[Tamaroa]

A few years back, I posed a question on a Coast Guard message board. I served from 67-71. At discharge, I had two medals, the NDSM and the CG Good Conduct Medal. I never felt belittled by the two ribbons, I did my job wherever I was posted and then some. As a crewmember on the deck force of a salvage tug, I got the bejesus knocked out of me numerous times paying out towing lines, reeling them in and hanging for dear life in mountainous seas to save some poor bedraggled sailor.

But curiosity got the better of me, and I remarked on a board once "I wondered what I would have been awarded these days" with the exact same service record from 30 years previous. Most of the guys seemed to thing that my measely 2 ribbons would have blossomed to at least 5 or maybe 6 awards. In a way it gave me a perverse sense of pride, because we busted our butts saving lives and that was our job and we were paid to do it. So what was the big deal.

I once read an article in the Naval Institute which really brought it home. To cut to the chase a destroyer was on fire in New york Harbor in WW2. Marines, the Navy and the Coast Guard all responded. The harbor was saved from a devastating explosion. The author of the article inquired of the CG Historian "why didn't any Coasties get awards because the Marines and Sailord did?" The Historian's reply was that the Coasties were just doing their job. So I think of that when I look at those two colored bits of cloth in my cigar box. :-)

Bill