What is the coast guard oath?

It Happened in July
8 July 1791-Secretary of Treasury authorizes collectors of customs to disburse for cutters and to pay officers as agents of Secretary

27 July 1793-President ordered full complements for cutters and Increased monthly pay to $40 for Captains, $26 for 1st mates, $20 for 2nd mates, and $18 for 3rd mates. Captains to have subsistence of Captain in Army, three mates subsistence of Army Lieutenants and mariner's subsistence not to exceed $10 per month.

1 July 1797-Cutters' complements increased by Congress to not more than 30 marines and seamen and employed to defend the sea coast, while protecting the revenue

7 July 1798-Hostilities began in Quasi-War with France. USRC Pickering, Virginia, Scammel, South Carolina, Governor, Jay, Eagle, General Greene, and Diligence were the first to be placed under naval orders, comprising about one-third the U .S. Fleet.

7 July 1801-Treasury Department circularized collectors looking toward reducing size of cutters and cut down their crews.

6 July 1809- Twelve new cutters authorized by Congress to enforce President Jefferson's embargo.

2 July 1836-Captain's pay increased to $1200 per annum, 1st Lieutenant's to $960, 2nd Lieutenant's to $860, 3rd Lieutenants to $790.

7 July 1838-Under the authority of an Act of Congress passed this date, the President divided the Atlantic coast into six, and the Great Lakes coast into two, lighthouse districts. A naval officer was detailed to each lighthouse district, a revenue cutter or a hired vessel was placed at his disposal, and he was instructed to inspect all aids to navigation, report on their conditions, and recommend future courses of action.

26 July 1846-USRC Woodbury put down a mutiny on board the troop ship Middlesex during the Mexican War

27 July 1868-Secretary of Treasury directed by Congress to enforce law prohibiting unauthorized killing of fur seals in Alaska. Also President authorized to regulate traffic in firearms, ammunition and spirituous liquors in Alaska. President assigns Revenue Marine to police work necessary to enforce.

15 July 1870-Congress directs the revenue cutters on the northern and northwestern lakes when commissioned shall be specially charged with aiding vessels in distress on the lakes. An Act of Congress (l6Stat. L., 291, 309) directed the Lighthouse Board to mark all pierheads belonging to the United States situated on the northern and northwestern lakes, as soon as it was notified that the construction or repair of pierheads had been completed

5 July 1884-An Act of Congress (23 Stat. L., 118) created a special service known as the Bureau of Navigation, under the Treasury Department, with the duty of supervising the work having to do with the administration of American navigation laws. "The act specifically allotted to the bureau the numbering of vessels and the preparation of the annual list of merchant vessels of the United States."

28 July 1884-The Senate approved the appointment of Captain Jarvis Patten as Commissioner of Navigation to direct the work of the organization of the Bureau of Navigation, under the supervision of the Secretary of the Treasury

1 July 1885-The Bureau of Navigation was permanently organized in accordance with the provisions of the Act of Congress of 3 March 1885 26 July 1886-An Act of Congress (24 Stat. L., 148) authorized an increase in the number of lighthouse districts to 16 within the Lighthouse Establishment.

1 July 1903-The Lighthouse Service, along with other activities having to do with navigation, was transferred from the Treasury Department to the Department of Commerce and Labor.

20 July 1917-An Executive Order extended the jurisdiction of the Lighthouse Service to the non-contiguous territory of the American Virgin Islands.

3 July 1918-Congress passed Migratory Bird Act - Coast Guard enforced after 1936 passage of Act to Define Jurisdiction of Coast Guard.

14 July 1926-The first radio-beacon established in Alaska, at Cape Spencer, was placed in commission.

3 July 1927- Ensign Charles L. Duke, in command of CG-2327, boarded the rumrunner Greypoint in New York harbor and single-handedly captured 22 prisoners and its cargo of illegal liquor.

24 July 1936-USCGC Cayuga was ordered to San Sebastian, Spain as the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War necessitated the evacuation of US citizens. While on this deployment the US ambassador to Spain and his staff came on board and the ship served as the US embassy in Spain

2 July 1937-USCGC Itasca, while conducting re-supply operations in the Central Pacific, makes the last-known radio contact with Amelia Earhart and her co-pilot Fred Noonan. Itasca later joins the Navy-directed search for the aircraft. The search is finally called off on 17 July with no trace of the aircraft having been found.

1 July 1939-Under the President's Reorganization Plan No. 11, made effective this date by Public Resolution No. 20, approved 7 June 1939, it was provided "that the Bureau of Lighthouses in the Department of Commerce and its functions be transferred to and consolidated with and administered as a part of the Coast Guard. This consolidation made in the interest of efficiency and economy, will result in the transfer to and consolidation with the Coast Guard of the system of approximately 30,000 aids to navigation (including light vessels and lighthouses) maintained by the Lighthouse Service on the sea and lake coasts of the United States, on the rivers of the United States, and on the coasts of all other territory under the jurisdiction of the United States with the exception of the Philippine Island and Panama Canal proper." Plans were put into effect providing for a complete integration with the Coast Guard of the personnel of the Lighthouse Service numbering about 5,200, together with the auxiliary organization of 64 buoy tenders, 30 depots, and 17 district offices.

1 July 1939-On this date, "the Lighthouse Bureau went out of existence and its personnel moved themselves and their equipment to Coast Guard Headquarters from the Commerce Department building. Thus did lighthouses return to the Treasury Department.

1 July 1946-As a final step in the return of the Coast Guard to the Treasury Department from wartime operation under the Navy Department, the Navy directional control of the following Coast Guard functions was terminated: search and rescue functions, maintenance and operation of ocean weather stations and air-sea navigational aids in the Atlantic, continental United States, Alaska, and Pacific east of Pearl Harbor

21 July 1947-President Truman signed H.R. 3539, which became Public Law No. 209, authorizing the Coast Guard to construct a suitable chapel for religious worship by any denomination, sect or religion at the US Coast Guard Academy in New London, Conn.

23 July 1947-Congress approved Public Law 219 which provided for the integration of the personnel of the former Bureau of Marine Inspection and Navigation into the regular military organization of the Coast Guard. This was effected during Fiscal Year 1948, "and the Service thus had a single unified organization to carry forward the correlated duty which prior to 1939 were divided among three different Federal agencies the Coast Guard, Lighthouse Service, and Bureau of Marine Inspection and Navigation."

25 July 1947-The Women's Reserve of the Coast Guard Reserve (SPARS) was made inactive. 24 September 1947-The Coast Guard announced that it had virtually completed the return of United States buoys, lights, and other aids to navigation, to a peacetime basis

12 July 1953-Coast Guard aircraft and surface craft of the Search and Rescue Group at Wake Island joined with a large naval task unit in conducting an intensive search for a Transocean Air Lines DC-6 aircraft last reported about 300 miles east of Wake Island. The scene of the crash was located, and 14 bodies were recovered.

25 July 1956-The Swedish liner Stockholm collides with the Italian liner Andrea Doria off Nantucket. Coast Guard and other vessels responded Andrea Doria sank 10 hours after the collision that resulted in 52 deaths.

1 July 1957-USCGC Storis, Bramble, and Spar depart Seattle for their traversal of the Northwest Passage. The three arrived in Boston after the successful completion of the mission around 19 September 1957

15 July 1972-USCGC Absecon was decommissioned and transferred to the South Vietnamese Navy. This was the last of the seven 311-foot Casco-class cutters to be transferred to the South Vietnamese.

31 July 1985- The Coast Guard conducted a fleet dedication ceremony for the new 110-foot patrol boats in Lockport, LA.

9 July 1986- A fire breaks out at the Bayonne, NJ, transfer facility. Coast Guard units respond to fight the fire.

1 July 1991: A 14th Coast Guard District LEDET, all crewmen from the CGC Rush, deployed on board the U.S. Navy's USS Ingersoll, made history when they seized the M/V Lucky Star for carrying 70 tons of hashish; the largest hashish bust in Coast Guard history.

17 July 1994: The Polar Sea departed from Victoria, British Columbia on operation Arctic Ocean Section 1994 and becomes the first U.S. surface vessel to reach the North Pole. She then transited the Arctic Ocean back to her homeport in Seattle, WA.

17 July 1996: TWA Flight 800 crashes off New York with no survivors. Numerous Coast Guard units conduct search and rescue operations to no avail