Wednesday, August 5, 2020 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon
COAST GUARD:
Career often felt
8tailor-made9
Coast Guard celebrates 230th birthday
By Capt. Craig F. Eisenbeis
USCG (retired)
Continued from page 8
massive Navy base, and our
oldest two children were
born in the Navy hospital
there. Yet, there was only one
tour in three decades when
we actually lived on a mili-
tary base; that was my first
permanent Alaskan assign-
ment in Valdez, at the end of
the Alaska Pipeline. During
the course of my career, we
moved 12 times, lived at
every corner of the continent,
and traveled in all 50 states.
It was during my assign-
ment to Valdez, that I took
part in the largest at-sea res-
cue in Coast Guard history.
The cruise ship Prinsendam
caught fire and eventually
sank in the Gulf of Alaska.
We successfully rescued
every single one of the
more than 500 passengers
and crew. I headed a rescue
team with emergency sup-
plies that boarded one of
the rescue ships at sea. With
multiple ships and helicop-
ters involved, the survivors,
including separated families,
were scattered over several
sites along the Alaska coast.
When our ship made it to
Valdez, we had the largest
contingent of survivors; and
I was put in charge of coor-
dinating the survivor count
among the various locations.
The operation could not be
concluded until we were cer-
tain that everyone was safe;
and I remember the elation
when 4 at 0400 in the morn-
ing 4 we were able to con-
firm that we had every single
person safely accounted for.
I am often asked which
duty station was the best, and
that9s not an easy question
because each assignment had
things about it that we liked.
We were fortunate in that
each location was well suited
to the ages of our children
and the needs of our family.
One thing was definite; when
our kids were little, they were
certain in the knowledge that
Santa arrived on a Coast
Guard helicopter!
The largest chunks of time
in my career were spent in
the San Francisco Bay area,
Puget Sound, and Alaska.
Even while stationed in
California, I spent quite a
bit of time in Alaska as the
Pacific Area Liaison Officer
to the joint military Alaska
Command. One of the more
unusual tasks I was assigned
involved training U.S. Navy
reservists in coastal defense
of the Aleutian Islands.
One of my <achieve-
ments= was that I success-
fully managed to avoid
assignment to Headquarters
in Washington, D.C. On
the other side of the ledger,
though, I was unsuccessful
in ever being assigned to my
home state of Oregon. I had
to retire to get back here!
My final tour was another
23
PHOTO PROVIDED
CAPT Craig F. Eisenbeis —
Commanding Officer, Coast Guard
Marine Safety Office, Wilmington,
North Carolina (1991-1994).
in Alaska, where one of my
responsibilities was to visit
every Coast Guard unit in
our far-flung operational
area. That was one of several
Coast Guard jobs I had that
seemed to be tailor-made just
for me. I still have to peri-
odically return to the north
for an <Alaska fix.= People
sometimes ask me if I miss
guarding the coast, and I like
to respond that I9m enjoying
guarding the mountains now.
Editor9s note: Craig F.
Eisenbeis, USCG (ret.) is
the recipient of the Meri-
torious Service
Medal, five
Coast Guard
Commenda-
tion Med-
als, and is
a gradu-
ate <with
highest
distinc-
tion= of the
U.S. Naval
War College.
On August 4, 1790, at the
urging of Treasury Secretary,
Alexander Hamilton,
Congress created the U.S.
Revenue Cutter Service to
enforce U.S. tariff laws.
In observance of that date,
Coast Guard Day is to be cel-
ebrated this week, marking
the service9s 230th birthday.
Upon its creation,
Alexander Hamilton9s Cutter
Service was the nation9s only
naval force, the U.S. Navy
having been disbanded at the
close of the Revolutionary
War. The Navy was not
reconstituted until several
years later, leaving the Cutter
Service 4 or Coast Guard as
it is now known 4 to claim
the title of the nation9s old-
est <continuing= seagoing
service.
In addition to enforcing
U.S. tariff laws, the fledg-
ling Cutter Service soon took
on responsibility for at-sea
ship rescues and combating
piracy. Shortly thereafter,
the service was also charged
with intercepting ships
engaged in the illegal slave
trade. By the time of the
Civil War, the cutters were
credited with capturing
approximately 500
slave ships; and
the Revenue
C u t t e r
Harriet
Lane is
recognized
as having
fired the
first naval
shots of the
Civil War dur-
ing the siege of
Fort Sumpter.
The modern name, Coast
Guard, was created in 1915,
when the Revenue Cutter
Service was merged with
the U.S. Lifesaving Service,
itself having roots back into
the 1700s, when volunteer-
staffed lifesaving stations
were established in New
England. The Lifesaving
Service had already been
under the administration of
the Revenue Cutter Service
since the 1800s. The U.S.
Lighthouse Service was
added later, in 1939, and the
Bureau of Marine Inspection
in 1942.
Following World War I,
there was pressure to merge
the Coast Guard into the
Navy. However, the Coast
Guard is the only military
service that also has domes-
tic law enforcement respon-
sibilities, so the service
is kept separate from the
Defense Department, which
is precluded from domestic
action. In time of declared
war, however, the Coast
Guard can be transferred to
the operational control of the
Navy. This occurred in both
World Wars. Since then, the
Coast Guard has acted in
support of military opera-
tions in other conflicts.
After nearly two cen-
turies, the Coast Guard
was transferred from the
Tr e a s u r y D e p a r t m e n t
to the Department of
Tr a n s p o r t a t i o n w h e n
President Lyndon B. Johnson
sought to combine all federal
transportation interests; and
the Coast Guard has always
been closely intertwined
with the maritime industry.
The Coast Guard assumed its
present departmental status
when it was moved into the
newly created Department of
Homeland Security in 2003.
Notably, the Coast Guard
has set some interesting
precedents in areas of equal-
ity. In 1865, Mike Healy,
born a slave in Georgia, was
commissioned an officer in
the Cutter Service and rose
to the rank of captain. In
1881, Healy was given his
first command and, in 1887,
took command of the Cutter
Bear and became a legend-
ary figure in the history of
Alaska. Today, the Coast
Guard9s largest ship, a 420-
foot icebreaker is named for
him. In 1979, Beverly Kelley
became the first woman to
command a U.S. military
vessel, the Coast Guard
Cutter Cape Newhagen. In
her 30-year career, she went
on to command the Coast
Guard9s largest high endur-
ance cutters.
With the highest entry
standards of any service,
the Coast Guard remains
the most difficult service to
gain entry to. Further, even
with the highest entry stan-
dards, the Coast Guard also
has the highest boot camp
failure rate of any service,
at 20 percent. As reward-
ing as it can be, pursuing a
Coast Guard career is not for
everyone.
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