Created By: Alexander Hamilton As interpreted for fiction by Jay P. Hailey
Number of Members: approximately 15,000 - 20,000 individuals.
Nature of Members: Individuals citizens of Earth, in the area known as the United States of America
Organization: Military.
Game Role: To provide a source of exchange officers (PC or NPC) with an unusual skill set or an alternative origin. Background color
World Role: To patrol the oceans of the US (a province on Earth) and international waters, providing law enforcement, search and rescue and scientific investigation services, especially as these relate to the oceans of the Earth.
Relative Influence: Minor.
Public or Secret?: Public but not well known
Publicly Stated Goal: To enforce the laws and security of the US, to rescue those in distress and to enhance the understanding of Earth's oceans.
Relative Wealth: The US Coast Guard compares favorably with any other regional law enforcement entity in the Federation. It's more well off, being at the heart of the Federation, but has to spend the added budget on specialty equipment.
Group advantages: Law Enforcement authority. With Advanced transportation of the 24th century, including transporters, help from the USCG or allied organizations including Starfleet is never more than a comm badge hail away.
Contacts: The USCG has some influence in the civil government of the US and Earth Dome And some contact with Starfleet Command.
Special Abilities: The USCG has an extensive knowledge and experience base in regards to submarine operations, Including colony structures, archaeology and science missions to the ocean floor.
Group disadvantages: Limited by a clear set of regulations. Because the USCG is based on the utopia like planet at the center of the Federation, adventures rarely occur.
Who belongs: Members of the Organization who take an oath an serve a tour of duty. Former members who are reservists can be recalled to duty.
Those who favor them: People who fall off their boats. Oceanographers who are supported by USCG missions. Civilians who like the idea of a Starfleet like organization dedicated to the study of Earth's oceans.
Those opposed to them: Smugglers and people who'd commit crimes on Earth's oceans. Civilians who feel the USCG to be a disgraceful left over from a militarized and violent past.
Area of Operation: The oceans of Earth, and in cooperation with Starfleet oceans all over the Federation.
Headquarters Location: San Diego CA
Public Face: A paramilitary force of scientists and rescuers
Notable Members: I'll get back to this one.
History of the Group: In 1790, Alexander Hamilton (a noted smuggler turned founding father) created a group of ships designed to sail the coast of the US and enforce recently enacted tariff laws. Originally part of the US treasury Department, the Coast Guard evolved into wing of the US Military and a subset of the US Navy during wartime.
       During the first and second World Wars the USCG militarized enough to gain a specialty in coastal patrol and anti-submarine warfare. After the cold war the USCG found itself in the drug war and an ongoing struggle against illegal immigration.
       During the Eugenics Wars and Colonel Green's the USCG returned to it's role as naval auxiliaries.
       The aftermath of the warfare of the 21st century was devastating to the USCG and following the AI war, the organization all but collapsed.
       In the 2090's during the recovery phase from the AI war. The USCG was rebuilt and put back into action. The USCG's reputation as a semi-civilian agency spared it from the horror and distaste that many military forces suffered at that time. The USCG was a way for the recovering US government to patrol it's shores, enforce it's laws and put forward a public face of control moderated by a less militarized image.
       At the same time, the ecological situation on Earth became critical. The USCG was used as a cover organization to coordinate research and science into the collapse and discovering ways to treat it.
       In later centuries the social dislocation on Earth abated, and the main Earth government and Earth's citizens ot comfortable with each other, the USCG like all national militaries faded into the background, even while the USCG continued to work on the science of the oceans.
       After the founding of the Federation many USCG officers became or trained science officers for Starfleet and a strong relationship between the two services was created. It is not uncommon for a Starfleet in depth survey team to invite a USCG oceanography team to accompany them to a new world to uncover the secrets of a new world's oceans.
       By the 24th century, the USCG is an obscure service on Earth, but one that continues to operate, and follow it's mandate.