PHOTO GALLERY No. 6

Photo: U.S. Coast Guard
Comedian Bon Hope poses with U.S. Coast Guard SPARS during World War Two. Hope traveled the world with the USO.

Photo: U.S. Coast Guard
It's all hands on deck for this revenue cutter crew and the ship's mascot. Looks like a goat. The name of the cutter and the date of the photo are unknown.

Civilian ships went to war in the U.S. Coast Guard during World War Two, including the luxury liner SS Pan America of the Munson Steamship Lines. It was converted into an attack transport, renamed USS Hunter Ligget APA-14 and landed troops at the amphibious invasions of Guadalcanal and Bougainville. 

Photo: U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary Facebook

Training has been a cornerstone of the U.S. Guard Auxiliary from the start. This 1943 photo from Boston shows volunteer Harry Whitten explaining the workings of the ignition system of a marine engine.

Photo: U.S. Coast Guard
Emlen Tunnell, the first African American to play for the NFL's New York Giants, served in the U.S. Coast Guard in World War Two. Tunnell was posthumously awarded the Coast Guard Silver Lifesaving Medal in 2021. He rescued a crewmate set ablaze during a Japanese aerial attack on the combat freighter USS Etamin.

BOLLING FORTSON DOUGLAS 1926-2016

Photo: U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary

By Deborah Heldt Cordone U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary Bolling Fortson Douglas (1926- 2016), a marine surveyor by trade, became the first female District Commodore (Seventh District) in 1979. She originally joined the Auxiliary in 1960, founded a Flotilla in Augusta, Georgia, and was well-respected for her high standards in operations and other fields.

Commodore Douglas made many significant contributions while serving in the Auxiliary, including organizing the deployment of Auxiliary personnel and assets in "Operation Key Ring" as part of the 1980 Cuban Refugee Sealift. In 1978, Douglas and her crew were awarded the U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary Plaque of Merit for pulling a burning boat away from the University Yacht Club fuel dock and releasing it only minutes before it exploded. In 1984, she became the first female Auxiliary Qualification Examiner. During more than two decades, she traveled throughout District Seven and successfully trained and qualified hundreds of boat crew and coxswain candidates.

Douglas had many other accomplishments in her life.

She was a boat captain and trained in celestial navigation. She was also the first female accredited by the National Association of Marine Surveyors. During the summer Olympics in 1996, she was the senior marina safety expert for the sailing venue in Savannah.

GOLD MEDAL HEROES

Photo: Bay County Historical Society

Photo: U.S. Coast Guard
U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliarists Robert Colby and Lee Rieser guarding perimeter around burning oil tanker Jupiter on Sept. 16, 1990 on the Saginaw River at Bay City, Michigan. Colby and his wife, Jean, took five members of Jupiter's crew aboard their 21-foot console and provided first aid. 

Four volunteer members of the U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary are listed on the roll of recipients of one of the U.S. Coast Guard's highest honors - the Gold Lifesaving Medal.

Erick Lundberg

On May 28, 1951, the fishing vessel Acme sank off Neskowin, Oregon. Two survivors climbed to the top of the mast, the only part of the sunken vessel that protruded above the water. Lundberg, who was tending his crab pots alone in his boat, Manatee, maneuvered through the heavy surf and rescued one of the survivors. The other man was washed off the mast and drowned.

Robert and Jean Colby

On Sept. 16, 1990, the gasoline tanker Jupiter caught fire at its mooring on the Saginaw River. The Colbys took five crew members on board their 21-foot console, administered treatment for shock and hypothermia, and delivered the two men to an ambulance at the pier. The Colbys then returned to the burning ship to help transfer two more men to a Coast Guard utility boat and wet back a third time to set up a safety zone. The Colbys also received the Auxiliary Plaque of Merit and the Group Action Award.

Frank Mauro

On April 6, 1997, a 25-foot Bayliner collided with a barge moored at the 17th Street Causeway Bridge in Ft. Lauderdale. Mauro was serving as a crew member on board CG Utility Boat 41351. He jumped into the water and rescued four people - three adults and a young girl - by hauling them on board a Coast Guard rigid-hull inflatable that had arrived on the scene.

The Gold Lifesaving Medal, along with the Silver Lifesaving Medal, were established by an Act of Congress in 1874. Since then, the service has awarded more than 600 Gold Lifesaving Medals and more than 1,900 Silver Lifesaving Medals. 

The first Gold Life Saving Medal was awarded May 1, 1878, to Captain Joseph Napier, keeper of Life-Boat Station No. 6, District No. 10, for rescuing the crew of the schooner D. G. Williams, near the harbor of Saint Joseph, Michigan, on Oct. 10, 1877, according to the U.S. Cast Guard Historian's Office. 

Photo: U.S. Coast Guard