Happy 218th Birthday Coast Guard. Thank you for being America’s Shield.
About the United States Coast Guard.
On this day in 1790, Congress authorized a proposal by Alexander Hamilton (then Secretary of the Treasury) to build ten cutters to protect the nation’s revenue. The cutter service, placed under control of the Treasury Department, was called the “system of cutters” the “Revenue Service” and the “Revenue-Marine”, but officially became called the “Revenue Cutter Service” in 1863. The “Revenue Cutter Service” was renamed the “United States Coast Guard” in 1915, when an act of Congress merged the cutter service with the “Life-Saving Service”. The Coast Guard picked up additional responsibilities over the years, engulfing the “Lighthouse Service” in 1939 and the “Bureau of Marine Inspection and Navigation” in 1946.
Existing longer than the United States Navy, the U.S. Coast Guard is one of the oldest organizations in the U.S. government. Today, “national defense responsibilities remain one of [the Coast Guard's] most important functions,” operating under Homeland Security in times of peace and under the Navy in times of war or by direction of the Commander-in-Chief.
Sources: Coast Guard Daily Chronology, Coast Guard Historian’s Office
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