United States Coast Guard

United States Coast Guard. . In our public memory of D-Day, the role of the United States Coast Guard too often goes unremarked. While Coast Guardsmen served in smaller numbers than their counterparts in the Army, Navy and Merchant Marine, their service was a vital ingredient in the eventual Allied victory, and certainly made a life-saving difference in hundreds of lives in the waters off of Normandy. , , The US Coast Guard served in a variety of roles in Operation Neptune, the naval component of the Normandy invasion. Coast Guardsmen served individually on naval and merchant marine vessels, but also crewed several of their own craft, including five attack transports, eleven Landing Ships Tank, and twenty-four Landing Crafts Infantry (Large), carrying up to two hundred troops at a time. Many of the smaller Higgins Boats taking men to the beaches on June 6, 1944 were manned by Coast Guardsmen-many of whom made the risky decision to take aboard wounded soldiers from the water and the beach and transport them back to safety. These Coast Guard forces rendered crucial service to ensure the success of the invasion, and fifteen Coast Guardsmen paid with their lives. In terms of vessels lost or damaged, June 6 was the costliest day in US Coast Guard history. After the initial invasion, the Coast Guard continued to transport supplies and reinforcements to carry on the fight. , , In addition, the Coast Guard operated a flotilla of sixty 83-foot cutters designated "Rescue Flotilla One." The armada of fragile wooden vessels with underpowered gasoline engines was unofficially dubbed the "Matchbox Fleet." It operated all along the invasion zone and by the end of Operation Neptune had rescued more than 1400 soldiers, sailors and airmen. The service of Rescue Flotilla One became a model for similar operations in the Pacific War. , , Naval historian Samuel Eliot Morison wrote that the Coast Guard received orders in world war two to "do a little of everything-the Coast Guard is used to that." For more than two centuries the Coast Guard has ably served the nation, protected our national interests, and assisted those in need at sea. Never was the Coast Guard motto "Semper Paratus" (Always Ready) more impressively demonstrated than in the English Channel and along the Normandy coastline in 1944. , , Given by Captain T.E. Deeming, USCG (Retired); Vietnam 1967-1968.