On 5/3/2016 10:40 AM, Charles Geilfuss wrote:
Used to be a lady who worked here whose husband was in the Coast Guard. She
had a bumper sticker that stated,"My Husband is a Coastie."
Yup, that's what we were called when I was one.
On 5/3/2016 10:31 AM, Bob Whitmire wrote:
I think we called them sailors, or Navy wannabees. (Sorry, Moose. <g>)
No offense taken, although that's the exact opposite of why I joined up in 1966. I joined specifically because the CG
back then was not like the Navy, or any other of the "armed" services. With one minor, short exception, they had not
been involved with any sort of armed conflict since WWII. They were mostly about maritime safety, buoys, lighthouses,
ocean station vessels, safety training and inspections, search and rescue, and such stuff.
They weren't even under the DoD, but Treasury (Harking back to revenue cutters in the Revenue service?) As reservists,
we were indeed trained in the skills that would be needed in wartime* - but only when the mothball fleet was
recommissioned and the CG transferred to DoD. The vision was still of something like WWII, a huge war where the Navy
would be greatly expanded. Unlike the reserve units in the regular services, the one I was in, a Vessel Augmentation
Unit, couldn't be called up to DO anything on its own - which is just what I wanted. :-) The other kind were Port
Security Units. If activated, they would handle port security - right where they lived.
The CG today appears to be a very much different organization today, a genuine armed force. They even have a secretive
training base not far from here that's near no body of water larger than a farm pond. I trained on an island and ships.
No Warrior Moose
* Radarman, in my case.
--
What if the Hokey Pokey *IS* what it's all about?
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