1963 – The First of 99 HH-52A Helicopters Entered Coast Guard Service Making Basket Hoist The Coast Guard Aviation Plan of 1957 called for 79 medium range helicopters capable of proceeding offshore at a reasonable speed to a distance of 300 nautical miles, hovering for 20 minutes while picking up at least six survivors and […]

1962: Coast Guard Air Station Los Angeles Established Coast Guard Air Station Los Angeles is located at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX). The unit began as an aviation detachment in August 1962, with one HO4S helicopter from Air Station San Diego. Air Station Los Angeles was commissioned in November 1962 with two HO4S helicopters, nine […]

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 HC-130H CG1700 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). […]