We had a proverbial ‘shot across the bow’ with the First World Trade Center Bombing in 1993, OKC in 1995, and in 2000 with the terrorist attack on USS Cole in Yemen but this series of acts on September 11th, 2001, changed our view of World Terrorism.

While the U.S. Coast Guard is the second smallest of the U.S. military service branches in terms of membership, the service by itself is the world's 12th largest naval force and is the oldest continuous seagoing service of the United States.

We and our predecessors have been willing to fight for the rights of people to be self-determinate, even fighting a war among ourselves to forge that path for all citizens.  Eight Score years ago on this very week the tide turned on a field in Pennsylvania and we have followed our destiny since.

Each of you, with those with whom you served formed an impregnable wall of freedom and liberty which we will always remember, always celebrate, always honor, and preserve through the recognition of the history and events which brought us to where we are today!