United States Coast Guard Academy - Tide Rips Yearbook (New London, CT)

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Medical Director W. H. Gordon, USPHS Medical Officer Today, as ahvays, officers oi the United States Piil)lic Health ser icc achiiinisler the medical needs ot the Coast C.iiaicl. Ihe new Acad- emy sick bay cares lor cverylhiiis from minor bruises to major o|)crations. Sanitation is also handled hv llie medical officer. LiEt riN AM . lioi.i Cadet McouHting J he wei.uhl ol ilie hii.inc ial worries ol more than ;5-,() cadets is borne by Lt. Holt. He handles sik h things as income taxes, war bonds, mess bills and savinjis. If aiivihiiis is left over. cadets may draw their |)ay in the cadet accounting office. 19

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' ' XJou have to go out - but you don ' have to come back ' ' The sixty-odd officers and crew iiuinher of the culler ESC A- N ' ABA ])rol);ibly gave little thoui lii to this old Coast Guard saving wluii ihey began tluii routine job of escorting a convoy Iroin Greenland to heland in the suiniiicr ol nil ' ,, but it held an ominous meaning loi them. In the early morning houis ol a |une (ia a tciiilii underwater explosion wracked the stiud little vessel, and she disappeared before distress signals coidd Ik- sent. No sound wa licard by the other members of the escort, antl the first sign ol ti()id)k ' on the ESCANABA was a dense cloud of yellow and black, smoke. Ihe cutters STORIS and R, RIT. N, nearest members of the escort, rushed to the scene, arri ing ten minutes after the disaster. All that could be found were two sin i iirs and the body of a third. The E,SCAN. BA, commanded by Lt. Comdi. Carl U. Peter- son, had lived an eventful and useful life before she answered her last call to dutv. Lauiuhed in i9;?2, she had worked exclu- sively on the Great Lakes until the outbreak of the war, serving as an icebreaker in winter and as a patrol i)oat in sunmier. Dur- ing the Chicago Vorld ' s Fair the task of proNJding ])i()terti )ii to a squadron of visiting Italian airplanes was assigned her. At the outbreak of the war she moved to the North .Vtlautic to take up her duties as a convov escort. In jmie. 1942, she was credited with the sinking of two enemy submarines. Later she rescued 22 members of a merchantman torpedoed in the same convoy. Early in 1943 she participated in another rescue with the cutter COMNL NCHE. Between the two vessels, 226 survivors were picked up. Officers and crew mend)ers of the sturdy ESCA- N. B. willinglv went over the side iiuo the cold North . tlantic to pick up men unable to help themselves. As a result of this operation, one officer and two crew members were posthumously awarded the Navv and Marine Corps medal; Lt. Conulr. Peterson received the Legion of Merit posthumously and Lt. Robert H. Prause. the executive officer, got a Letter of Commendation. Ilie E,SC. X. B. died as a cutter would want to die — in the line of dutv. |pe iSk: