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Now, with many successful Veterans Day events under its belt, the Chiefs of the DC CPOA invite the rest of the Coast Guard across the nation to join them. Since January 2001, more than 86 USCG Flags Across America chapters in 36 states have sprung up to work on this worthy project. All it takes is some research to find out where Coast Guard personnel are buried in your local area (private and/or military cemeteries), some fundraising to buy the flags, and some enthusiastic volunteers with Honor, Respect and Devotion to Duty!



Semper Paratus!



Learn more about Flags Across America here.

In the monument's rock foundation and pyramid design, architect George Howe and sculptor Gaston Lachaise have captured the spirit of the Coast Guard's legendary steadfastness. A bronze seagull, poised with its wings uplifted, alights below the Coast Guard motto Semper Paratus (Always Ready). This bird further symbolizes the tireless vigil that the U.S. Coast Guard maintains over the nation's maritime territory.



Flags Across America



In 1996, The Coast Guard Reservist magazine published a two-part series “Coast Guard Monuments Across the USA.” That series prompted a visit by some Coast Guardsmen to Arlington National Cemetery’s Coast Guard Hill the following Memorial Day. They noticed that the Army places American flags on all the graves at Arlington every Memorial Day. The Coast Guardsmen came up with an idea — why not place Coast Guard flags on the Coast Guard graves at Arlington on Veterans Day, and perhaps Coast Guard Day too?

The idea came to life for Veterans Day 1999 when the Washington, D.C. Chapter of the Chief Petty Officers Association sponsored the placing of USCG flags on the graves of Coast Guardsmen buried at Arlington as well seven flags at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall for the seven Coast Guardsmen on the Wall.

About the Memorial

Coast Guard Hill is our Memorial to the shipmates that have given the ultimate sacrifice.  

History

Two tragic episodes in U.S. Coast Guard history prompted the construction of this memorial, which sits atop a hill near the southern edge of Arlington National Cemetery. On Sept. 17, 1918, Eleven volunteer crew members from the cutter Seneca were lost while attempting to salvage the British steamer, Wellington, which had been torpedoed in the Bay of Biscay. All officers and crew on board the Wellington were lost. Only five days later, on Sept. 26, 1918, the cutter Tampa was sunk by an enemy submarine in the British Channel, and all 115 men on board that ship were lost as well.


The names of these vessels and their crewmen, as well as of all Coast Guard personnel who lost their lives during the Great War, are inscribed on the sides of the monument. The U.S. Coast Guard Memorial at Arlington National Cemetery

was dedicated May 23, 1928.


The Coast Guard was formed as the successor to the Revenue Cutter Service and the Life Saving Service June 28, 1915. By law, the Tampa and the Seneca had been ordered to operate as part of the Navy when the United States entered World War I April 6, 1918.


 

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