US Coast Guard
The United States Coast Guard (USCG) is the nation’s oldest maritime military service, tasked with safeguarding coastal boundaries and infrastructure while enforcing laws against illegal drugs, goods, and human trafficking. Established in 1790 as the Revenue Marine, the USCG has evolved into a critical component of national security, operating under the Department of Homeland Security since 2003. With a coastline exceeding 95,000 miles, the Coast Guard's responsibilities encompass both law enforcement and search and rescue operations, responding to daily emergencies and saving lives and property.
The service has played a prominent role in major military engagements throughout U.S. history and has adapted its focus over the decades; notably, it has intensified efforts in drug interdiction since the 1970s and has engaged in significant operations to manage immigration. With approximately 57,000 active and reserve personnel and thousands of volunteers, the USCG conducts a wide range of activities, from security boardings to pollution investigations.
In recent years, the Coast Guard has faced challenges, including the need for fleet modernization and adapting to new security threats, such as cyber vulnerabilities. Looking ahead, it plans to enhance its capabilities with advanced polar security cutters and continue supporting maritime industry developments, particularly in renewable energy. The USCG remains a crucial entity in maintaining maritime safety and security in the United States.
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US Coast Guard
SIGNIFICANCE: The nation’s oldest maritime military service, the US Coast Guard is responsible for protecting coastal boundaries and infrastructure and intercepting illegal drugs, goods, and aliens that are attempting to enter the United States.
The modern-day US Coast Guard is the largest and most advanced maritime law-enforcement agency in the world and has a long and distinguished history as an autonomous military branch. In contrast to other branches of the US military, the Coast Guard has never been part of the Department of Defense. The forerunner of the Coast Guard was established in 1790 as the Revenue Marine. Since then, the service has undergone major changes and restructuring.
In 2003, the Coast Guard became part of the Department of Homeland Security, and since then its primary mission has been to defend more than 95,000 miles of US coastlines, 360 ports, 10,000 miles of interstate river fronts, and 3.4 million square miles of ocean. This monumental responsibility requires the joint cooperation of local, state, and other federal agencies, as well as the private maritime industry and international entities.
The Coast Guard receives its law-enforcement statutory authority under Title 14 of the United States Code . Historically, the service has had three primary law-enforcement charges. These have included collection of tariffs for imported goods, protection of shipping from piracy on the high seas, and the interception of illegal goods and persons. Of these tasks, the primary goal of the Coast Guard prior to World War II involved the confiscation of material contraband. During the 1960s, however, the service began increasingly to limit the flow of illegal immigration coming from Cuba. After large numbers of Cuban refugees were intercepted during the early and mid-1960s, the numbers decreased until the landmark Mariel Boatlift of 1980. That massive exodus of 125,000 Cuban refugees to the United States marked the largest Coast Guard peacetime operation to date.
The 1970s saw a noticeable increase in the role of the Coast Guard in stemming the flow of illicit drugs into the United States. The service’s drug-enforcement duties continued to increase into the twenty-first century, as the service seized large quantities of marijuana, cocaine, and other illicit drugs. Particularly notably were seizures of thirteen tons of marijuana in San Diego in 1984, twenty tons of marijuana in Jamaica in 1987, and 26.5 tons of cocaine from a vessel off the coast of Florida in 2016. In 2021, the USCG offloaded a record $1.4 billion worth of cocaine and marijuana at Port Everglades, Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
The Coast Guard also has served in virtually every major military engagement since the founding of the United States. It has assisted US Navy operations with personnel and equipment and has also been assigned special missions. It has a rich and well-documented history of recognized service during the Mexican War, the Spanish-American War, World War I, World War II, the Vietnam War, and the Persian Gulf War of 1991. As part of Operation Iraqi Freedom in early 2003, the Coast Guard continued to support other branches of America’s armed services.
Current Day and Beyond
On February 25, 2003, supervision of the Coast Guard was passed from the Department of Transportation to the newly founded Department of Homeland Security. The Homeland Security Act of 2002 lists five specific law-enforcement directives for the Coast Guard. These directives focus on securing ports, waterways, and coastal security; defense readiness and response; drug interdiction; illegal immigrant interdiction; other law-enforcement duties as needed.
In 2023, the Coast Guard employed approximately 57,000 active duty personnel, reservists, and civilian personnel as well as 21,000 auxiliary volunteers. On an average day in the 2020s, Coast Guard personnel responded to more than forty-five search and rescue missions and saved more than ten lives and more than $1.2 million in property. They confiscate 214 pounds of marijuana and 874 pounds of cocaine, conduct 24 security boardings, service 82 buoys, investigate 35 pollution incidents, and investigate 14 marine casualties involving commercial vessels.
Since the unprecedented loss of life and the disruption of domestic commerce that came with the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, the Coast Guard has faced significant challenges as it has defended ports, waterways, and maritime industries. Even before these attacks, however, the Coast Guard had a desperate need to replace its aging and technologically deficient fleet of equipment. The Coast Guard’s increased responsibilities have made correcting those shortcomings a major area of concern for adequate domestic security.
To maintain the Coast Guard’s state of preparedness and intelligence necessary to prevent and intervene in terrorist threats, a new generation of boats, cutters, fixed-wing aircraft, and helicopters was under development in 2005. This state-of-the-art system, known as the Integrated Deepwater System (IDS), was designed to integrate, link, and network all new equipment assets, both within the Coast Guard and between the Coast Guard and other military and government agencies. The new system promised to be a highly effective, efficient, and intelligent use of resources, equipment, and manpower by establishing a fully integrated communications system. It was expected to provide a modern infrastructure to support the Coast Guard’s increasingly complex operations. However, it lost authorization in the 2012 fiscal year and became defunct.
The USCG faced an array of problems in the 2020s. Extreme low water levels on the Mississippi River in 2023 required the USCG to reset buoys to guide vessels safely through shifting channels. The Coast Guard supported offshore wind industry projects. Two Cyber Protection Teams worked to protect ports from cyber threats. As of 2023, the USCG was planning to add three Polar Security Cutters to its fleet of two polar icebreakers, which had been commissioned in 1976 and 2000. Construction of the first new polar cutter began in 2024.
Bibliography
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Krietemeyer, George. The Coast Guardsman’s Manual. 9th ed. Annapolis, Md.: Naval Institute Press, 2000.
Martinez, Peter. "U.S. Coast Guard Offloads Record $1.4 Billion Worth of Cocaine and Marijuana at Florida Port." CBS News, 6 Aug. 2021, www.cbsnews.com/news/drug-bust-cocaine-marijuana-port-everglades-florida-coast-guard/. Accessed 24 June 2024.
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"United States Coast Guard (USCG)." US Department of Homeland Security, 10 June 2024, www.dhs.gov/employee-resources/united-states-coast-guard-uscg. Accessed 24 June 2024.
White, Jonathan R. Defending the Homeland: Domestic Intelligence Law Enforcement and Security. Stamford, Conn.: Wadsworth, 2003.
Willoughby, Malcolm. The US Coast Guard in World War II. Naval Institute Press, 2016.