The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1924-03-23

Ansesssas
REAR ADMIRAL F.. C. BILLIARD
tered along both our shoelines. The
motto of the service is always Ready"
A cutter may reach port after a cruise
to find orders waiting it. 1t turns about
and steams out to sea. Its coal bunk
ers are built high and wide to provide
for precisely that sort of call Plenty
of food and water is always in store.
s'.H the emergency is an immediate
one, coast guard ship is expected
to get under way in 20 mnutes," said
Admiral Billiard. Steam is always kept
mp. If the captain has gone home to
see his family and cannot get back in
time the first officer takes the ship
In the ice season the coast guard
cutters patrol the berg lanes. Coast
guardsmen marry and bury and
hang and feed the Alaskan In
dams. The proposed round-the-world
flight would not have been possible
except that the coast guard records
displayed the only places on the Aleu-
tan Islands where the army fiefs could
land for gas and rest. Coast guard
cutters save ships at sea and destroy
derelicts and swatter into the breakers
TO tow out stranded ships. 1t is a hard
service. No weather is too rough, no
wave too high, to hold them back. No
job is too big for the coast guardsmen
to tackle.
But because of the character of the
service the cutters have been round
lbuttoeked, strong, sturdy little ships,
designed to stay at sea in all weather,
rather than to chase speed boats Ia
/ den with rum. And their service to
the merchant marine cannot be dis
continued merely because of the thirsts
ashore. Under a law now almost one
hundred years old they cruise the seas
from the beginning to the end of the
winter season in search Of mariners
needing aid. In one average year the
lives Of more than 1900 persons were
saved. No evidence Is recorded under
this head unless the Individual would
in all probability have lost his life. Mil
lions of dollars in property are saved
each season.
Coast Guard Older Than Navy
If congress grants the transfer of
the fast destroyers from the navy the
coast guard is the oldest maritime SER
primary duty and stil enforce the GUS
toms laws, for it will then have the
tools with which to work. Only one
thing bothers Admiral Billiard. The
doubling of the facilities of the coast
guard will entail a doubling Of the per-
| sonuef. @OffieeFs and men of the scoast
guard have always been hand picked.
They must measure up to an exacting
standard in mind and strength and cOur-
age and devotion to duty.
1T may seem hard job to get the
right men," said Admiral Billiard. But
we do not worry. Wen get them. The
wrong sort of a man could not stay
in the service"
That's where tradition counts. The
coast guard is the Oldest maratime SER
vice in the United States government
Born in 1870, it antedated the navy
by some years. 1t began with ten cut
tiers carrying two officers and six men
each. The duty. then was to watch
smuggling in the ports and enforce the
piracy demanded larger vessels. The
coast guard has taken part m every war
of the United States except that against
TrfpOli. 1t fought and captured French
and British privateers in the early years
and German submarines in the World
war.
No Bribery Or Dishonesty
without blot, mind you" says the
captains mot one man of
eur service has. ever been charged with
taking a bribe or dishonesty. Little
things, yes. They're husky, full-bodied
men in the coast guard. They have
to be to stick to the work. But no big
things. The service is clean"
Thirty years ago he gave up teach
ing Latin and Greek to the sprouting
youth to enter the service. 1t seemed
an sodd start. I
Il don't know why" he said. mot
the love for adventure, particularly.
wanted to serve the government at sea,
I think -y:s
So he has been with the coast guard
ever since. Not long ago an. effort was
made to merge the coast guard with
the navy. That was defeated. The
coast guard service is entirely distinct,
and naval officers are not permitted to
enforce civilian laws. Militarism lies
that way. But the coast guardsmen
had not been fairly. treated in the mat
ter of pay or rank OF retirement until
a recently enacted law placed officers
and men on = parity with the navy in
all these matters. Now the guard is
to be stiH further Increased, so that
il can perform its manifold duties to
its own satisfaction
Suenk Sixteen Years At Sea
Sixteen Of Admiral Billiards thirty
years service were spent at sea-. Then
nat long buried pedagogic instinct
manifested itself and he was placed in
charge of the coast guard services own
academy, at New London. There its
picked material is made really for any
one Of the varied services the coast
guard demands Of its men. Its Officers
must know how to board / wall0wing
ship at sea or run 4 lifeboat through
the surf. They must have tOokful
of laws at their fingers ends, be able
to lay a five-inch gun or navigate a
dismasted hooker by dead reckoning,
or reduce a mutinous crew to order by
a blink of the eye.
'And they can" says Admiral Bill
lard. He's the proudest man in the
service OF the United States. He
knows the coast guard will measure up
to any job that is given 1t. He knows
that when a coast guardsman is told
to do, he does not come back with an
abb. There is a book filled with the
names Of officers and men who have
been commended for heroic conduct,
The others" say Billiard, haven't had
their chance"
2 NEGROES ESCAPE