Fun Fact #407

 Fun Fact #407     

      The Coast Guard

In late 1914, President Woodrow Wilson was concerned about Europe's "Great War" and the possibility of the US getting drawn in. To better prepare the US for potential war he began working to consolidate as many of the services and armed forces of the government as possible. One of the groups caught up in this was The United States Revenue Cutter service (USRC) whose fleet of 36 ships had proven to be highly effective. Not wanting to disrupt their effectiveness, President Wilson combined 8 other services into them, so the USRC only expanded its command --even though several of those groups prior to this were not a part of the government. Some of these services were The Life Saving Service (Search and rescue), Lighthouse Service (USLS), and Maritime Investigation (MI) to form "The US Coast Guard on January 28^{th, 1915}

^{After the 9/11 attacks it would be reorganized again retaining its name but moving under the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) making it the only Armed forces branch not under the Department of Defense (DOD) which is why most people assume it's not a "real" military branch. Don't be fooled.} 

^{The US Coast guard is the 12th largest Maritime force in the world and is regularly ranked the 6th most effective in small to mid-scale scenarios --beating even the US navy on occasion. It has 44,500 active personnel, another 39,000 support personnel, 250 ships, more than 2,000 Specialized craft (ex: Tugs, Icebreakers and more). Because they part of DHS, most foreign governments consider them a "Constable" force meaning they can go into places the traditional military cant without clearance, and since they are under the same oversight as the CIA, FBI, and Federal Marshals they have direct access to collected information for its Maritime Investigation division which is operates internationally.} 

      

^{Thanks for reading and please have a wonderful weekend everyone!}