one of eight uniformed services in the country. The service is a multi-mission military maritime service that is unique among the military branches of the United States in that it has a maritime law enforcement mission with jurisdiction in national and international waters and a mission of the Federal Regulatory Commission as part of its duties. It is the largest and most powerful Coast Guard in the world and rivals the capabilities and size of most navies. A Coast Guard monitors more than 40,000 pounds of cocaine, estimated at $500 million, unloaded from Cutter Sherman on April 23, 2007. SAR Program Standards and Requirements Some standards and requirements have been developed for various components of the Coast Guard SAR system. The racing strip is carried by cutters, planes and many Coast Guard boats.
Used for the first time and put into official service from April 6, 1967, it consists of a narrow blue stripe, a narrow white stripe in between and a wide red CG bar with the Coast Guard sign in the middle. [5] [115] Red-body icebreakers and most HH-65/MH-65 helicopters (i.e., those with red fuselages) carry a narrow blue stripe, a narrow empty band of fuselage colour (an implicit red stripe), and a wide white bar with the Coast Guard shield in the middle. Conversely, cutters with a black fuselage (such as buoy tenders and domestic buildings) use the standard racing strip. Auxiliary vessels served by the Coast Guard also carry the racing strip, but in inverted colours (i.e., a wide blue stripe with narrow white and red CG stripes) and the auxiliary shield. Similar racetrack designs have been adopted for use by other coastguards and marine agencies and many other law enforcement and rescue agencies. [Note 4] The service has participated in all major U.S. conflicts from 1790 to the present day, including the landing of troops on D-Day and the Pacific Islands during World War II, extensive coastal patrols and bombardments during the Vietnam War, and several roles in Operation Iraqi Freedom. Maritime interception operations, coastal security, transportation security and law enforcement have been its main roles in the recent conflicts in Iraq. [40] National Distress and Response System (NRDS) Coverage: The NSS is the primary search and rescue distress alert and command, control and communications (C3) system for U.S. coastal waters (Maritime Zone A-1, which extends up to 20 nautical miles from the territorial baseline).
The standard for the VHF-FM network is continuous coverage of at least 90% to receive a one-watt signal from a one-meter antenna, up to 20 nautical miles from the coast along the coast of the continental United States, the Great Lakes, the major Hawaiian Islands, the Commonwealths of Guam, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands and parts of Alaska. The U.S. Coast Guard is a humanitarian and security service. It protects U.S. borders as well as economic and security interests abroad; and defends its sovereignty by securing maritime communication and trade routes in vast territorial waters spanning more than 95,000 miles of coastline and its exclusive economic zone. As national and economic security depends on open global trade and a rules-based international order, and the risk of transnational threats from the maritime and cyber domains continues to increase, the Coast Guard is deployed and operated at all times on all seven continents and in cyberspace to save lives. enforce laws; ensure the security of trade; and protect the environment. Like its brother in the U.S. Navy, the U.S. Coast Guard maintains a global presence with permanently assigned personnel around the world and armed forces regularly deployed in coastal and blue regions.
Rising competition between great powers and contradictory challenges to the rules-based international order through interstate aggression, economic coercion, and maritime hybrid wars have cultivated many hot spots around the world. The U.S. Coast Guard`s multi-mission adaptive multi-mission fleet with multiple “white-hulled” missions is used both as soft diplomatic power and as humanitarian and security assistance on the more obvious conflictual nature of “gray-hulled” warships. As a humanitarian service, it saves tens of thousands of lives each year at sea and in the United States. and provides emergency response and disaster management for a variety of natural and man-made disaster incidents in the United States and around the world. [8] Coast Guard Squadron One was a combat unit formed in 1965 by the United States Coast Guard for use in the Vietnam War. Its foundation marked the first time since the Second World War that Coast Guard personnel were widely deployed in a combat environment. The squadron operated divisions in three separate areas from 1965 to 1970. Twenty-six Point-class cutters, with their crews and squadron support personnel, have been assigned to the U.S. Navy with the mission of banning the movement of weapons and supplies from the South China Sea to South Vietnam by Vietcong and North Vietnamese junk and trawler operators.
The squadron also supported 81mm mortar shells for friendly units operating along the South Vietnamese coast and supported the U.S. Navy during Operation Sealords. [57] Established in 1929, the Chief Warrant and Warrant Officers Association, United States Coast Guard (CWOA) represents Coast Guard warrants and chief warrant officers (active, reservists, and retirees) in Congress, the White House, and the Department of Homeland Security. In addition, the Association communicates with Coast Guard leadership on issues of concern to Coast Guard Chief Warrant Officers. [138] Since September 11, 2001, reservists have been activated and deployed on active duty missions, including deployments in the Persian Gulf and also as part of Department of Defense combat commands such as the U.S. Northern and Central Command. The Coast Guard`s port security units are fully staffed with reservists, with the exception of five to seven active soldiers. In addition, most of the personnel that the Coast Guard provides to the Navy`s Expeditionary Combat Command are reservists. [120] As members of the military, Coast Guard soldiers on active and reserve duty are subject to the Uniform Code of Military Justice and receive the same salaries and allowances as members of the same salary bands in other uniformed services. [39] 2003-13: United States.