The United States Coast Guard traces its origins to 1790, but was not officially named until 1915. At last there is one definitive volume describing its history from inception to the present. The author, Thomas P. Ostrom, served in the USCGR from 1961-69, and had basic and advanced training at the USCG Base, Alameda, California. He served subsequently in the Port Security Reserve Unit in Duluth, Minnesota, and participated in monthly and active duty assignments each summer, earning petty officer rank.

The United States Coast Guard traces its origins to 1790, but was not officially named until 1915. At last there is one definitive volume describing its history on The Great Lakes from inception to the present. The author, Thomas P. Ostrom, served in the USCGR from 1961-69, and had basic and advanced training at the USCG Base, Alameda, California. He served subsequently in the Port Security Reserve Unit in Duluth, Minnesota, and participated in monthly and active duty assignments each summer, earning petty officer rank.

In addition to port security, ship inspection and safety, law enforcement, and search and rescue, the U.S. Coast Guard assumes an important role in national defense at home and abroad. To that end, the Coast Guard has carried out separate and coordinated missions with other armed forces from the Great Lakes to the Atlantic, Pacific, Gulf of Mexico, Mediterranean, Persian Gulf, and polar region. This chronicle of the Coast Guard's contributions to national defense examines participation in World War I, World War II, Korea, the Cold War, Vietnam, and the War on Terror. Among the topics explored...

Covers the history of the US Coast Guard from 1790 under Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton, when the Service was called the US Revenue Marine, to World War I, during which the naval agency, then called the US Revenue Cutter Service, was combined with the US Life-Saving Service to form the US Coast Guard in 1915.