As the smallest of the five U.S. service academies, the Coast Guard Academy offers the prestigious higher education, rigorous professional development and honor and tradition of a military academy, but with a more personalized approach. The Coast Guard Academy offers an integrated life experience which emphasizes leadership, character, academics and physical fitness in order to graduate the very best Coast Guard officers. Graduates go directly to positions of leadership in U.S. Coast Guard, one of the best and most admired organizations in the world. The Academy also features an impressive teacher-student ratio and picturesque waterfront campus

    

About USCGA

Academy History

The Revenue Marine - 1790

The roots of today's Coast Guard were established in 1790 by Alexander Hamilton (that's him on the ten dollar bill). Hamilton proposed the formation of the Revenue Marine, a seagoing military service that would:

enforce customs and navigation laws

collect tariffs

hail in-bound ships

make inspections

certify manifests DobbinEducation at Sea - 1876

The first Coast Guard Academy (then called the Revenue Cutter School of Instruction) was held aboard the two-masted topsail schooner Dobbin (see photo at right). The first class of nine cadets boarded the Dobbin in Baltimore, Maryland in 1876 for a two-year training mission. Land-Based Campuses - 1890

The Coast Guard Academy was a shipboard operation until 1890 when the first land-based campus was established in Curtis Bay, Maryland. In 1910, the Academy moved to the Revolutionary War fort and Army post at Fort Trumbull in New London, Connecticut. The Academy Today - 1915

The modern Academy was born in 1915 with the merger of the Life Saving Service and Revenue Cutter Service. In 1932, the citizens of New London donated the present site to the Academy.