This Day in Coast Guard History – May 13

1905- An Executive Order extended the jurisdiction of the Lighthouse Service to the noncontiguous territory of Guam Island.

1952- The Coast Guard announced the establishment of an Organized Reserve Training Program, the first in U.S. Coast Guard history.  Morton G. Lessans was sworn in as the first member of the Organized Air Reserve on 12 December 1951.

1986-CGC Manitou stopped  the 125-foot Sun Bird in 7th District waters and her boarding team discovered 40,000 pounds of marijuana hidden aboard.  The boarding team then located the vessel's builder's plate and learned that the Sun Bird was the decommissioned "buck-and-a-quarter" cutter Crawford.  The former cutter and her 14-man crew were taken into custody.  A newspaper article describing the incident noted: "If Crawford was a person, Miami would have probably seen it blush . . . The ex-Coast Guard cutter received more publicity for smuggling the drugs than for its 20-year Coast Guard career."

(Source: USCG Historian’s Office)