It means Always Ready, and it's the motto of the United States Coast Guard. It may be the smallest branch of our military, and sometimes a forgotten branch at that, but it plays such an important role in the the service and protection of our nation. For a history of the USCG, please check out the link here

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Coast_Guard  We owe this branch of the service quite a lot. Not many people realize just what the Coast Guard does. As an itegral part of the Dept of Homeland Security, they play a vital role in the protection of our coasts and our ports. They hunt the bad guys daily, running after the drug smugglers, the illegals coming in by boat or raft. Most people's image of the Coast Guard is of rescue swimmers and helicopters, but they are so much more than that.


  As a young kid growing up, the Coast Guard played a major role in my life. My father was a member of the Guard for over 23 years, and as a kid, that is what I grew up with. I look back on those years and I aways am amazed at the things I was able to do, the places I was able to go and the people I was able to meet as a result of my father's service. As a military family, we moved around a lot, but what an experience it was just to know the special places I was able to call home. To this day, I still remember my father taking us down to the docks in Jonesport, Maine and watching the lobster fishermen come in with their daily catch. Nothing like fresh lobster straight off the boat, man that was the greatest thing as a 7 year old.  I rememer my father's ship, the USCGC Castle Rock, sitting at the dock on the base near our house. I even had the pleasure of spending the night on board once when it was home. Scary, very scary. Here is the Castle Rock in all her glory  I loved the stories my father told about life aboard his ship. The tales always fired up the imagination. Once, my father had to spend a full year stationed on Adak Island, way the hell out in the Aleutian Islands in Alaska. Talk about the middle of nowhere, on a map, that is trully off the beaten path. Mom found it tough and so did us kids and we couldn't wait for him to return, but we all understood that it was dad's duty and it was what he had to do. One of the best stories he told, and he still talks about it today, was that while stationed on Adak, they would always have to go out and patrol the waters in and around the island chain. It was during the height of the Cold War and he was always going out and chasing off old Russian "fishing boats". The Russians would always prowl around in these old fishing trawlers that were really spy ships, equipped with the latest Russian eavesdropping paraphanalia. He still has pictures of these boats and it didn't take a genius to figure out what these boats really were. How many old junkie fishing boats have electronics and huge towers with radar sticking out of the top of them? I didn't see too many fishing nets on them either.  To an 8 year old, that is some pretty cool shit!

My dad's final tour prior to his retirement found him on board an ice breaker for the final year of his service. We were stationed in Norfok, VA at the time. I still remember seeing him board the ship for the long jouney north. It was the icebreaker Westwind. I'm not sure if this is the Westwind, but it is a ship in it's class and gives a pretty good idea of what they were all about.
My father's last "trip' took him, at the time, closer to the North Pole than any other surface ship had ever been to date. How frickin cool is that? While on his last cruise, he was in Milwaukee, Montreal, Quebec, Greenland, Iceland, and of cousre, the Arctic. Plying the seas and keeping the shipping lanes open. To this day, I still remember his reply to me when I asked him what was the coldest place he had been on the trip. Milwaukee, he said, was the coldest place he had been! Of all places, not the Arctic isteslf, not Iceland.....Milwaukee. Maybe it was global warming back then???

This is a plug for the smallest branch of our military. We owe the veterans of this service just as much as the others. And I know one in particular who gets my respect daily. To him and his Coast Guard brothers I say this..

SEMPER PARATUS.............ALWAYS READY

Thanks for listening..............CG