- Announced Annual Awards:
- Large Unit History Award Winner: USCGC Acushnet (WMEC 167). Among its accomplishments, the crew of USCGC Acushnet made a concerted effort to preserve the cutters history during 2009 as the sole remaining World War II era cutter on active duty in the U.S. fleet prior to her decommissioning on March 11, 2011. Preservation efforts included: the compilation of images and documents dating back to world war ii when USCGC Acushnet served as USS Shackle (ARS-9), the inclusion of history articles in the unit’s quarterly newsletter – The Shackle, the encouragement of visitation by local school groups, the writing of and supervision of content for website pages on the unit’s homepage, Wikipedia and Facebook, and more.
- Small Unit History Award Winner: USCG Headquarters Office of Aviation Forces. Among their accomplishments was the continued quest to locate, document, and possibly recover the remains of LT John Pritchard, RM1 Ben Bottoms, and CPL Loren Howarth, lost during a search and rescue effort on Greenland on 29 November 1942. The efforts thus far have included the gathering of key research details from the National Archives, museums and active units across the United States, ice-penetrating radar sweeps of suspected areas where the J-2F4 Grumman “Duck” supposedly went down, and more.
- Book Awards.
- Coast Guard Heritage: Wilkinson, William D. and CDR Timothy R. Dring, USNR (Ret.), American Coastal Rescue Craft: A Design History of Coastal Rescue Craft Used by the United States Life-Saving Service and the United States Coast Guard. Our judges described the book as “an invaluable resource that will be maintained for decades to come.”
- Henry Osmers, Living on the Edge: Life at Montauk Lighthouse, 1930-1945.” Described by one reviewer as “full of original material, capturing two important oral histories and fusing them, relating the dire days of the Depression and World War II as they played out at the light.”
- Heritage Award: LCDR Michael Bennett. LCDR Bennett has brought great recognition to the Coast Guard through his in-depth research on Coast Guard intelligence history. His accomplishments include publication of the article entitled “Guardian Spies: The U.S. Coast Guard and O.S.S. Maritime Operations in World War II, in the Central Intelligence Agency publication Studies Intelligence, December 2008, Volume 52, Number 4; publication of the same article in American Intelligence Journal, Fall 2009 and Summer 2010; design, development, writing, editing, and publication of the website guardianspies.com on Coast Guard intelligence history in World War II; discovery of Coast Guard Unit 387, the small cryptologic unit responsible for all Western Hemisphere clandestine traffic during World War II; and a presentation on the topic for the Center for Cryptology’s October 2009 Cryptologic History Symposium.
- Worked with Atlantic Area CG Historian, Dr. William Thiesen, and Buffalo Veterans Park to establish a memorial honoring LT John Crotty, USCG for his distinguished WWII service. Purchased large bronze plaque, participated in dedication ceremony.
- Continued sponsorship of Coast Guard History Award to Honor Graduate of each Chief Warrant Officer Professional Development Class.
- Published three editions of The Cutter, FCGH’s magazine.
