- Announced Annual Awards:
- Large Unit History Award Winner: Air Station Houston. In preparation for the 50th anniversary of Air Station Houston, staff contacted more than 12,000 people to participate in, attend, or contribute to the celebration commemorating the semi-centennial celebration of the commissioning of Ellington Field. Air station members spent 2013 working with the Coast Guard Aviation Association to contact former commanding officers, pilots, and aircrews, collecting air station history and memorabilia that dated back to the air station’s opening on December 23, 1963. The crew developed storyboards for use during the ceremony and then installed them in passageways. To commemorate the 50th anniversary of the air station, Air Station Houston redesigned its unit patch to reflect the date of its establishment and commissioned a new painting from artist Bryan Snuffer, which was unveiled during the ceremony.
- Small Unit History Award Winner: Station Quillayute River. The crew of Station Quillayute River excelled in presenting two segments of the unit’s history. First, the unit forged and maintained a long-standing relationship with the Quileute Nation, on whose land the station was initially built in 1929. Secondly, throughout its history, the unit has witnessed two significant incidents involving Coast Guard fatalities that have had profound impacts on the Coast Guard. Through recent preservation efforts, the station has sought to shed light on the factual events of these tragedies by exhibiting and interpreting artifacts that tell their stories. The year was emotionally punctuated by a unit morale kayak trip to the site of the 44363 disaster of February 13, 1997, during which the station’s crew found the 44-foot MLB mast protruding from sand. The unit extracted it from the sand, returned it to the station, restored it, and put it on display. This singular action personifies the connection to the past, with current unit members paying homage and respect to past unit members they never knew.
- Book awards.
- Coast Guard Heritage: Steve and Grace Truman, Storms And Sand: A Story Of Shipwrecks And The Big Sable Point Coast Guard Station
- Lighthouses: Merita S. Whatley, Images of America: Point Arena Lighthouse
- Heritage awards.
- LCDR Kenneth Sieg, USCGR, Sector Hampton Roads. LCDR Sieg processed more than 50 oral histories and associated artifacts collected in the field during travels to the U.S. Central Command area of operations, including Afghanistan, during operations of Patrol Forces Southwest Asia and the Redevelopment Assistance and Inspection Detachment. He also led the effort to bring the in-country Coast Guard Humvee, ELEANOR II, back from Afghanistan for preservation and display at the Air Station Wildwood Aviation Museum. LCDR Sieg also conducted in-depth research on the previously unexplored history of the Coast Guard’s signals intelligence efforts and assisted in a wide-ranging documentary declassification that shed new light on Coast Guard intelligence activities during World War II. For these reasons and many others, the Foundation for Coast Guard History owes an outstanding debt of gratitude to LCDR Sieg for his actions in support of the Service’s history.
- Tracey Mertens, USCG Auxiliary, Flotilla 23 Kodiak, AK. Auxiliarist Mertens collaborated with ten active-duty Coast Guard units in Alaska to preserve and present the story of the Coast Guard. Over 17 months, Ms. Mertens volunteered more than 2500 hours under the direction of the D17 public affairs staff and Air Station Kodiak. During that period, she took more than 3000 photographs that local units and the D17 Public Affairs Detachment have used.
- Lennis B. McFadden, USCG Auxiliary, Flotilla 0920-04-02, Rochester, NY. Auxiliarist McFadden dedicated more than 575 hours to digitizing and organizing his flotilla’s historical archives, spanning from 1939 to 2012, scanning and cataloging over 3,500 pages of documents and more than 650 photographs. Due to his work, all flotilla members have access to all historical materials without the need to disturb the originals. This project led to the creation of an exhibit at the Central Library of Rochester and Monroe Counties, marking the 2015 celebration of 75 years as a unit for the flotilla.
- Continued sponsorship of Coast Guard History Award to the Honor Graduate of each Chief Warrant Officer Professional Development Class.
- Published three issues of The Cutter, FCGH’s magazine.
