deserves to be told. i'm oliver north, good night. ♪ tonight on "war stories", the united states coast guard is always ready. >> you never know what you're going to face when you get up in the morning. >> the ship exploded with one huge fireball. about 580 men were destroyed in an instant. >> americans life savers. >> we bring the wounded back out to the ships. >> when you save a life there's >> more than ever, we need these guardians of the sea. that's next on "war stories."

>> i'm oliver north. this is "war stories." we're aboard the majestic coast guard bark eagle in connecticut, this 295 foot sailing vessel is the largest ship sailing the stars and stripes and the only square rigger in our military. it was taken as war reparations after world war ii. the coast guard and the predecessors have served as the armed force in every conflict since the founding of our republic. the kostys have lived up to the motto, always ready. this is the story of the united states coast guard. and tonight, you'll meet these guardians of the sea.

with just 39,000 active duty personnel the coast guard is smaller than new york city police department. though few in number, the highly trained coasties are versatile. they patrol shipping lanes, keep our waterways ice free and of course save lives. over the years it's been under the jurisdiction of the department of the treasury. the department of the navy. and transportation. and in 2003 it was transferred to the newly formed department of homeland security. but defending our homeland is nothing new for american's life savers. after an eight-year bloody war of independence, our new country was in dire straits. in the course of the revolution, america accrued a $15 million debt. urged by the first secretary of the treasury, alexander hamilton, congress authorized the construction of ten cutters to be built at the cost of

$1,000 each. on august 4, 1790, the revenue cutter service was born. >> they were created to enforce the tariffs and custom laws of the united states. >> dr. robert browning jr. is the chief historian. how did they recruit? >> they started off with virtually no organization. the officers have no official uniform. they don't even have an official flag until later on. but yet they're expected to enforce the laws of the united states. it was somewhat unlike the navy because the navy is laid up, but the revenue cutters are out there almost on a daily basis, sailing around, doing their duty. >> what is the first time that it's put under the control of the u.s. navy? >> during the war. >> 1798, first time? >> that's correct. >> and does that happen in every conflict thereafter? >> it happens in virtually every conflict. >> enforcing maritime law on the high seas also meant catching pirates. it's a new nation, you have

pirates in the caribbean. pirates that we're -- that were pulling into places like the carolina coast. >> the revenue cutter service worked along with the navy to literally push the pirates of our shores. they burned out the strong holds and captured them. >> the revenue cutter service continued to uphold the law of the land. and the sea. in 1861 the union ship harriet flame fired the first shots of the civil war and while guarding the harbor in ft. sumter. there are divisions that occur, guys going south and guys going to the federal service. what happened to the coast guard? >> you have some that go north and some that stay south. >> those that were captured became blockade runners. >> six cutters were used throughout the war. >> on january 28, 1915,

president woodrow wilson authorized the merger of the life saving service and created the modern u.s. coast guard. by 1942 it would also include the light house service, the bureau of navigation and the steam boat inspection service. the combination of the five agencies is what makes the coast guard so multifaceted today. >> by 1915 the now coast guard is anticipating world war i. they're using the old life saving stations and they send six cutters over to europe to participate in the convoy duty. >> keeping a watchful eye on the ports of entry was paramount. >> the germans tried to sabotage one of the ammunitions plants in new jersey. >> at 2:08 a.m. on july 29, 1916, an enormous explosion happened near the statue of liberty.

the blast shattered windows in manhattan, new jersey and brooklyn. >> the dark cloud of sabotage went above the united states. the united states was becoming painfully aware of the enemy within and black tom were on an angry nation's lips. >> the coast guard sends in groups of men to try to help put out the fire and to rescue people out of this.> some 9,000 men served the coast guard in world war i, more than 100 were killed in action up. world war i is over in 1918. >> two years after that you have prohibition. it's a major task for the coast guard to keep illegal liquor from our shores. coast guard gets the first airplane in the 1920s to scout out and look for rum runners. >> the coast guard stepped up its efforts when it was tasked to secure the fraj it waters

around -- frigid waters around green land. >> the interest there was because of the cryolite mines. depp mark had fall -- denmark had fallen and it was a possession of denmark. the coast guard was up in that area to make sure that that remained out of german hands. >> but another threat loomed in asia. in an uncanny coincidence that would change history, president franklin roosevelt ordered the entire u.s. pacific fleet from san diego to pearl harbor. by 1941, it was defended by every branch of our armed forces. including the coast guard. some said it was most heavily garrisoned island in the world. but shortly after dawn on december 7, we lost our innocence. where were you on december 7, 1941? >> i had just enlisted as a seaman. i was home in honolulu. that's where we lived. way up on the hillside we heard

a commotion, we went out on the lanai and there were jets flying overhead in formation. i didn't have a b-b gun but we could have reached them up on the hillside. >> 21-year-old ed nash joined the coast guard. he suddenly found himself in the naval service. where'd they send you? >> we immediately went down to the island of the south pacific. the captain didn't elle us what we were doing. >> 4,000 miles away in new orleans, another young american was devastated by the savage attack. marvin, where were you when the japanese bombed pearl harbor? >> high school, as a 17-year-old kid. i realized our freedom is on the line. like many others who wished to do our part for the sake of freedom. >> after the break, a harrowing account of legendary seamanship

in world war ii. that's next on "war stories." get funky with your chicken.

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. as world war ii raged, president roosevelt looked to the coast guard and the many talents. >> the united states coast guard covers the world to the axis of the seven seas. >> coast guards patrolled beaches up and down our coasts. manned over 600 army and navy ships. landed troops in every invasion. and still performed search and rescue missions around the world. during world war ii nearly a quarter of a million coasties would serve in the defense of

our nation. a good number of them were women. there's 10,000 women brought into the service, called spars. >> the term spar was a play on words with the coast guard's motto which means always ready. they do virtually everything. they're mechanics. they're gun smiths. yeoman, store keepers. >> the job done by women so that men may fight. >> in order to serve, number one, you couldn't wear slacks. you had to dress like a woman. we were never allowed to handle weapons. you had to be 21 years of age and not married. if you got married while you were in, you had to leave. >> having met all the requirements, 21-year-old dorothy riley from the bronx joined the spars in march of '44. >> the average woman never left home and the area that i lived in in new york you either worked for hr macys or went to the telephone company. you worked, got married, that was it.

>> next came six weeks of boot camp at a former luxury hotel in palm beach, florida. >> we were not really prepared because we were not athletic or sports minded women. we didn't have a sport that women have today. so we weren't ready for what happened to us when we went to boot camp. that was quite a shot for all of us. they had us jump through tires. keeping your eyes ahead, not on the ground and of course if you were clumsy, you'd fall through one of the tires. >> learning her way around a ship was yet another challenge. >> when we asked where do we go, they said you take the first ladder second deck, starboard and must 420. we thought what language is this? >> i would say it was the best experience in the world. we wanted to help our country and the patriotic reasons that we did it. >> while dorothy was training, marvin peret turned 18 and joined the service. >> at 9:00 a.m. in the morning

they processed me all day and at 5:00 they swore me in as the latest member of the coast guard. >> he was assigned to the uss bay field, carrying 1,500 troops and a 500-man crew. >> we met in norfolk and became members of that crew from that day forward. >> there's a coast guard captain vessel. >> yes, sir. >> coast guard crews. any navy on it at all? >> we were strictly coast guard men from the captain on down. >> across the pond to the united kingdom, marvin didn't know it yet, but a routine landing exercise was about to go terribly wrong. >> april the 28th, 1944, we were in plymouth, england. we had some 20,000 troops that were going to hit the beach and this will be code named exercise tiger. >> exercise tiger is a rehearsal for normandy. >> yes, it is. we pulled into the region about 2:00 in the morning, poised to bring the troops ashore. not one, by nine german e boats

promptly cut loose with their torpedoes and sank two of our troop-laden lsds and triplet third. >> 749 american service men perished. more died that day than at the utah beach landing at normandy. but it wasn't found out until later. >> they came to us posthaste and in fact, seal your lips. i think for good reason they probably didn't want hitler and his hierarchy to know what a critical blow they had dealt us that morning. >> summer 1943, adolf hitler continued to hit from below. sailors at sea were never safe. ed nash then got orders to report to new london,

connecticut. >> august of '43, nash heads off to where? >> i was called in to talk to a coast guard commander. asking what duty what i wanted. there was one billet so i grabbed that. >> gunnery officer on a destroyer s boat? >> yes. the one i was was on the ss man -- >> what's the mission of an escort? >> well, they made the destroyer escorts about one every minute. >> 30 march 1944, ed nash and the crew joined a convoy in virginia bound for the mediterranean. >> a german air raid -- >> to your battle stations and your battle stations. >> april of '44. >> they hit us just at dusk. they sent in -- these guys came in and tried to get between the escorts to hit the merchant ship. the ss cole hamill carrying all

the ammunition exploded. about 580 men were destroyed in an instant. >> so then the luck soon changed after surviving. on a return trip it was torpedoed by part of the elite submarine fleet. >> torpedo hit us dead at stern and the tail of the ship disintegrated. >> 31 of the shipmates were killed. the destroyer escort was towed to the brooklyn navy yard where it was given a new stern and two battle stars for her service in world war ii. >> i enjoyed my duty in the coast guard. i did what i was ordered to do and i did it to the best of my ability and maybe beyond. >> up next, a coast guard braves heavy seas and enemy fire to deliver our troops at normandy. that's next on "war stories." hey, i'm tyler perry.

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party's on! know what your pets are up to with xfinity home. xfinity. the future of awesome. see the secret life of pets, in theaters july 8th. june 1944, the largest military operation of world war ii was underway. the allies were poised to liberate france from the grip of adolf hitler. three million men, 13,000 aircraft, 2,700 merchant ships, 1,200 war ships and 2,500 landing craft were under the command of general dwight d. eisenhower. during world war ii the coast guard's operating cutters and they're providing crews to land

amphibious forces. why? >> well, that's because the coast guard men have the expertise to do this. what they did early in the war was they realized they were going to be landing on beaches and they took these guys and they let them train the navy coxswains. they mentored the navy. >> driving one of the higgins boats on utah beach was his mate, marvin peret. >> it was like the fourth of ce together. >> utah beach still takes a lot of fire. >> that is drtrue. >> you could see other boats getting hit? >> we wanted to bring them high and dry, but it was not to be. we had to drop them like a city block off shore. only because general had done his homework and putting out the debris out there to do us in. >> tell us what that morning was like. >> as i'm going in to this

particular morning i have 36 of the young soldiers in the boat with me. the boat's only 36 feet long, ten feet wide. they're in there cramped like sardi sardines. they're frozen in space and time. >> he returned to the uss bay field to pick up a second load. >> when i get back to the ship, they said we'll pick up the boss. it was then that i saw his two stars on his shoulder which told me he was major general bartem. the commanding general of the fourth infantry division and it fell to my lot to bring him to shore. utah beach, and in the new orleans landing craft bearing my numbers. i'm very proud of that. >> next newly promoted petty officer third class marvin peret would sail halfway across the world to the other front. his target the tiny island of iwo jima. what's the difference between what you saw at utah beach and

normandy and what you're seeing out there in that volcanic sand of iwo jima? >> the big difference is i would go in is finding a place to land. this is the front lines. there was so much debris and humanity there. it was difficult just to find a place to go ashore. >> the black sands of iwo jima were littered with enemy fire. to the marines of the fourth division, wading ashore was no easy feat. >> the last marine to leave the ship which carried a piece and he fell down. then i had to worry about that marine that's laid out there spread eagle and my lower ramp is crushing him because the seas are cascading over my stern. and filling the belly of the boat. so only thing i do is pull the throttle and stern. when i finally got him up away from the shore and put it in neutral the water sloshed

forward, but before he could get full up, the water seeped and down she went. went down in seconds. >> a replica of his 8 ton higgins boat is immortalized at the museum in new orleans. >> the best i can sum it up is if freedom is worthwhile living for, it had to be worthwhile dying for. and god bless america. >> semper fi. >> next on "war stories" the last flight of a courageous coast guard hero.