U. S. Coast Guard Oral History. Capt. Lloyd Burger Interview

John A. Adams ’71 Center for Military History and Strategic Analysis. Cold War Oral History Project Interview with Captain Lloyd Burger USCG (Ret.) by Cadet Anthony T. Bradley, April 7, 2006 ©Adams Center, Virginia Military Institute About the interviewer: Cadet Anthony T. Bradley ('07), International Studies Major, History Minor from Queens, NY, will be commissioning in the U.S. Navy, pursuing a career in naval aviation. Bradley: Good day, sir. Today, 7 April 2006, I, Cadet Anthony T. Bradley of the Virginia Military Institute, will be interviewing Captain Lloyd Burger of the United States Coast Guard for the John A. Adams Class of 1971 Center for Military History and Strategic Analysis as part of the requirements for History 391— History of Sea Power in the 20th Century. The captain now lives in Raphine, Virginia and is enjoying his retirement from military service with his family. Thank you for being here sir. Burger: Thank you for inviting me. Bradley: First I would like to give a brief overview of the United States Coast Guard because many people are not aware of its rich history and important mission. Established 4 August 1790, the United States Coast Guard is one of the United States’ five armed services. The first Congress authorized the construction of 10 vessels to enforce tariff and trade laws, prevent smuggling and protect the collection of the federal revenue. Known variously as the Revenue Marines and the Revenue Cutter Service, it expanded in size and responsibilities as the nation grew. These added responsibilities which included humanitarian duties such as aiding mariners in distress and law enforcement functions also continued to expand. Congress tasked the service with enforcing laws against slavery, piracy and greatly enlarged their responsibilities to prevent smuggling. They were also given the responsibility to protect the marine environment, explore and police Alaska and chart our nation’s growing coast lines, all well before the turn of the 20th century. The service received its present name in 1915 under an act of Congress when the Revenue Cutter Service merged with the Life Saving Service. The nation now had a single maritime 2 service dedicated to saving life at sea and enforcing the nation’s maritime laws. The Coast Guard is one of the nation’s oldest organizations of the federal government and until the Department of the Navy was established in 1798, served as the nation’s only armed force afloat. It has continued to protect the nation throughout her long history and has served proudly in every one of the nation’s armed conflicts. Today their national defense responsibility remains one of their most important functions. Due to the passing of the Department of Homeland Security Act of 2002, the Coast Guard operates, in times of peace, as part of the Department of Homeland Security as of March 1, 2003, serving as the nation’s frontline agency for enforcing laws at sea, protecting our coastline and ports and saving human life. In times of war or under direction of the President of the United States, the Coast Guard then serves under the Department of the Navy but, as stated, it is currently acting independently. Welcome, sir. We’re going to get right into it. We’re going to learn about Captain Lloyd Burger, but first we’re going to learn about your previous history – things you’ve done as a cadet, I should say. So can you please start by describing your reasons for going into the service and where did you go to receive an education and commission? Burger: First, I’d like to thank VMI, Col. Muir and yourself for putting together this program and inviting me to participate in it. I am truly honored and grateful that you included us – the Coast Guard and me – in this program. As a young man or a young person, I lived only 40 miles from West Point and I visited West Point many times as a high school student. My desire and dreams were to go to West Point. The best I could do, however, was a second alternate appointment and I took the Coast Guard Academy entrance exam to study up or brush up, for the West Point entrance exam. Needless to say I didn’t make West Point. I went to the Coast Guard Academy and I fell in love with the sea and the water and I enjoyed a Coast Guard career. I graduated in 1960 from the Academy and went to my first ship as all cadets did. At that time, everyone that graduated, their first duty assignment was stationed aboard ship. Bradley: Now, sir, you did get accepted into Annapolis, right? 3 Burger: No, I didn’t get accepted. I was offered a principal appointment to Annapolis which I declined. I never applied to Annapolis. The congressman had two appointments that year to Annapolis and he offered me a principal appointment which I declined. A friend of mine also had a principal appointment to Annapolis and he went and I don’t know who the other one was that went in my place. Bradley: Now the Coast Guard Academy, as it is in present day, is by far one of the most competitive schools in the nation. Can you please go into your training curriculum as a cadet at the Coast Guard Academy? Burger: When I first went to the Academy in 1956 the cadets – approximately 600 cadets – were, at that time, divided into five companies in one battalion. Everyone in the class, of which there were 272, had to take the same subjects. We had no electives. It was basically an engineering course: lots of math, lots of science, lots of engineering. A little English, a little history were the other subjects that we took. We carried a load of about 24 credits per semester. You got up at 6:00 in the morning and went to bed at 10:00 at night, no late lights. Your day was pretty packed full. In the mornings, in the good weather, we had to run down to the docks at 6:00 a.m. in the morning, put the surf boats in the Themes River and row up to the sub base and back. Each company, one day a week, rowed while the other ones did physical exercises. My second year at the Academy we made a cadet cruise. We went to Europe, to Norway, to London, to Spain aboard the Coast Guard Cutter Eagle which is a tall sailing ship. Two cutters accompanied us. We split up and 50 percent of your time was on Eagle and the other 50 percent of your time was on a Coast Guard cutter. There we learned our seamanship skills and practiced what we learned in the classroom, navigation-wise and gunnery-wise and engineering-wise as well as standing watch. It was pretty packed full as far as training went. Third class year you went back to the books and you were pretty much left on your own in that you didn’t have much involvement with the underclass. You didn’t have much involvement with the upperclasses, 4 and the study load was harder. Again, it was basically engineering – a lot of engineering – and math, science with a little bit of history and English thrown in. The summer of second class year we did various things with the other services. We went to the Navy in Newport, Rhode Island for a month’s training with regards to ASW, ship handling, and aspects of damage control and other things that were ship related and that the Navy had schools for. We spent a month at the Coast Guard Air Station, Elizabeth City, North Carolina where we learned about flying and avionics and how the aircraft are used in search and rescue. Bradley: Sir, you were never interested in search and rescue aircraft, were you? Burger: Yes, I had thought about it for a time, to become a pilot, however, my thoughts changed later on during my career. The last part of the training we went to the U.S. Marine Base at Quantico, Virginia where the Marines taught us to shoot small arms. We spent three weeks with them. At 4:00 in the morning out on the range until 6:00 at night, every day. We had quite a training experience with the Marines. Then back to the Academy for our junior year – second class year – and we were involved with the “swabs” or fourth classmen. We were responsible for their training, for their military bearing and their military training as well as etiquette and the amenities. We had a great deal of involvement with them in the barracks and at the dinner table. Then, the summer of my first class year, we made a long cruise. We took the new third class cadets out on a long cruise with two cutters and the Eagle, again, and went to various ports in the Caribbean and back to the Academy for our first class year. Now, my first class, or senior year, if you were an honors student, they had introduced electives for the first time and if you were on high honors you could take two electives plus your regular courses and if you were on honors you could take one elective. The only electives were a language – French – and then there was a higher math class for the additional credit. 5 We graduated in June 1960. All my classmates were assigned to a Coast Guard cutter where we served as a junior officer on deck, to begin with, and then some of us went to the engine room.

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