The United States Coast Guard in World War II: A History of Domestic and Overseas Actions

At home and overseas, the United States Coast Guard served a variety of vital functions in World War II, providing service that has been too little recognized in histories of the war. Teaming up with other international forces, the Coast Guard provided crewmembers for Navy and Army vessels as well as its own, carried troops, food, and military supplies overseas, and landed Marine and Army units on distant and dangerous shores. This thorough history details those and other important missions, including combat duties, kamikaze attacks, and typhoons. It also describes how the home front presented its own unique dangers and challenges, as Coast Guard personnel faced dangerous search and rescue missions, firefighting, explosives loading, and enemy espionage and sabotage. Also included are illustrations of aircraft, vessels, and combat action, maps of maritime combat theaters, and documents such as combat action reports and personal correspondence.

A member of the United States Coast Guard Reserve from 1961 to 1969, Thomas P. Ostrom taught anthropology, geography, and history at Rochester Community College in Minnesota before retiring. He is currently a member of the U.S. Life-Saving Service Heritage Association, the U.S. Naval Institute, the National Maritime Historical Society, and the U.S. Navy Memorial.