This collection of essays, written by the some of the foremost historians in the field of Coast Guard history, highlights the wartime roles played by the United States' oldest federal maritime service, from its inception through the last decade of the twentieth century. The Fighting Coast Guard features three distinct sections: "Beginnings," which includes a short overview of the US Revenue Cutter Service (the USCG's primary forerunner, established in 1790) and two chapters on World War I; "Conflagration," the role of the USCG during the World War II era; and "The Cold War and Beyond," an assessment of the Coast Guard's participation in the Korean Conflict, the Vietnam War, and the Persian Gulf War of 1991. The Fighting Coast Guard is a significant contribution to the limited historiography of the Coast Guard and a critical analysis of various wartime roles undertaken by the Coast Guard during America's twentieth-century conflicts.Because the Coast Guard operated as part of the Department of the Navy during the two world wars, its service and history is often overlooked or enveloped by the larger service, while the USCG's limited participation in cold and hot wars since 1945 is often ignored altogether. This anthology provides readers with a solid overview while highlighting some of the service's most important contributions as a combatant force. This definitive study of the role of the US Coast Guard in wartime, from its modern inception in 1915 through the end of the twentieth century, is long overdue and will shed new light on America's smallest military service.

Starting in 1952, the United States Navy and Coast Guard actively recruited Filipino men to serve as stewards--domestic servants for officers. Oral histories and detailed archival research inform P. James Paligutan's story of the critical role played by Filipino sailors in putting an end to race-based military policies. Constrained by systemic exploitation, Filipino stewards responded with direct complaints to flag officers and chaplains, rating transfer requests that flooded the bureaucracy, and refusals to work. Their actions had a decisive impact on seagoing military's elimination of the antiquated steward position. Paligutan looks at these Filipino sailors as agents of change while examining the military system through the lens of white supremacy, racist perceptions of Asian males, and the motives of Filipinos who joined the armed forces of the power that had colonized their nation. Insightful and dramatic, Lured by the American Dream is the untold story of how Filipino servicepersons overcame tradition and hierarchy in their quest for dignity.

Imperial Japan's wartime atrocities left a bloody stain on the waters of the Pacific...This is a story that might have quietly slipped beneath the waves of history had Bernard Edwards not written this important book. Blood & Bushido vividly recounts the barbaric actions of Japan's navy in the wake of its attacks on Allied shipping, including the ramming of lifeboats, the machine-gunning of survivors and the bayoneting and beheading of captives. As Edwards explains, the ancient Japanese warrior code of Bushido-under which capture is forbidden--was in stark and lethal contrast to the humane code of conduct usually honored by seafarers. Anyone unfortunate enough to fall victim to the Imperial Navy paid a terrible price. Drawing on the dramatic accounts of Allied survivors, Blood & Bushido serves as a reminder of the Imperial Navy's inhumane acts and a tribute to those who perished because of them.

Only six years after man had successfully flown for the first time with controlled, powered flight in 1903, the Royal Navy could already see the potential of taking flying machines to sea. Initially used to extend the view from the ship's crow's nest, the aircraft at sea would become one of the most influential strides forward in the history of the Royal Navy. From aircraft and technology to training, language and recreation, the flying branch of the Royal Navy has long had its own specific set of objects, rules and traditions. Delving in to the official archives of the Fleet Air Arm Museum and the wider National Museum of the Royal Navy, David Morris tells this incredible story through a selection of 100 significant objects.