U.S. Coast Guard

Coast Guard, U.S., branch of the armed services supervised in peacetime by the Department of Transportation, in war by the navy. It helps to maintain law and safety wherever the United States has jurisdiction on the high seas and navigable inland waters. Formed in 1915 by a union of the Life Saving Service and the Revenue Cutter Service, it is charged with search and rescue operations, maintaining weather ships and navigational aids, including the Loran radio network, collecting meteorological and oceanographic data, ice-breaking in inland waters and patrolling the North Atlantic for icebergs, enforcing navigation and shipping laws and marine safety regulations for sailors and the construction and equipment of ships, and operating against smugglers. In wartime the coast guard assumes the regular duties of the navy.