1962 – First Coast Guard Standardization Manual for Aircraft Operation Published The Manual Was for the HU-16 Albatross The post World War II fiscal retrenchment and the frugality of the Coast Guard resulted in an assortment of previously used aircraft obtained from other services. The operating procedures varied with the aircraft and the Air Station […]

1962 – The Cuban Missile Crisis In October 1962, the United States and the Soviet Union came to the brink of nuclear war over the placement of Soviet missiles in Cuba. The United States armed forces were at their highest state of readiness ever and although not known at the time, Soviet field commanders in […]

1962 – Coast Guard Aviation Development Master Plan initiated The Aviation planning process utilized the 1960 Re-Evaluation of the Requirements of Coast Guard Aviation and the Roles and Mission Study of 1961 as the initial basis of the expanded role of Coast Guard aviation over the decades to come. Coast Guard Aviation had evolved into […]

  1961 – Coast Guard Roles and Mission Study Initiated Coast Guard EC130V John F. Kennedy had just become President of the United States and had appointed C. Douglas Dillon as Treasury Secretary and a fellow torpedo boat officer, James A. Reed, as Assistant Secretary with Coast Guard responsibilities. Both the President and Mr. Reed […]

1959 – First of the HC-130 Aircraft were Obtained USCG HC-130B As the C-130 proved successful with the Air Force, other branches of the service began taking a look at the new transport. The United States Coast Guard’s mission of long-range search and rescue and coastal patrols dictated the need for a new airplane and […]

1959 – LORAN C Chains Established LORAN (LOng RAnge Navigation) is a terrestrial navigation system using ground-based transmitters. Hyperbolic LORAN lines of position (LOP) are formed by measuring the difference in reception times of synchronized signals. Groups of LORAN stations are used to form intersecting LOP to provide cross fixing. A LORAN net, or chain, […]

1959 – HUS-1G Helicopters Obtained The H-34 started as a private Sikorsky Aircraft development, which the military ignored. However, it soon became a true workhorse in service with all branches of the U.S. armed forces, in addition to a host of foreign nations, and a variety of civil operators. The H-34 was also the final […]

1958 – Air Detachment Naples, Italy Established In October of 1957 the USSR launched the first man made satellite. This expedited the requirement for a long range, highly accurate radio-navigation system for use with the satellites and missiles the United States was developing. There were three contenders; Omega, Decca, and Loran C (then called CYTAC). […]

1958 – C-123B Aircraft Obtained The C-123 was initially designed as the YG-18 glider by the Chase Aircraft Corporation. It was all metal and the first of the series took to the air in 1947. It had an upswept rear fuselage modified with a hydraulically operated loading ramp. This shape remains the characteristic of most […]

1957 – The Joint Report on the Requirements of the Coast Guard With Regard to Aircraft was Submitted: At the request of Congress the Joint Report on the Requirements of the Coast Guard was submitted to congress and implemented a year later. This document defined Coast Guard aviation’s primary role as search and rescue; specified the […]