a 2-year training and probationary period. 

 In the summer of 1877, the old schooner 

 Dobbin, refitted as a "school of instruc- 

 tion," sailed from Baltimore with the first 

 class of cadets — nine of them. For 41/2 

 months they tacked between the mainland 

 and Bermuda, and then visited Province- 

 town, Mass., Portland, Maine, and the 

 Azores. In 1878, the 250-ton bark Chase 

 was built as a cadet ship to replace the 

 Dobbif?. When the Chase put into winter 

 quarters at New Bedford, Mass., the school 

 was continued in a sail loft. In the winter 

 of 1900, the Chase was quartered at Arun- 

 del Cove, Curtis Bay, Md., and a two-story 

 wooden school was built there in the serv- 

 ice's repair yard. The school moved to 

 Fort Trumbull, New London, Conn., in 

 1910, and finally in 1932 into new build- 

 ings of its own a little farther up the 

 Thames River. 



Thus evolved the institution now fa- 

 mous as the Coast Guard Academy. 



Cadets of the Academy represent the 

 best of America's youth, selected on the 

 basis of physical and scholastic examina- 



tions. The four-year course is essentially 

 that of an engineering college, with the 

 addition of naval and military training in 

 the cadet battalion ashore and practice 

 cruises afloat. On graduation, the cadets 

 are commissioned ensigns in the Coast 

 Guard, awarded bachelor of science de- 

 grees and assigned to active duty. 



Enlisted men of the Coast Guard also 

 are highly trained. Immediately on induc- 

 tion, they are sent to "boot camp," as the 

 Coast Guard's well-equipped primary 

 training stations are called, for basic train- 

 ing. Later, they may go to one of the 

 many schools the Coast Guard maintains 

 for training petty officers, or they may 

 climb up the promotion ladder via the nu- 

 merous correspondence courses of the 

 Coast Guard Institute in Groton, Conn. 



In short, the emphasis in the Coast 

 Guard is on brains as well as brawn. Only 

 this way is the Coast Guard able to carry 

 out its manifold assignments, true to the 

 traditions of more than a century and a 

 half of service to America. 



A cadet Color Guard marches down the parade ground at 

 the U. S. Coast Guard Academy in New London, Conn. 



U. S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE: 1958 O -460332 



32 



