08/04/2025
🇺🇸 Today in U.S. Military History — August 4, 1790 🇺🇸
America’s Oldest Continuous Seagoing Service Is Born
At a time when the United States had no Navy and no Marine Corps, the country’s only maritime defense came from an unlikely place—the Treasury Department.
On this day in 1790, at the urging of Secretary Alexander Hamilton, Congress created the Revenue Cutter Service—a fleet of ten armed vessels tasked with enforcing federal tariff laws, deterring smugglers, and protecting the new nation’s fragile economy.
The U.S. Navy had been disbanded, its ships sold after the Revolutionary War, leaving America’s coastlines exposed to British privateers, pirates, and tax evaders. These Revenue-Marines, as they came to be known, quickly became the only naval presence in the U.S. for nearly a decade—and the oldest continuous seagoing service in American history.
🛟 More Than Warfighters: A Legacy of Mergers and Missions
In 1915, the Revenue Cutter Service merged with the U.S. Life-Saving Service, forming the modern United States Coast Guard—a unique military branch with both law enforcement and humanitarian responsibilities. Later, the Lighthouse Service and Steamboat Inspection Service were added, making the Coast Guard responsible for navigation, safety, and coastal infrastructure as well.
The result? A military service unlike any other. Equally at home conducting combat missions, counter-narcotics operations, and rescuing stranded mariners in hurricane-force storms.
⚔️ Combat Proven in Every War
⚓ War of 1812 – Cutter Jefferson and others captured enemy ships and defended American harbors. The Revenue Marines by this time had become experts and were absolutely BRUTAL in Combating the British Privateers and British Navy on the high seas and coastal regions.
⚓ Civil War – Enforced Union blockades and engaged Confederate forces on rivers and coasts.
⚓ World War I – Transferred to the Navy, Coast Guard crews patrolled the Atlantic and helped sink German U-boats.
⚓ World War II – The Coast Guard Was Everywhere:
The Battle of the Atlantic: Coast Guard-manned cutters and Navy destroyer es**rts hunted U-boats, rescued survivors, and es**rted thousands of merchant ships across the submarine-infested North Atlantic.
Every Major Amphibious Landing: From North Africa to Normandy, Iwo Jima, and Okinawa, Coasties piloted landing craft, directed assault waves, and pulled wounded Marines and soldiers from bloodied beaches under fire.
Greenland Patrol: Coast Guard crews hunted down German weather stations, destroyed enemy outposts, and kept the Arctic lifeline open in brutal conditions.
Rescue Missions: Whether pulling sailors from the freezing North Atlantic or evacuating wounded troops from beachheads, Coast Guardsmen were the frontline lifeline.
🇺🇸 Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan—and Beyond
In Vietnam, Coast Guard cutters operated under Operation Market Time, interdicting North Vietnamese supply routes, engaging enemy vessels, and patrolling dangerous rivers.
🇺🇸 Iraq, Afghanistan, and PATFORSWA: After 9/11, the Coast Guard answered the call—not just at home, but on the front lines overseas.
In 2002, the Coast Guard established PATFORSWA (Patrol Forces Southwest Asia), based in Bahrain—a permanent forward-deployed unit of armed 110-foot patrol boats and specialized crews. Their mission: protect critical maritime infrastructure, es**rt high-value vessels, and conduct interdiction operations in one of the most volatile regions on earth.
When the U.S. launched Operation Iraqi Freedom in 2003, Coast Guard units were among the first boots on the water:
Coast Guard cutters like USCGC Walnut cleared mines and reopened the Port of Umm Qasr, Iraq’s only deep-water access point—vital for humanitarian aid and military logistics.
Coast Guard LEDETs (Law Enforcement Detachments) and Port Security Units conducted boarding operations, vessel inspections, and secured critical supply lines.
PATFORSWA patrol boats es**rted Navy and coalition warships, commercial tankers, and logistics vessels through the Strait of Hormuz, where Iranian fast attack craft, mines, and hostile drones remain a daily threat.
Coast Guard units also defended Iraqi oil terminals like Khawr al Amaya and Al Basra Oil Terminal (ABOT)—infrastructure that provided 95% of Iraq’s economy and were constant targets of terrorist attacks.
From the rivers of Iraq to the mountains of Afghanistan, the Coast Guard played a vital role in both combat and stabilization efforts—often without fanfare, but never without impact.
And to this day, PATFORSWA remains active, keeping America’s interests safe in one of the most strategically dangerous maritime regions in the world.
That mission continues to this very day, with cutters still forward-deployed in the Persian Gulf.
🌊 Not Just a Warfighter—A Lifesaver
Hurricane Katrina (2005): Coast Guard crews rescued over 33,000 people in 14 days—many hoisted by helicopter through hurricane winds and floodwaters.
Counter-Narcotics Operations: Coast Guard teams regularly seize billions in co***ne, fentanyl, and illegal arms, targeting cartels from the Caribbean to the Eastern Pacific.
Search and Rescue: Saving an average of 10 lives per day, with Rescue Swimmers, small boat stations, and aviation units on constant standby.
Polar Ops: USCG Icebreakers like USCGC Healy ensure freedom of navigation in the Arctic and Antarctic—a mission growing more important in today’s geopolitical landscape.
🛟 From Rowboats to Drones, and Lanterns to Satellites
The U.S. Coast Guard has grown from ten wooden cutters to a modern fleet of national security cutters, polar icebreakers, surveillance aircraft, UAVs, and elite Maritime Security Response Teams.
They operate in all seven continents, serve under the Department of Homeland Security in peacetime, and Department of the Navy during wartime—ready to shift from rescuing fishermen to engaging enemy combatants in a heartbeat.
They don’t sing songs. They don’t seek headlines. But they always answer the call.
From Hamilton’s cutters to Strait of Hormuz patrols—234 years and still… Semper Paratus. Always Ready.
🎥 Watch all of my video tribute to the hardest-working service in American military history. This is the U.S. Coast Guard. Only
👉 "The WWII Story So Crazy Even Hollywood Wouldn’t Touch It!" ://youtu.be/NEybI1KxnT8
👉 "Machine Gun Hero - One Man’s INSANE Final Stand to Save 500 Marines!" ://youtu.be/q0t7LF5JwSA
👉 "Massive Wave Splits Ship & Wipes out Helicopter during Coast Guard Rescue!" ://youtu.be/-0iQno-4wK4
