When I was 18, I joined the U.S. Coast Guard Academy (yes, that’s a thing). It’s similar to the Naval Academy or West Point in that it’s one of the four federal military academies. You go there, train for four years, and enter the service when you graduate. I won’t lie – none of these Academies are a cake walk (okay, maybe Air Force), but I'm convinced the Coast Guard Academy's rules are the toughest to deal with. Why? Because it’s the smallest of the four – only a thousand cadets – meaning you get a LOT more scrutiny on any given day. Ranks at the Academy work like tiers on an airline. First class is highest (seniors), second class is next (juniors), then third class (sophomores), and finally fourth class (freshman). You get new priviliges as you move up in rank, each time restoring some of your basic human freedoms: firsties get to drive cars and can leave base most often. Second class can wear normal clothes, third class can wear suits and ties when they go ...
Three things. There was never a U. S. Revenue Marine Service. This is a fiction. The Revenue Marine was a bureau within the Treasury Department. The name Revenue Marine came about to differentiate it from 1) U. S. Marine Corps, and 2) the commercial marine. It no longer existed as a bureau after 1849. Sumner I. Kimball brought the name back in 1871 because he did not like the officers of the U. S. Revenue Cutter Service -- the official name of the service.
ReplyDeleteThe Coast Guard has not been part of the War Department. It was either Treasury or Navy Department for war service. The Coast Justice League is a new one for me. Got a reference?
The "literal" one million lives saved is another fiction created several years ago but there is no numerical or other basis in fact. Even Sumner I. Kimball in his annual reports about the U. S. Life Saving Service (not part of the USRCS or Coast Guard) admitted to creating numbers. It is the fine print in of the tabulations.
I know they don't teach these thinks at the CGA because no one there studies Coast Guard history.