United States Coast Guard Memorial
at Arlington National Cemetery
(Courtesy of the Military District of Washington)
Two
tragic episodes in U.S. Coast Guard history prompted the construction of this memorial, which sits atop a hill near the southern edge
of the cemetery. On September 21, 1918, the cutter Seneca was lost while attempting to salvage the British steamer, Wellington, which
had been torpedoed in the Bay of Biscay. All officers and crew of the Seneca were lost. Only five days later, on September 26, 1918,
the cutter Tampa was sunk by an enemy submarine in the British Channel, and all on board that ship were lost as well.
The names of
these vessels and their crewman, as well as of all Coast Guard personnel who lost their lives during the Great War, are inscribed
on the sides of the monument. The U.S. Coast Guard Memorial at Arlington National Cemetery was dedicated May 23, 1928.
The Coast Guard
was formed as the successor to the Revenue Cutter Service and the Life Saving Service June 28, 1915. By law, the Tampa and the Seneca
had been ordered to operate as part of the Navy when the United States entered World War I April 6, 1918.
In the monument's rock foundation
and pyramid design, architect George Howe and sculptor Gaston Lachaise have captured the spirit of the Coast Guard's legendary steadfastness.
A bronze sea gull, poised with its wings uplifted, alights below the Coast Guard motto Semper Paratus (Always Ready). This bird further
symbolizes the tireless vigil that the U.S. Coast Guard maintains over the nation's maritime territory.
The USS Serpens Memorial At Arlington National Cemetery
The largest group burial at Arlington National Cemetery took place on
June 15, 1949, when 250 men from the USS Serpens were interred in 52 caskets.
These men were killed on the night of Jan. 29, 1945,
when the U.S. Coast Guard ammunition ship exploded and sank at Lunga Beach, Guadalcanal, Solomon Islands.
This catastrophe was
the single greatest disaster suffered by the U.S. Coast Guard during World War II, and cost the lives of 193 Coast Guardsmen,
56 soldiers and one U.S. Public Health Service surgeon.
There were 30 grave sites set aside for the burials, arranged in five rows
of six graves each. The 52 caskets were buried in 28 graves. Two grave sites in the center of the block of 30 were reserved
for the octagonal memorial on which all names were inscribed.