Every day on average the U.S. Coast Guard responds to 123 distress calls and saves 14 lives. With the unofficial start of Hurricane Season August 1st those numbers may rise dramatically. Along with increased storm activity August 4th will also mark Coast Guard Day that honors the least known of the U.S. Armed Services.
The recent release of RescueWarriors – the U.S. Coast Guard, America’s Forgotten Heroes makes clear who the 42,000 active service men and women, 8,000 reservists and auxiliary volunteers of the US Coast Guard are and what they do on our ocean frontier.
This is a comprehensive book on the Coast Guard and its people that looks at their history, how and why they were able to save over 33,000 lives after Hurricane Katrina when the rest of the federal government was immobilized, how they've changed since 9/11 a day on which they coordinated the evacuation of half a million people from lower Manhattan, and why they need to change again in the face of a melting Arctic and other threats from climate change and oil spills to piracy and pandemics.
David Helvarg is the author of The War Against the Greens, Blue Frontier, and 50 Ways to Save the Ocean and President of the Blue Frontier Campaign.