United States Coast Guard

United States Coast Guard. , The United States Coast Guard was established on August 4, 1790, in New York City as the Revenue Marine by an Act of the Second Session, First Congress of the United States, which authorized the construction and equipment of ten cutters patrolling the Atlantic seaboard, the small fleet preventing the illegal entry of contraband goods, thus assuring the collection of import tariff and tonnage duties. Confirmed as the Revenue Cutter Service in 1863, the Coast Guard received its present name and was designated a military service on January 28, 1915, in Washington, D.C., by an Act of the Third Session, Sixty-Third Congress of the United States, which consolidated the Life Saving Service and the Revenue Cutter Service. Since then, the Lighthouse Service and the Bureau of Marine Inspection and Navigation have been incorporated into the Coast Guard., As the first Commandant of the Revenue Marine, Captain Alexander V. Fraser of New York is considered the first military leader of the Coast Guard, whose current title is Commandant, United States Coast Guard, with the rank of Admiral., A naval service, the Coast Guard is a branch of the Armed Forces of the United States at all times. Normally it functions as the chief federal agency for maritime safety promotion and marine law enforcement as a major operating component of the Department of Transportation. In time of war or when directed by the President, it operates as a part of the Department of the Navy, the origin of which is elsewhere recorded as such, its administration is controlled by the Secretary of the Navy. When so assigned, the operating forces of the Coast Guard are commanded by the Chief of Naval Operations, United States Navy., Blue and white are the colors of the Coast Guard, and "Semper Paratus" (Always Ready) its march and its motto. It has no anthem.