Coast Guard Combat Veterans Association

The Coast Guard, in its literature, describes itself as "a military, maritime, multi-mission service within the Department of Homeland Security dedicated to protecting the safety and security of America." The other branches of the military are components of the Department of Defense. The United States Coast Guard has a broad and important role in homeland security, law enforcement, search and rescue, marine environmental pollution response, and the maintenance of river, intracoastal and offshore aids to navigation (ATON). It also lays claim to being the United States' oldest continuous seagoing service. As of October 2006, the Coast Guard has approximately 41,000 men and women on active duty, 8,100 reservists, 7,000 full time civilian employees and 30,000 active auxiliarists. The Coast Guard is deployed every day, and with duties that include law-enforcement, as well as maintaining aids to navigation, marine safety, and search and rescue, as well as its military duties, including port security. Its decentralized organization makes it highly effective in emergencies. In a 2005 article in TIME magazine following Hurricane Katrina, the author wrote, "the Coast Guard's most valuable contribution to [a military effort when catastrophe hits] may be as a model of flexibility, and most of all, spirit." Wil Milam, a resuce swimmer from Alaska told the magazine, "In the Navy, it was all about the mission. Practicing for war, training for war. In the Coast Guard, it was, take care of our people and the mission will take care of itself." The Coast Guard's motto is Semper Paratus, meaning "Always Ready". USCG has participated in every U.S. conflict from landing troops on D-Day and on the Pacific Islands in World War II, extensive patrols and shore bombardment during the Vietnam War, to Operation Iraqi Freedom. Maritime interception operations, coastal security patrols, and law enforcement detachments are the major roles in Iraq. The legal basis for the Coast Guard is 14 U.S.C. § 1 which states: "The Coast Guard as established January 28, 1915, shall be a military service and a branch of the armed forces of the United States at all times. The Coast Guard shall be a service in the Department of Homeland Security, except when operating as a service in the Navy." Coast Guard organization and operation is as set forth in Title 33 of the Code of Federal Regulations. On February 25, 2003, the Coast Guard was placed under the Department of Homeland Security. The Coast Guard reports directly to the Secretary of Homeland Security. However, under 14 U.S.C. § 3 as amended by section 211 of the Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation Act of 2006, upon the declaration of war and when Congress so directs in the declaration, or when the President directs, the Coast Guard operates under the Department of Defense as a service in the Department of the Navy. 14 U.S.C. § 2 authorizes the Coast Guard to enforce federal law. Further, the Coast Guard is exempt from and not subject to the restrictions of the Posse Comitatus Act which restrict the law enforcement activities of the other four military services. 14 USC 89 is the principal source of Coast Guard enforcement authority. 14 USC 143 and 19 USC 1401 empower Coast Guard petty officers, warrant officers, and commissioned officers as customs officers. This places them under 19 USC 1589a, which grants customs officers general law enforcement authority, General law enforcement authority includes authority to: (1) carry a firearm; (2) execute and serve any order, warrant, subpoena, summons, or other process issued under the authority of the United States; (3) make an arrest without a warrant for any offense against the United States committed in the officer's presence or for a felony, cognizable under the laws of the United States committed outside the officer's presence if the officer has reasonable grounds to believe that the person to be arrested has committed or is committing a felony; and (4) perform any other law enforcement duty that the Secretary of the Treasury may designate. As members of a military service, Coast Guardsmen on active and reserve service are subject to the Uniform Code of Military Justice and receive the same pay and allowances as members of the same pay grades in the other four armed services.