AJChenMPH
Forum Health Inspector
mgm12!: good luck with your enlistment! And AST's have my utmost respect.
Re-reading some of the older posts, and something dawned on me:
Yo 13 -- you mean as opposed to being under DoD?
There's some history to this -- the USCG started off as the US Revenue Cutter Service under DOT with the mission of "to collect taxes from a brand new nation of patriot smugglers. When the officers were out at sea, they were told to crack down on piracy; while they were at it, they might as well rescue anyone in distress." Basically, the idea was to enforce tariff laws and prevent smuggling -- and oh yeah, save sailors in distress.
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._Coast_Guard
So it doesn't seem to make sense to put them under DoD since they (1) had historical roots under DOT (and now DHS) and (2) their primary historical mission wasn't defense of a country, but tariff collection and rescue missions (even though they provided coastal protection while the US Navy was in mothballs from 1790 to 1798).
Re-reading some of the older posts, and something dawned on me:
they are under the command of homeland security but they are still one of the 5 armed forces
Which is odd considering the role they play.
Yo 13 -- you mean as opposed to being under DoD?
There's some history to this -- the USCG started off as the US Revenue Cutter Service under DOT with the mission of "to collect taxes from a brand new nation of patriot smugglers. When the officers were out at sea, they were told to crack down on piracy; while they were at it, they might as well rescue anyone in distress." Basically, the idea was to enforce tariff laws and prevent smuggling -- and oh yeah, save sailors in distress.
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._Coast_Guard
So it doesn't seem to make sense to put them under DoD since they (1) had historical roots under DOT (and now DHS) and (2) their primary historical mission wasn't defense of a country, but tariff collection and rescue missions (even though they provided coastal protection while the US Navy was in mothballs from 1790 to 1798).