Women in the U.S. Coast Guard
Information on the History of Women in
the Coast Guard
and Its Predecessor Services
The all-female crew of a Yerba Buena Island 41-footer; left to right: BM1 Jane Piereth, BM3 Gail Wheeler, MK1 Esther Lieberman, BM1 Becky Post, BM3 Adele Fiorillo; April, 1989. Photo by PA1 Ron Cabral
Overviews & Chronologies:
- Women in the United States Coast Guard [PowerPoint]
- "Woman's Work: Female Lighthouse Keepers in the Early Republic, 1820-1859"; a Master of Arts' Thesis by Virginia Neal Thomas.
SPARS: The Coast Guard Women's Reserve
:
- U. S. Coast Guard, Public Information Division. The Coast Guard at War: Women's Reserve. Vol. XII. Washington, DC: US Coast Guard, 1946 (The official history of the SPARs during World War II).
Historic Documents, Reports & Studies:
-
U.S. Department of the Navy's 1974 report of the evaluation of "Women Aboard USS SANCTUARY (AG 17)" in 1973. This report was utilized by the Coast Guard as they prepared to integrate women aboard cutters.
Notable Coast Guard Women:
Vivien Crea, USCG
Maria
Bray, USLHS
Jody A. Breckenridge, USCG
Sally Brice-O'Hara, USCG
Diane Bucci, USCG
Abbie
Burgess (Grant), USLHS
Cynthia A. Coogan, USCG
Elizebeth Smith Friedman (Treasury
Department, USCG)
Holly Harrison,
USCG
Olivia Hooker, USCGR (W)
Beverly G. Kelley, USCG
Eleanor C. L'Ecuyer, USCGR
Mary E. Landry, USCG
Kelly (Mogk) Larson, USCG
Ida Lewis,
USLHS
Barbara Mabrity, USLHS
Fanny May
Salter, USCG
Patricia Stolle, USCG
Sandra Stosz, USCG
Dorothy C. Stratton, USCGR (W)
Katherine Walker, USLHS
Oral Histories & Other First-Person Accounts:
- SPAR Florence
Finch was the only SPAR decorated for combat during World
War II. Florence Finch was a decorated SPAR who saw action in enemy-occupied
territory and was the only woman decorated with the Asiatic-Pacific
Campaign Ribbon.
- SPAR Lillian Vasilas' oral history: she describes her career in the Coast Guard during World War II. She attended basic training at West Palm Beach and then served first as a driver and then as a radio operator in the Washington, D.C. area
- SPAR Donna Ione Smith and Coast Guardsmen Robert Smith; both were veterans of World War II.
- PSC Sandy "Grandma Gunner" Mitten, a Coast Guard veteran of Operation Desert Shield/Desert Storm who served with PSU-303. She describes her experiences in the Coast Guard Reserve and her time in Saudi Arabia as a patrol boat coxswain during Operation DS/DS.
-
TWA Fight 800 Recovery Efforts: A first-person account by CWO Patricia Golden
-
Egypt Air Flight 990 Recovery Efforts: A first-person account by CWO Patricia Golden
- The oral history of LCDR Andrea Sacchetti. LCDR Sacchetti served as the Air Operations Officer during the 2008 "Concept of Operations" deployment to Barrow, Alaska.
Adobe Acrobat Reader (PDF)
PowerPoint