The U.S. Coast Guard & the War On Terror

Please search the image and resource galleries at the bottom of the page for images, articles, documents and publications detailing the Coast Guard's involvement in the War On Terror

The U. S. Coast Guard & the War On Terror

RHIB, probably of Activities New York, watches on as second struck Tower burns.

   

On the morning of 11 September 2001, nineteen terrorists took control of 4 cross-country commercial aircraft, weaponizing the planes -- steering them into each of the World Trade Center Towers in New York, and the Pentagon in Washington DC. On the fourth plane – while heading toward the US Capitol or the White House -- a brave band of passengers and crew attempting to regain flight control, downed the plane near Shanksville, Pennsylvania, in the struggle.

Living up to our motto of Semper Paratus, Coast Guard personnel immediately sprang into action to save lives and ensure security for survivors of the events of that day and all Americans and Allies in the decades to come.

Almost immediately following the attacks - all bridges and tunnels in Manhattan were closed -  leaving hundreds of thousands of people stranded, with no way to return safely home. Coast Guard personnel, taking charge of the situation, directed the safe evacuation of more than 500,000 people off the island using hundreds of local ferries, and commercial and private craft. This, the largest maritime evacuation in recorded history, was conducted in less than 8 hours, with no loss of life.

At and around Ground Zero, the Coast Guard’s Atlantic Strike Team worked in close cooperation with the Environmental Protection Agency monitoring air quality and enhancing safety and security of first responders in rescue and recovery operations within hours of the collapse of the World Trade Center.

At the Pentagon, the Navy Command Center, under the oversight of CG RADM Jeffrey Hathaway, sustained a direct hit of the crash of Flight #77, with complete loss of the 42 personnel of the Command Center watch on duty that morning. From a secondary office at CG HQ, ADM Hathaway established personal security detachments protecting Senior Navy Leadership in the aftermath of the attack, as well as supported the planning and policies of the coming war on terrorism.

By October 2001, US Military forces were deployed to Afghanistan to execute Operation Enduring Freedom, and Coast Guard personnel served in support of that mission through the nimble establishment of new units such as the Redeployment Assistance and Inspection Detachment (RAID), inspecting shipments of hazardous material and facilitating containerization movements in support of the War on Terror. 

In support of Operation Noble Eagle, thousands of Coast Guard men and women Reservists and Auxiliarists were mobilized to support the largest homeland defense and port security operations since World War II, ensuring the safety of maritime commerce, continued operation of port facilities, search and rescue and other vital operations.

On that fateful day, nearly 3000 innocent civilians lost their lives. Every day since, the service members, contractors and civilians of the Coast Guard have been ever-vigilant and successful in ensuring a repeat attack did not and does not occur, and continues to secure the smooth execution of our many missions fundamental to the security of our Nation.

 

U.S. Coast Guard Historian's Office
2703 Martin Luther King, Jr., Ave, SE
Washington, DC 20593-7031


U.S. Coast Guard Museum
Coast Guard Academy - Waesche Hall
15 Mohegan Ave
New London, CT 06320-8100

Contacting us:  U.S.C.G. Historian's Office

War On Terror - 9/11 Image Gallery
War On Terror Resources
Attack on America: September 11, 2001 and the U.S. Coast Guard 

U.S. COAST GUARD ORAL HISTORY PROGRAM Operation Noble Eagle Documentation Project

Interviewee: Rear Admiral Jeffrey J. Hathaway, USCG Director, Navy Command Center & Counter-Drug Division (OpNav N32)

Interviewer: PAC Peter Capelotti, USCGR Date of Interview: 20 June 2002 Place: Pentagon
RADM Jeffrey Hathaway, Di...
U.S. COAST GUARD ORAL HISTORY PROGRAM Operation Noble Eagle Documentation Project

Attack on America: September 11, 2001 and the U.S. Coast Guard

Interviewee: Admiral James Loy, USCG Commandant

Interviewer: PAC Peter Capelotti, USCGR 

Date of Interview: 27 March 2002 

Place: Office of the Commandant
ADM James Loy, Commandant...
Attack on America: September 11, 2001 and the U.S. Coast Guard
U.S. COAST GUARD ORAL HISTORY PROGRAM Operation Noble Eagle Documentation Project
Interviewee: Rear Admiral George Naccara, USCG Commander, First Coast Guard District
Interviewer: PAC Peter Capelotti, USCGR Date of Interview: 2 April 2002 Place: First Coast Guard District Conference Room, Boston, Massachusetts

The following are a series of interviews with Coast Guardsmen undertaken by PAC Peter Capelotti (Ph.D.), USCGR, among others, as part of the Historian's Office's attempt to document the Coast Guard's response to the 11 September 2001 terrorist attacks on this country and the impact those attacks had on what the service is called upon to do for the country.
Chief Capelotti used the interviews as part of his research for his book Rogue Wave: The U.S. Coast Guard On and After 9/11, a history of the Coast Guard's response to this attack on the United States.
RADM George Naccara's...
Attack on America: September 11, 2001 and the U.S. Coast Guard
U.S. COAST GUARD ORAL HISTORY PROGRAM Operation Noble Eagle Documentation Project
Interviewee: Marine Science Technician First Class Robert Joseph Schrader, USCGR Emergency Response Coordinator Atlantic Strike Team
Interviewer: PAC Peter Capelotti, USCGR Date of Interview: 20 February 2002
Place: Atlantic Strike Team
The following are a series of interviews with Coast Guardsmen undertaken by PAC Peter Capelotti (Ph.D.), USCGR, among others, as part of the Historian's Office's attempt to document the Coast Guard's response to the 11 September 2001 terrorist attacks on this country and the impact those attacks had on what the service is called upon to do for the country.
Chief Capelotti used the interviews as part of his research for his book Rogue Wave: The U.S. Coast Guard On and After 9/11, a history of the Coast Guard's response to this attack on the United States.
MST1 Robert J. Schrader, ...
Attack on America: September 11, 2001 and the U.S. Coast Guard
U.S. COAST GUARD ORAL HISTORY PROGRAM Operation Noble Eagle Documentation Project

Interviewee: Lieutenant Sean MacKenzie, USCG Commanding Officer, USCGC Adak (WPB-1333)

Interviewer: PAC Peter Capelotti, USCGR Date of Interview: 6 May 2002 Place: Station Sandy Hook
The following are a series of interviews with Coast Guardsmen undertaken by PAC Peter Capelotti (Ph.D.), USCGR, among others, as part of the Historian's Office's attempt to document the Coast Guard's response to the 11 September 2001 terrorist attacks on this country and the impact those attacks had on what the service is called upon to do for the country.
Chief Capelotti used the interviews as part of his research for his book Rogue Wave: The U.S. Coast Guard On and After 9/11, a history of the Coast Guard's response to this attack on the United States.
LT Sean MacKenzie, CO, CG...
Attack on America: September 11, 2001 and the U.S. Coast Guard
U.S. COAST GUARD ORAL HISTORY PROGRAM Operation Noble Eagle Documentation Project
Interviewee: Lieutenant Michael Day, USCG Chief, Waterways Oversight Branch Coast Guard Activities New York
Interviewer: PAC Peter Capelotti, USCGR Date of Interview: 4 April 2002 Place: Activities New York

The following are a series of interviews with Coast Guardsmen undertaken by PAC Peter Capelotti (Ph.D.), USCGR, among others, as part of the Historian's Office's attempt to document the Coast Guard's response to the 11 September 2001 terrorist attacks on this country and the impact those attacks had on what the service is called upon to do for the country.
Chief Capelotti used the interviews as part of his research for his book Rogue Wave: The U.S. Coast Guard On and After 9/11, a history of the Coast Guard's response to this attack on the United States.
LT Michael Day, Chief Wat...
Attack on America: September 11, 2001 and the U.S. Coast Guard
U.S. COAST GUARD ORAL HISTORY PROGRAM Operation Noble Eagle Documentation Project
Interviewee: Commander Gail Kulisch, USCG Commanding Officer, Atlantic Strike Team
Interviewer: PAC Peter Capelotti, USCGR Date of Interview: 20 February 2002 Place: Atlantic Strike Team, Fort Dix, New Jersey

The following are a series of interviews with Coast Guardsmen undertaken by PAC Peter Capelotti (Ph.D.), USCGR, among others, as part of the Historian's Office's attempt to document the Coast Guard's response to the 11 September 2001 terrorist attacks on this country and the impact those attacks had on what the service is called upon to do for the country.
Chief Capelotti used the interviews as part of his research for his book Rogue Wave: The U.S. Coast Guard On and After 9/11, a history of the Coast Guard's response to this attack on the United States.
CDR Gail Kulisch, CO, Atl...
Attack on America: September 11, 2001 and the U.S. Coast Guard
U.S. COAST GUARD ORAL HISTORY PROGRAM Operation Noble Eagle Documentation Project
Interviewee: Captain W. Russell Webster, USCG Chief of Operations, First Coast Guard District
Interviewer: PAC Peter Capelotti, USCGR Date of Interview: 2 April 2002 Place: Conference room of the First District Commander Boston, Massachusetts

The following are a series of interviews with Coast Guardsmen undertaken by PAC Peter Capelotti (Ph.D.), USCGR, among others, as part of the Historian's Office's attempt to document the Coast Guard's response to the 11 September 2001 terrorist attacks on this country and the impact those attacks had on what the service is called upon to do for the country.
Chief Capelotti used the interviews as part of his research for his book Rogue Wave: The U.S. Coast Guard On and After 9/11, a history of the Coast Guard's response to this attack on the United States.
CAPT Russell Webster, Chi...
Attack on America: September 11, 2001 and the U.S. Coast Guard
U.S. COAST GUARD ORAL HISTORY PROGRAM Operation Noble Eagle Documentation Project
Interviewee: Captain Richard P. Yatto, USCG Commanding Officer, Air Station Cape Cod
Interviewer: PAC Peter Capelotti, USCGR Date of Interview: 2 April 2002 Place: Air Station Cape Cod

The following are a series of interviews with Coast Guardsmen undertaken by PAC Peter Capelotti (Ph.D.), USCGR, among others, as part of the Historian's Office's attempt to document the Coast Guard's response to the 11 September 2001 terrorist attacks on this country and the impact those attacks had on what the service is called upon to do for the country.
Chief Capelotti used the interviews as part of his research for his book Rogue Wave: The U.S. Coast Guard On and After 9/11, a history of the Coast Guard's response to this attack on the United States.
CAPT Richard Yatto, CO, C...
A 2010 PowerPoint presentation developed by then-Assistant CG Historian, Christopher B. Havern, Sr. covering the history of the Coast Guard's national security mission.
USCG Combat History by Ch...
LANT & D-5 CO Vice Admiral Thad Allen's Official Oral History Interview regarding his role in the Coast Guard's response to the terrorist attacks on the U.S. on September 11, 2001
VADM Thad Allen's 9/1...
The official Coast Guard history of the service's illustrious response to the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the U.S. as researched and written by CPO (& Ph.D.) Peter J. Capelotti, USCGR.
Rogue Wave The U.S. Coast...
U.S. Coast Guard History Program
AUXILIARY RESPONSE TO THE TERRORIST ATTACK Looking back ten years from 2011 to stories from Auxiliarists from around the country.
AUXILIARY PATROLS IN THE WAKE OF 11SEP01
In part from The Pelorus, Division 12 newsletter, October 2001
Dan Cowley, Flotilla 12-8 D7
USCG Auxiliary Response t...