Operations

The Coast Guard is an agile and adaptive problem solver, with a bias for action, and ever vigilant in order to prevent the next maritime disaster and respond when we are needed.
A Coast Guard Maritime Safety and Security Team crew, temporarily deployed from San Francisco, provides an escort for the USS Cole as the Navy destroyer returns to the Norfolk Naval Shipyard. Coast Guard crews worked to provide security zones for the Navy ships returning to harbor after Hurricane Irene. (U.S Coast Guard Photo by Petty Officer 3rd Class David Weydert)
Authorities
The Coast Guard's broad legal authorities associated with maritime transportation, hazardous materials shipping, bridge administration, oil spill response, pilotage, and vessel construction and operation.
Jaeda Sichel, 18, learns how to climb into a rescue basket with U.S. Coast Guard Petty Officers 3rd Class Ian Jobs and Cory Ciekot, aviation survival technicians stationed at Aviation Training Center in Mobile, Ala., in the swimming pool as part of her training to become an honorary Coast Guard rescue swimmer, July 7, 2009. The Make-A-Wish Foundation coordinated the daylong visit for Sichel, who completed training in a helicopter flight simulator, pool training with Coast Guard aviation survival technicians and participated in a real rescue swimmer training mission with an HH-60 Jayhawk rescue helicopter crew. (U.S. Coast Guard photo by Petty Officer 3rd Class Tom Atkeson/Released)
Strategies
Explore for information on the United States Coast Guard’s Strategic Priorities and Legislative Agenda.
The Coast Guard, working with the Palau National Police, conducts fisheries enforcement boardings in the Palau exclusive economic zone under a bilateral agreement. (U.S. Coast Guard photo by Chief Petty Officer Sara Mooers)
Partnerships
The United States Coast Guard actively participates in hundreds of Federal, State, Tribal, and Local partnerships. Below are a sample of some of our key partnerships.
Chief Warrant Officer Dustin Widman and Lt. j.g. Rebecca Grimes review ship logs and records with the captain and first mate aboard the bulk carrier Nikkei Verde at Nine Mile Anchorage on the lower Mississippi River, June 25, 2013. Widman and Grimes conducted a port state control inspection prior to the ship's entry into the Port of New Orleans. (U.S. Coast Guard photo by Petty Officer 2nd Class Bill Colclough)
Library
The library contains strategic documents and publications produced by the U.S. Coast Guard.