36: Capt. Michael Healy, who was of Irish
and Afro-American heritage, served as commanding
officer of the _Bear_ and other major Coast Guard
vessels. At his retirement in 1903 Healy was the
third ranking officer in the U.S. Revenue Cutter
Service. See Robert E. Greene, _Black Defenders of
America, 1775-1973_ (Chicago: Johnson Publishing
Company, 1974), p. 139. For pre-World War II
service of Negroes in the Coast Guard, see Truman
R. Strobridge, _Blacks and Lights: A Brief
Historical Survey of Blacks and the Old U.S.
Lighthouse Service_ (Office of the USCG Historian,
1975); H. Kaplan and J. Hunt, _This Is the United
States Coast Guard_ (Cambridge, Md.: Cornell
Maritime Press, 1971); Rodney H. Benson, "Romance
and Story of Pea Island Station," _U.S. Coast Guard
Magazine_ (November 1932):52; George Reasons and
Sam Patrick, "Richard Etheridge--Saved Sailors,"
Washington _Star_, November 13, 1971. For the
position of Negroes on the eve of World War II
induction, see Enlistment of Men of Colored Race
(201), 23 Jan 42, Hearings Before the General Board
of the Navy, 1942.]

[Illustration: COAST GUARD RECRUITS _at Manhattan Beach Training
Station, New York_.]

The lot of the black Coast Guardsman on a small cutter was not
necessarily a happy one. To a surprising extent the enlisted men of
the prewar Coast Guard were drawn from the eastern shore and outer
banks region of the Atlantic coast where service in the Coast Guard
had become a strong family tradition among a people whose attitude
toward race was rarely progressive. Although these men tolerated an
occasional small black Coast Guard crew or station, they might well
resist close service with individual Negroes. One commander reported
that racial harassment drove the solitary black in the prewar (p. 114)
crew of the cutter _Calypso_ out of the service.[4-37]

[Footnote 4-37: Interv, author with Capt W. C.
Capron, USCGR, 20 Feb 75, CMH files.]

Coast Guard officials were obviously mindful of such potential
troubles when