History
The Coast Guard has long had a presence on and about Humboldt Bay. Beginning in 1856 and continuing uninterrupted, the service has operated on Humboldt Bay and provided life-saving assistance on the Bay and all along the North Coast, out at sea and, as time went by, it has assisted other agencies, providing assistance in the interior in remote locations, on rivers and lakes and, especially, in mountainous terrain and in forests and related park and private lands as called upon.
On Humboldt Bay the USCG has operated at the same site continuously at least since 1878 based at its historic facility, the Humboldt Bay Life-Saving Station. Even with a cutter based at Eureka's docks and another at Crescent City, command in the modern era was split as air support was directed from San Francisco. However, on June 24, 1977 as the culmination of a multi-year initiative by local residents and groups to gain a year-round aviation search and rescue (SAR) facility for Northern California, the Coast Guard Group/Air Station Humboldt Bay was commissioned, complete with new assets, at the Arcata-Eureka Airport in McKinleyville, California. Prior to 1977, an aviation detachment from Coast Guard Air Station San Francisco provided air coverage during the summer season, but the response time of over two hours was not fast enough for victims to survive in the 40-50 degree water commonly found along the north coast. Originally named Air Station Arcata, the Group / Air Station was re-designated to its current name in May 1982. A modern $3.5 million facility constructed at the Arcata-Eureka Airport also relocated boat station command and control from the historic facility in Samoa to establish centralized command and control over all Coast Guard assets throughout the region.
Read more about this topic: Coast Guard Air Station Humboldt Bay
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“Certainly there is not the fight recorded in Concord history, at least, if in the history of America, that will bear a moment’s comparison with this, whether for the numbers engaged in it, or for the patriotism and heroism displayed.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Indeed, the Englishman’s history of New England commences only when it ceases to be New France.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“The disadvantage of men not knowing the past is that they do not know the present. History is a hill or high point of vantage, from which alone men see the town in which they live or the age in which they are living.”
—Gilbert Keith Chesterton (1874–1936)