The history of the U.S. Coast Guard and its predecessor agencies dates from 1790, with missions in both domestic and international waters. The Service has provided aid in navigation, enforcement of maritime laws, environmental protection, search and rescue, immigration and narcotics interdiction, maritime safety assistance, port security, natural disaster response and national defense missions, including overseas with other U.S. armed forces and federal and state public safety agencies. The Service has operated under the Department of the Treasury, the Department of Transportation and, since 2003, the Department of Homeland Security. Its maritime mission regions have included Arctic and Antarctic waters, inland and coastal U.S. waterways and the seas and oceans of the world. The ability of the service to cope with expanded missions and limited budgets is the story of the exemplary training and leadership provided by the civilian, enlisted, Reserve, auxiliary and commissioned men and women of “Team Coast Guard”. This is the story of how the Coast Guard has manifested its legacy and motto, Semper Paratus: (Always Ready).

In 2009, Massachusetts naturalist and historian John J. Galluzzo set out to take a half an hour walk every single day in a different place, no matter what the weather was like, no matter what state his health was in. In 2011, he took things 351 steps further. Staring down classic New England snowstorms he set out in January on a new project, determined to walk for a half an hour in every town and city in Massachusetts on protected open space. He stormed the beaches of Cape Cod with the same ferocity with which he scaled the mountains of Berkshire County. Through rain, heat, mud and mosquitoes, he checked off towns and counties as he took note of wildlife sightings, all the while wearing his way through numerous pairs of shoes. Along the way, personal tragedy struck, within sight of his goal. The debate raged in his head - continue to the end, or drop the project to start again another year? John John as he marches his way through the Bay State, proving once and for all that a nature trail, or at least a nature experience, is never that far away for residents of Massachusetts.

Since December 31, 2008, I have walked a half an hour a day. While many Americans do this much and more, I've challenged myself to find a new place to do so every twenty-four hours. Again, one might suggest that such a move is not so noteworthy, but there are two catches. First, there's my day job. As a naturalist and public program coordinator for Mass Audubon, my walks this past year have taken me to some amazing places: the former leper colony on Penikese Island off Falmouth, Massachusetts, for instance, to an ever-expanding boulder field in the Poconos, and the puffin breeding colony on disputed Machias Seal Island off the Maine-Canada border. Wearing my Mass Audubon hat - literally - I've walked in Nova Scotia, Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New York, Pennsylvania, Delaware and Maryland. Second, there's my side job. Proudly toting my history degree from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, I've published thirty books on the history of Massachusetts, the New England coast, and the United States Coast Guard. With each step I've taken in 2009, I've looked at the world around me with both my naturalist's eye, spotting, for instance, 296 species of birds, and my historian's eye, finding the past beneath the trees, among the bushes and alongside the trails. Half an Hour a Day on Foot: An Obsessive Exploration of the Nature of the Northeast is my travelogue of those experiences and adventures, through all seasons, in 365 different places.

One New Year's Eve, inspiration hit. It involved a blog, a camera and a whole lot of walking. But it was perfect. Author John Galluzzo, a naturalist and historian by trade, would walk a half an hour each day, each walk in a different place, for a full year. Eighty percent of the time, he would walk near his home, in parks, on sanctuaries and down streets on the South Shore of Boston. But the other twenty percent of the time, he would step out of those bounds and explore less familiar places. Half an Hour a Day on Foot: Stepping Out of Bounds is the story of those meanderings and ponderings, told through flowing prose and spectacular original photography.