Stories of the U.S. Coast Guard

July 7, 2021 7:57 AM

Can anyone point me to good stories featuring the U.S. Coast Guard -- including fiction or nonfiction, movies or books?

When we dropped off my niece to start her swab summer at the US Coast Guard Academy (previously), we escaped the heat in the Academy's museum.

Between Katrina, WWI & WWII, service on the Great Lakes, Search & Rescue, and elsewhere, the Coast Guard goes so many places. It seems like there must be a million stories across fiction and history, besides the inflatable unicorn that we saw.

I found this "official" list of movies, but some of them are rubbish (e.g., Captain Ron), and I would like a little quality control.

Heck, even this short documentary [SLYT} is great.

Thanks in advance!

posted by wenestvedt to Media & Arts (19 answers total)

It's speculative fiction about future Coast Guard in space written by someone who served, but you might like The Sixteenth Watch. It's definitely a first novel, also captures a lot of the author's feelings about the mission/ethos of the Guard and relationships to other services, politics, etc as a veteran of the Guard.
posted by Alterscape at 8:03 AM on July 7, 2021 [1 favorite]

If I remember correctly, the book The Perfect Storm by Sebastian Junger followed a Coast Guard rescue team for a chapter or two. It's obviously not about the Coast Guard but they were involved in the search and rescue. It's been a long time since I've read it. I don't recall the movie getting too deeply into the Coast Guard.
posted by bondcliff at 8:05 AM on July 7, 2021 [3 favorites]

I'll admit to almost always watching The Guardian with Ashton Kutcher and Kevin Costner when I see it on TV.

The US Naval Institute is the academic press affiliated with the US Naval Academy, and they publish books about all the sea services. Their books are exceptionally good. Here's a selection of their catalog of USCG-related publications.
posted by NotMyselfRightNow at 8:12 AM on July 7, 2021 [3 favorites]

It's a bit of a stretch, but Boston Harbor Horror is a Lovecraft-influenced horror podcast about a New England Coast Guard petty officer who gets caught up in weird goings on initially in Boston, then up and down the New England coast. Each season is a separate mystery, and the episodes often deal with the Coast Guard chain of command and procedure as well as nautical horrors.
posted by GenjiandProust at 8:32 AM on July 7, 2021

Of course, Onionhead (1958), which is on your official list. The movie stars Andy Griffith but the novel (by Weldon Hill, if you can find it) is much better.
posted by Rash at 8:38 AM on July 7, 2021

A Speck in the Sea is written about an successful US Coast Guard rescue of a commercial fisherman from Long Island.
posted by rabidsegue at 8:39 AM on July 7, 2021 [1 favorite]

The Finest Hours is on that "official" list and it's quite good. It's about the real life rescue of a freighter off of Cape Cod during a nor'easter.
posted by RonButNotStupid at 9:22 AM on July 7, 2021 [1 favorite]

The Outermost House by Henry Beston chronicles an extended period the author lived alone in a tiny little house on the edge of Cape Cod. His only companions were the local wildlife and the occasional visits by the Coast Guard, who'd trek up and down the cape carrying lanterns.

Though Beston's cabin is long gone due to a storm, the Coast Guard station house is still there and worth a visit. Beston's book is a magnificent piece of a nature writing but also goes into some detail about the Coast Guardsmen and their work. It's great stuff.
posted by jquinby at 9:25 AM on July 7, 2021 [1 favorite]

NYT-bestselling author, Dana Stabenow: The absolute best part of a writer’s life is the research. I’ve written two thrillers, Blindfold Game and Prepared for Rage. For both novels I went on patrol with the US Coast Guard, first on Alex Haley for 16 days in the Bering Sea in February 2004 and then on Munro for seven weeks off the coasts of Central and South America in March, April and May of 2007. [...] I grew up in a commercial fishing community in Alaska, which including all the squiggly bits has about 35,000 miles of coastline. Coasties were always around when I was growing up, and I’d always wanted to write them somewhere into my work. The original plan was to create a Coast Guard base in Newenham in the Liam Campbell novels, with recurring characters. Then, alas, Liam lost his publisher, so when my agent and editor ganged up on me to write a thriller I figured, Awwright, Coastie hero!

These thrillers feature a female Coast Guard officer, Sara Lange.
Ms. Stabenow's non-fiction book about the research trips: On Patrol with the US Coast Guard.
posted by Iris Gambol at 9:56 AM on July 7, 2021 [2 favorites]

The Hurricane Within, a 2019 memoir by veteran Ashlee Leppert. A U.S. Coast Guard aviation electronics technician, Leppert is known for having rescued dozens of Americans during a hurricane season that battered the southern continental United States, as well as Puerto Rico.
posted by Iris Gambol at 10:25 AM on July 7, 2021 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: Sorry, I forgot to add: Go, Bears.
posted by wenestvedt at 11:05 AM on July 7, 2021 [1 favorite]

Youtube has several series on Coast Guards on Danger TV channel, such as Coast Guard Alaska, Coast Guard Florida, and Coast Guard Cape Disappointment (Northwest)

Business Insider has several episodes on Coast Guard Boot Camp, which would be a must watch.
posted by kschang at 2:06 PM on July 7, 2021 [1 favorite]

Very peripherally related to the coast guard; S.M. Stirling's Island in the Sea of Time series starts out by positing the island of Nantucket and the USCGC Eagle, a sailing vessel still (still, currently) in service with the US CG, travels back in time.
posted by porpoise at 3:43 PM on July 7, 2021 [1 favorite]

The US Life Saving Service was a precursor to the Coast Guard, and there are many good stories about it by way of North Carolina’s Outer Banks, aka The Graveyard of the Atlantic.

I highly recommend Fire on the Beach, a very readable history of Keeper Richard Etheridge and the first all Black life saving crew, stationed at Pea Island.

There’s also a new book about the famous Mirlo Rescue. I haven’t read it, but it was a pretty epic event.

If you’re ever in the neighborhood, check out the Beach Apparatus Drill re-enactment at Chicamacomico Life Saving Station.
posted by ReginaHart at 5:23 PM on July 7, 2021 [3 favorites]

Sloan Wilson's Ice Brothers is the story of a Coast Guard crew on the Greenland Patrol in WWII, searching for German weather stations and whatever else they can find, in a converted fishing trawler. I read it back when it was first published in the late '70s and remember enjoying very much. Based on the author's own WWII Coast Guard experiences.
posted by lhauser at 8:33 PM on July 7, 2021 [1 favorite]

It might be hard to find but STORIS: The Galloping Ghost of the Alaskan Coast is a documentary that a friend made and it is about the longest serving ship in the Coast Guard's history (I might be wrong about that but it was in service a loooooong-ass time). Note: I did cover for his DVD box and the poster and so have a vested interest in other people watching this excellent documentary.
posted by Foam Pants at 8:58 PM on July 7, 2021 [1 favorite]

There is a story here. The history of the CG on Fire Island is long and storied especially in the 19th century since ships bound for New York ran aground there with some regularity. I believe they were also involved with German saboteurs during WWII.

I remember some TV about helicopter rescues in Alaska. The show may be available on one of the streaming services.

I worked with a young woman whose brother joined the USCG. Last I heard, he was in Hawaii, poor devil.
posted by SemiSalt at 5:37 AM on July 8, 2021 [1 favorite]

I found TV shows. See this and that. Also, one more.

Not at all sure how to actually watch them.
posted by SemiSalt at 6:51 AM on July 8, 2021 [1 favorite]

There's one other modern era book out there. Deadliest Sea: The Untold Story Behind the Greatest Rescue in Coast Guard History by Kalee Thompson. Good read.
posted by Cris E at 12:29 PM on July 12, 2021