page_title: Emlen Tunnell
section_title: Coast Guard
hierarchical_section_title: Emlen Tunnell / College and military service / Coast Guard
caption_attribution_description: English: USCGC Bernard C. Webber (WPC-1101) underway offshore of Miami, Florida.
context_page_description: Emlen Lewis Tunnell, sometimes known by the nickname "The Gremlin", was an American professional football player and coach. He was the first African American to play for the New York Giants and also the first to be inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
  Born and raised in the Philadelphia area, Tunnell played college football at the University of Toledo in 1942 and University of Iowa in 1946 and 1947. He also served in the United States Coast Guard from 1943 to 1946. He received the Silver Lifesaving Medal for heroism in rescuing a shipmate from flames during a torpedo attack in 1944 and rescuing another shipmate who fell into the sea in 1946.
  He next played 14 seasons in the National Football League as a defensive halfback and safety for the New York Giants and Green Bay Packers. He was selected as a first-team All-Pro six times and played in nine Pro Bowls. He was a member of NFL championship teams in 1956 and 1961. When he retired as a player, he held NFL career records for interceptions, interception return yards, punt returns, and punt return yards.
context_section_description: Tunnell's neck injury in 1942 resulted in his being rejected in efforts to enlist in both the United States Army and Navy during World War II. In May 1943, Tunnell enlisted in the United States Coast Guard. From August 1943 to July 1944, he served on the USS Etamin, a cargo ship that was manned by Coast Guard personnel and stationed in the South West Pacific Area. In April 1944, while unloading explosives and gasoline at Aitape in Papua New Guinea, the Etamin was struck by a torpedo dropped from a Japanese airplane; Tunnell saved a fellow crew member who was set afire in the blast, beat out the flames with his hands, sustained burns to his own hands, and carried the shipmate to safety. He was next stationed at San Francisco and Alameda from August 1944 to October 1945.
  In the fall of 1944, Tunnell played at the halfback position for the San Francisco Coast Guard Pilots football team.  On November 11, 1944, he led the Pilots to a 13–0 victory over Amos Alonzo Stagg's Pacific Tigers football team, throwing 22 yards for a touchdowns and returning an interception 75 yards for another touchdown. At the end of the 1944 season, he was named to the All-Pacific Coast service football team. He also played basketball for the San Francisco Coast Guard, scoring 13 points in a December 1944 game against the California Golden Bears.
  In March 1946, while stationed at Naval Station Argentia in Newfoundland, Tunnell rescued a shipmate who fell from the USS Tampa. Tunnell jumped into the 32-degree water and saved his drowning shipmate. In 2011, Tunnell was posthumously awarded the Silver Lifesaving Medal for his heroism in rescuing his shipmates on the Etamin and Tampa.
  On December 12, 2017, the Coast Guard announced that it planned to name its 45th Sentinel class cutter the USCGC Emlen Tunnell.
caption: The Coast Guard named the Bernard C. Webber, and all its other Sentinel class cutters, after heroes, and chose to name the 45th vessel after Tunnell.
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