Coast Guards on the Hill

Warning: This is a kind of sappy, personal narrative, but it means a lot to me and it’s connected to Memorial Day. (Photo: Coast Guard Challenge Coin)

Whenever I have a meeting on Capitol Hill, it’s been my habit to check the metro train schedule to see which arrival time at Capitol South Metro Station would give me a 20–30-minute cushion before my meeting starts. But my habit has changed in recent months. Now I frequently want a 45–60-minute cushion so I can visit new friends in the U.S. Coast Guard Congressional Liaison Office at the Rayburn Building.

In all the years I’ve been doing advocacy for persecuted Christians, fighting human trafficking, fighting anti-Semitism, and other issues, I never realized that the Coast Guards had an office on Capitol Hill! I’d never thought about it until February, when Coast Guard helicopter rescue swimmer Scott Ruskan was awarded the Legion of Merit by President Trump. He’s the hero that saved 165 people from floods at Camp Mystic in Texas. Watching that ceremony and remembering what Petty Officer Ruskan had done, I really wanted to say thank you to the Coast Guards. I found out they have an office in the Rayburn House Office Building.

Some years ago, I wrote about the time that my father was the director of The Salvation Army’s Club for Servicemen in New London, Connecticut. This was during the Vietnam War. The Coast Guards, and Navy men from the nearby Submarine Base, could relax at the club. They were like big brothers to me and my love for our troops started then.

It wasn’t until many years later that I realized that some of my “big brothers” had been lost on the U.S.S. Scorpion a year after we left New London. I think of them every Memorial Day and because of them, as well as Rescue Swimmer/Petty Officer Ruskan, I determined to stop and poke my head in the door of the Coast Guard Liaison Office on my way to a briefing on Armenia. We never know how long we have to say thank you.

In that little office I met four Coast Guards: three men and one woman. (Henceforth, I will call them “my Coast Guards” and protect their privacy) I introduced myself and said how happy I was that Petty Officer Ruskan had been so honored at the State of the Union Address. They were all so sweet and friendly, that I decided to tell them the rest.

“Coast Guards taught me how to play pool and ping pong when I was a little girl in New London,” I explained. I told them all about the Salvation Army “Red Shield” Club, and what a good time I had and how it shaped my whole life’s love of our troops.

“They even taught me the ‘alternative’ Coast Guard anthem,” I revealed as I was getting ready to leave. They looked puzzled. They didn’t know it! Maybe it was just a Vietnam-era little bit of rebellion?! So I sang it for them. Heaven knows how I could remember it after all these years and not having thought about it much in that time, but I do! They loved it!

On my way back to the Metro, I stopped to see my Coast Guards again, with all the leftover cookies from the meeting I attended. “Oh, I was hoping you’d come back,” said one. “We want to write down all the words to that anthem!” So we did.

I’ve been back to visit my Coast Guards twice more since then. When I stopped by their office in March for a short visit, I saw them all look at each other as I was getting ready to leave. One of the guys said, “We’ve got something for you.”

“We don’t give these out lightly,” one of the other guys said as I looked at my gift, “this is the Coast Guards’ challenge coin.” I nodded my head and could barely speak. “I know,” I managed to say. I thanked them, not just for the coin, but because they understood how much it would mean to me.

On this Memorial Day as I remember my Coast Guards in New London, I thank God for my Coast Guards on the Hill and pray I can be a blessing to them.