This Day in Coast Guard History – August 17

1898-The America schooner, Decorra, stranded on Black Head, four and a half miles east-northeast of the station, during thick weather.  Lifesavers arrived in their surfboat and found that she was leaking fast and in danger of sinking.  They went to work at once, manning the pumps and bailing her out with buckets. Finally a tugboat arrived, took her in tow, and beached her safely in Jonesport Harbor.

1929- Horace Alderman, convicted of murdering two Coast Guardsmen and a Secret Service agent in 1927, was hanged at Coast Guard Base 10 in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.  He was the only person ever executed on a Coast Guard base.

1990- At the request of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the Secretary of Transportation and the Commandant of the Coast Guard committed Coast Guard boarding teams to operation Desert Shield.  Coast Guardsmen served in the Gulf prior to this commitment, however.

(Source: USCG Historian’s Office)