A Coastie to the End: My Underway Adventures with the U.S. Coast Guard

A Coastie to the End: My Underway Adventures with the U.S. Coast Guard

Throughout time and space, many among us have felt drawn to the sea. Whether it’s in our genes or in our very bones, the wide expanse of the ocean beckons us to exploration. Author Peter Minnick is no exception. A family history of naval service and a yearning to serve his country and himself led to enlistment in the U.S. Coast Guard. A Coastie to the End traces Minnick’s lively seagoing career through each of his ships and underway assignments; starting with his active-duty years as a young man seeking adventure and continuing with his later career as a civilian naval architect in the Coast Guard. This tale is brought to life through his informative sea stories, many of which are highly amusing, recalling the events he experienced while underway. We learn what life was like on the Coast Guard’s patrol boats aiding those in distress, working along the picturesque coasts of Alaska on the unsung workhorses known as buoy tenders, and while temporarily assigned to an oil tanker before the opening of the Alaskan Oil Pipeline. However, the author’s calling was always to serve on polar icebreakers operating in the Arctic and in the oceans surrounding Antarctica; a dream which he finally fulfilled as a naval architect working on, and overseeing, icebreaker testing of these specialized ships. The author was recognized as the U.S. Coast Guard’s Federal Engineer of the Year in 2003, capping off a remarkable career underway. This collection of memories is a true celebration of the men and women of the Coast Guard as they perform their duties as “Guardians of the Seas” and a salute to the Coast Guard itself.