Finding the unexpected in the everyday.
April 25, 1885 Marcus Aurelius Hanna, the head keeper at Cape Elizabeth Light (also known as Two Lights) at the mouth of Casco Bay on Maine’s southern coast, received the prestigious Gold Lifesaving Medal. Daniel Manning, who was U.S. secretary of the treasury from 1885 to 1887, awarded this medal to Hanna for his heroic... Continue Reading →
January 30, 1999 The U.S. Coast Guard (USCG) cutter USCGC Anthony Petit (WLM-558) was officially launched into the Menominee River at the city of Marinette, Wisconsin. This 175-foot (53-meter)-long vessel was built by Marinette Marine Corporation, and the launch ceremony for her took place along one of that company’s docks. USCGC Anthony Petit which is... Continue Reading →
In 2002, Angelina Hidalgo became only the second Hispanic American woman in the U.S. Coast Guard (USCG) to command an afloat unit. As a lieutenant junior grade, she was specifically named commanding officer of the coastal patrol boat USCGC Kingfisher (WPB-87322). This appointment was made just two years after Hidalgo graduated from the USCG Academy... Continue Reading →
Mara Huling Langevin made history as the first Asian American female -- as well as the first female of any minority -- to become a U.S. Coast Guard (USCG) aviator. “I never thought about being the first of anything,” she said in a 2021 interview with the USCG’s news service MyCG. “All I wanted to... Continue Reading →
March 22, 1937 USCGC Chelan, a U.S. Coast Guard (USCG) cutter under the command of Captain Lyndon Spencer, was among the vessels to respond to distress calls from the Norwegian steamship SS Bjerkli in the North Atlantic. Bjerkli, stranded 660 nautical miles (1,220 kilometers) east of Boston, was being pounded by an 80-mile (128.8-kilometer) gale.... Continue Reading →
In 1968, Juan T. Salas became the first Chamorro to graduate from the U.S. Coast Guard Academy (USCGA) in New London, Connecticut. The Chamorros are indigenous Pacific Islanders from the Mariana Archipelago. Salas grew up in the village of Piti on the western coast of Guam, a U.S. territory that is the largest and southernmost... Continue Reading →
June 17, 1999 (Photo caption: Coast Guard Chief Warrant Officer 4 Michael Popelars, commanding officer of Cutter Frank Drew, pilots the buoy tender on the James River in Newport News, Virginia, Feb. 22, 2018. Courtesy of the Defense Information Visual Distribution Service - https://www.dvidshub.net/image/4176717/coast-guard-cutter-frank-drew-crew-services-buoys-elizabeth-james-rivers-va) U.S Coast Guard Cutter (USCGC) Frank Drew was officially transferred from... Continue Reading →
Transportation History 