Being a ‘Coastie’ on Veterans Day
More Than A Day Away By Mike Steely
Tomorrow is Veterans Day across our nation, and, like millions of men and women, I am proud to be counted among that group.
My military service began the summer after I graduated from high school. Feeling that I had passed my induction physical, I began to consider what my future might look like. A cousin of mine was in the U.S. Coast Guard and had told me about that branch during family visits.
After my physical, I drove to the Coast Guard recruiting office and applied, but was told there was no billet available. The recruiter told me to call them if I got my draft notice and a few days later, a large envelope arrived by mail. I called the recruiter and he said not to open it and come to his office.
I was sworn in with a handful of other recruits and went home to open the envelope. Yes, it was my induction notice. The Coast Guard recruiter instructed me to contact my local draft board and inform them that I had enlisted. I did so, but the elderly woman on the other end of the phone asked, “Is that part of the military?”
Yes, of course, the Coast Guard is part of the U.S. Military, a vital part and probably the most active, day to day, than any other service.
I spent four years serving my country as a “Coastie.” I served as a search and rescue group radio station operator, a yeoman, and then as a journalist with the Office of Boating Safety in Washington, D.C. I can rightfully claim that I, as a seaman radio operator, helped save three people from a yacht in high seas that exploded just as our rescue boat arrived on a very stormy and dark night.
As a petty officer, I guarded Coast Guard headquarters when Dr. Martin Luther King was killed and declined a promotion at the end of my enlistment so I could be with my wife and two children.
I’ve never regretted serving, and I’m proud of my record. Often, as one of the few Coast Guard veterans in East Tennessee, I am called upon to represent the Coast Guard in ceremonies, wreath-laying, or speaking engagements. The Coasties receive a lot of teasing from veterans of other services, but that’s OK; we know what our service meant, what the Coast Guard does every day, and why we proudly proclaim “Semper Paratus” when quoting our slogan.
The term simply means “Always Ready,” and if it were not true, the search and rescue crew I woke up that stormy night would not have arrived on time to save those three people.
I’m proud of my relatives and friends who also served, not only in the Coast Guard but in the Navy, Marines, Air Force and Army. I lost two high school friends in the Vietnam War and was proud to find and copy those names from the Vietnam Veterans Memorial wall in D.C. The Coast Guard lost people in that conflict as well and always responds when called to war, drug patrol, immigration, storms, and daily rescues of people by boat, helicopter, and airplane.
There aren’t many “Coasties” in East Tennessee, but like Mike Steely, all of them are proud of their service to our nation. The U.S. Coast Guard is the oldest seagoing service in America and began as the Revenue Cutter Service.
