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SEARCH & RESCUE

The U.S. Coast Guard & Life-Saving Service

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The Coast Guard's "Relief Fleet" on the Mississippi River after the 1927 Flood.

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General Search & Rescue Information:

• A list of natural disasters and other events of national significance that the Coast Guard responded to over the course of its history.

• Search & Rescue Bibliography

• Historic Life-Saving & Coast Guard Small Boat Stations

• Life-Saving Service, Lighthouse Service, Revenue Cutter Service personnel awarded the Gold Life-Saving Medal

• Coast Guardsmen awarded the Coast Guard Medal

• Life-Saving Service & Coast Guard Small Boat personnel who gave their lives in the line of duty

• Coast Guard Search & Rescue Statistics, 1964-2001  [asp] [pdf]
  

 

U.S. Life-Saving Service History:

• U.S. Life-Saving Service: A Bibliography

• A History of the U.S. Life-Saving Service [asp file] [pdf file]

• History of the Life-Saving Service: A Power-Point Presentation

• The Annual Reports of the U.S. Life-Saving Service (through Google Books)

• U. S. Life-Saving Service Uniforms

• A Biography of Sumner Increase Kimball, the man responsible for developing the U.S. Life-Saving Service into the world's best lifesavers.

• The Greatest Life-Saver: Joshua James.

• What is the origin of the famous motto of the U.S. Life-Saving Service & Coast Guard: "You have to go out but you don't have to come back?"

Significant Search & Rescue Cases:  Narratives and First-Person Accounts:

• Hurricane Katrina Rescue & Response Operations

• Coast Guard Disaster Relief Efforts After the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami

• TWA Fight 800 Recovery Efforts by CWO Patricia Golden

• Egypt Air Flight 990 Recovery Efforts by CWO Patricia Golden

• Coast Guard Operations During the Cuban Exodus," an illustrated history of the 1980 Mariel Boatlift, written by VADM Benedict L. Stabile and Dr. Robert L. Scheina

• "The Other Boatlift": Camarioca, Cuba, 1965.

• The Downing of Korean Airline's Flight 007: "USCGC Munro's Part in the Search, Rescue, and Salvage Operations" by BMCS Jack Crowley. 

• "Summary of Action" for a SAR case in 1978 when HC-130H CGNR-1500 assisted in the rescue off Alaska of the crew of a ditched Navy P-3C (BuNo. 159892) on 26 October 1978.  A Soviet trawler, the Mys Sinyavin, also participated, making this a unique case of cooperation by the principal antagonists of the Cold War.

• BMCM Thomas D. McAdams' Oral History: Master Chief Boatswain's Mate Thomas McAdams describes his illustrious career in the Coast Guard, which spanned the years between 1950 and 1977.  The highly decorated McAdams is something of a legend in the Coast Guard's small boat community and among the fishermen of the Pacific Northwest.  In his remarkable career, which spanned 27 years, BMCM McAdams participated in more than 5,000 rescues and was credited with saving more than 100 lives. Click here for his biography.

• Pages From A Scrapbook: an incredible collection of photos from the scrapbook of BMC-L Ira Lewis, who served at small boat stations on Long Island for over twenty years, from the late-1930s to the late-1950s.  His photos document life at these unheralded stations. 

• Daring rescue: The crew of the Chatham Lifeboat Station save the survivors of the SS Pendleton, February 1952

• Coast Guard Aviation in Vietnam: Combat Rescue and Recovery, an article by John "Bear" Moseley, Coast Guard Aviator 743.  A "pdf" file provided courtesy of the Ancient Order of the Pterodactyl Association.

• Jack Rittichier's 12 May 1968 Vietnam combat rescue flight: in his own words.

• "A Brief History of SARWET" (Sea Air Rotary Wing Evacuation Team) by CDR Bill Thrall, USCG (Ret.) -- the origins of the Coast Guard's first " rescue swimmer" program, circa 1970-1976.  CDR Thrall noted: "SARWET pre-dated the Rescue Swimmer Program by 13 plus years.  It ran successfully out of San Francisco for almost 6 years. . . Rescues were made, lives saved and medals awarded.  It was real."

• A History of Coast Guard Rescue Swimmers, by LCDR Richard M. Wright, USCG (Ret.)

• HH-3F "Pelican Tales: The Last of the Coast Guard's Amphibious Aircraft," by CAPT Pete Prindle, USCG (Ret.)

• An exciting narrative describing a dangerous rescue at sea in 1937 by a Coast Guard seaplane from Air Station Salem!

• The Overland Expedition-Rescue to Point Barrow, Alaska, 1897-1898 (a narrative history)

• The official Report of The Cruise of the U.S. Revenue Cutter Bear and the Overland Expedition for the Relief of the Whalers in the Arctic Ocean, From November 27, 1897, to September 13, 1898. Provided courtesy of Google Books (pdf).

• A Photo Gallery for Commodore Ellsworth Bertholf & the Overland Expedition.

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Keeper and crew of the Vermilion Life-Saving Station, Michigan.

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