Every war United States Coast Guard Aviation has fought
Coast Guard aviation has fought mostly under Navy or Air Force command. The Coast Guard Aviation Association credits its aircraft with 61 bombing attacks on submarines in the Second World War, but no U-boat sinking credited to a Coast Guard aircraft has survived re-examination: the 1942 credit for U-166 went to the patrol craft PC-566 in 2014. In Vietnam Coast Guard pilots flew Air Force Jolly Greens on exchange, and Lt. Jack Rittichier was killed when his HH-3E was shot down on 9 June 1968. The rum war and the armed helicopter campaign against drug smugglers are law-enforcement missions rather than wars and are listed as such. Where a consolidated sortie or loss figure exists in the official record it is given here; where accounts disagree, the range is shown and the disagreement named. Blank cells are blank because no figure could be verified, not because the fighting was small.
From the First World War, when Coast Guard aviators flew with the Navy, to the airborne use of force against drug smugglers today.
| Conflict | Years | Against | Main aircraft | Sorties | Aircraft lost | |
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| First World WarCoast Guard aviators with the US NavyCoast Guard aviators serving in the US Navy | 1917–1918 | Germany | Navy seaplanes and flying boats | |||
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With the Coast Guard placed under the Navy on 6 April 1917, its handful of trained aviators flew Navy aircraft. When the United States entered the war on 6 April 1917, the Coast Guard was transferred to the Navy. Besides Elmer Stone, eight more Coast Guardsmen had earned their wings, and they served as naval aviators. The service had no aircraft of its own, and the war’s main legacy for Coast Guard aviation was personal: Stone stayed with naval aviation long enough to be chosen as one of the two pilots of the NC-4, which in May 1919 made the first flight across the Atlantic in stages. Outcome The Coast Guard returned to the Treasury after the war; Stone flew the NC-4 across the Atlantic in May 1919. Individual postings and duties of the Coast Guard aviators were not detailed in the sources checked.
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| Prohibition patrols (the rum war)air patrols against rum-runnersUnited States Coast Guard | 1925–1933 | Liquor smugglers | Vought UO-1, Loening OL-5 | |||
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Law-enforcement patrols spotting smuggling vessels for Coast Guard cutters. Coast Guard aviation took root as a law-enforcement tool. Early in 1925 Lieutenant Commander C. C. von Paulsen borrowed a Navy seaplane for a year and set up an air station on Ten Pound Island in Gloucester Harbor, Massachusetts; in 1926 permanent stations opened there and at Cape May, New Jersey, flying Vought UO-1s and Loening OL-5s. In 1928 an aviation section was created at headquarters. Prohibition ended in December 1933, but by then the Coast Guard had found new reasons to fly, and by the end of 1938 it had 50 aircraft, eight air stations and an air detachment. Outcome The patrols established Coast Guard aviation as a permanent force: eight air stations and 50 aircraft by 1938. Seizure figures attributable to aircraft were not found; the end year is the end of Prohibition, not a documented end of air patrols.
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| Second World Warthe Neutrality Patrol, anti-submarine war and air-sea rescueUnited States Coast Guard (under the Navy from 1 November 1941) | 1939–1945 | Germany and Japan | OS2U Kingfisher, PBY-5A Catalina, PBM Marinerand 2 more | |||
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Neutrality patrols, coastal anti-submarine patrol and convoy cover, Greenland patrols, air-sea rescue and helicopter development. The Coast Guard enforced the Neutrality Act from 1939 and was transferred to the Navy by Executive Order 8929 on 1 November 1941. It bought 53 OS2U-3 Kingfishers in spring 1942 for anti-submarine patrols, added Martin Mariners in 1943 and formed VP-6CG with nine PBY-5As at Narsarssuak, Greenland. The association credits Coast Guard aircraft with 61 bombing attacks on submarines. The best-known claim, that a Coast Guard J4F-1 Widgeon sank U-166 off Louisiana in 1942, was accepted for decades and both crewmen were decorated; after the wreck was found in 2001 and surveyed in 2014, the Navy credited the patrol craft PC-566, whose captain’s report its Secretary called "absolutely correct". In February 1943 Admiral Ernest King gave the Coast Guard helicopter development; Brooklyn became the training base in May 1943, and on 3 January 1944 Frank Erickson flew plasma for USS Turner’s survivors. Outcome No U-boat sinking credited to a Coast Guard aircraft has survived re-examination; the service’s lasting contribution was the rescue helicopter. The U-166 credit is contested history: the Coast Guard aircraft did attack a submarine, but the wreck position supports the Navy’s later finding.
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| Korean Warocean stations and Pacific rescueUnited States Coast Guard (remained under the Treasury) | 1950–1953 | North Korea and China | ||||
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Search and rescue along the trans-Pacific air routes from new detachments. The Coast Guard stayed under the Treasury throughout the Korean War. Its aviation contribution was search and rescue for the air bridge to Korea: ocean stations and air detachments were established at Sangley Point in the Philippines, Midway, Wake and Guam in 1950. By the mid-1950s Coast Guard aviation had 127 aircraft in 22 air stations and detachments. Outcome The Pacific detachments set up for the war stretched Coast Guard aviation from the Philippines to Puerto Rico by the mid-1950s. The association does not give rescue or sortie figures for the war.
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| Vietnam Warthe Coast Guard–Air Force aviator exchangeCoast Guard aviators with the USAF Aerospace Rescue and Recovery Service | 1968–1972 | North Vietnam and Viet Cong | HH-3E (USAF), HH-53 (USAF), HC-130P (USAF) | 1 | ||
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Combat search and rescue in USAF HH-3E and HH-53 helicopters and HC-130P aircraft. A memorandum of agreement of March 1967 sent Coast Guard pilots to Air Force rescue squadrons; the first arrived in 1968, and the association names twelve who served to 1972. Helicopter pilots flew HH-3E Jolly Greens, later HH-53s, with the 37th ARRS at Da Nang; fixed-wing pilots flew HC-130Ps. Rittichier arrived at Da Nang on 3 April 1968 and on 9 June was trying to pick up a downed A-4 pilot north-west of the A Shau Valley when heavy ground fire brought his helicopter down in flames; he and his crew were missing for 35 years until their remains were recovered in 2003. On 2 July 1968 Lt. Lance Eagan pulled out an F-105 pilot, Lt. Col. Jack Modica, and brought home a helicopter with 40 bullet holes. Outcome Coast Guard aviators received four Silver Stars, 16 Distinguished Flying Crosses and 87 Air Medals. Coast Guard cutters and LORAN stations also served in the war; this entry covers aviators only.
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| Gulf WarOperation Desert StormUnited States Coast Guard | 1991 | Iraq | HU-25 Guardian | |||
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A Coast Guard air detachment deployed to the Middle East; HU-25s were deployed. In 1991 a Coast Guard air detachment was formed and deployed to the Middle East for Operation Desert Storm. Wikipedia describes the HU-25 Guardian as a critical asset deployed in the war; the jet had pollution-surveillance versions with side-looking radar. Outcome The detachment returned after the war. The detachment’s size, base and tasks were not detailed in the sources checked; pollution surveillance is the likely role but is not confirmed there.
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| Iraq WarOperation Iraqi FreedomUnited States Coast Guard | 2003 | Iraq | ||||
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Helicopter detachments aboard two 378-foot high-endurance cutters deployed for the invasion. For the 2003 invasion of Iraq the Coast Guard deployed two 378-foot high-endurance cutters with aviation detachments, a buoy tender and eight 110-foot patrol boats. Outcome Not detailed. The helicopter types in the cutter detachments are not named in the source.
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| Airborne use of force against drug smugglersHITRON and armed helicoptersHelicopter Interdiction Tactical Squadron | 1998– | Drug smugglers | MH-90, MH-68A Stingray, MH-65C/D/E | |||
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Armed helicopters on cutters disable fleeing go-fast boats with warning and disabling fire. Admiral James Loy ordered trials in 1998: Commander Mark Torres trained ten volunteers on leased MD900/902s, which stopped all five go-fasts they met, seizing 2,640 pounds of cocaine and 7,000 pounds of marijuana. HITRON was commissioned at Cecil Field, Jacksonville, in 1999 (the association’s history dates it to 2001, when the MH-68As arrived). From 2003 HH-65Cs and HH-60Js were armed as well. By January 2026, according to Wikipedia, the squadron had interdicted over 1,000 vessels with seizures worth over $33.2 billion. Outcome Ongoing; the capability was extended to the service’s other helicopters in 2003. A law-enforcement mission rather than a war; seizure values are the service’s estimates as reported.
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Nothing matches that search.
Every figure, checked
- Coast Guard Aviation History: The Early Years, 1915–1938Act of 28 January 1915; Stone’s orders of 1 April 1916; Morehead City 1920; Ten Pound Island 1925; 50 aircraft and eight air stations by end of 1938.
- Coast Guard Aviation History: The Growth Years, 1939–1956Transfer to the Navy 1 November 1941; 53 Kingfishers; VP-6CG in Greenland; 61 bombing attacks on submarines; helicopter development; 127 aircraft by the mid-1950s.
- Coast Guard Aviation History: The Modern Era, 1976–1994HU-25 February 1982; HH-65 operational November 1985; HH-60J 1990; Desert Storm air detachment 1991; 101,729 lives saved 1976–1994.
- Coast Guard Aviation History: The Present Era, 1995–2018HITRON; transfer to DHS 1 March 2003; Katrina figures (76 aircraft, 1,817 sorties, 12,535 saved); HC-144A; 14 C-27Js in 2014.
- Coast Guard Aviation History: Aircraft catalogueEvery type flown, with the year it entered Coast Guard service.
- Coast Guard Aviation History: Coast Guard Aviation in VietnamExchange programme with USAF rescue from 1968; Rittichier lost 9 June 1968; 4 Silver Stars, 16 DFCs and 87 Air Medals.
Figures verified 2026-10-01. Back to the United States Coast Guard Aviation.