This Day in Coast Guard History – March 15

1942-  The 172-foot tender CGC Acacia was en route from Curacao, Netherlands West Indies to Antigua, British West Indies, when she was sunk by shellfire from the German submarine U-161.  The entire crew of Acacia was rescued.  She was the only Coast Guard buoy tender sunk by enemy action during the war.

1944- Coast Guardsmen participated in the invasions of Manus (Admiralties) and Emirau (St. Mathias Islands).

1946- For the first time, U.S. Coast Guard aircraft supplemented the work of the Coast Guard patrol vessels of the International Ice Patrol, scouting for ice and determining the limits of the ice fields from the air.

1983- The Coast Guard retired its last HC-131A Samaritan.

1991-The F/V Alaskan Monarch became trapped in the ice-encrusted Bering Sea near St. Paul, Alaska and was in danger of being swept onto the breakwater rocks outside St. Paul Harbor.  The CGC Storis and an HH-3 from AIRSTA Kodiak, under the command of LT Laura H. Guth, responded.  After a flight of 600 miles, including a winter crossing of the Alaska Peninsula and 400 miles of open water, Guth and her crew rescued four of the six-man crew before waves crashed over the vessel and swept the two remaining crewmen into the frigid water.  They both were quickly pulled from the water safely.

1997- Operation Gulf Shield began. This operation was a counterpart to the counter narcotics Operation Frontier Shield.

(Source: USCG Historian’s Office)