Coast Guard Academy

Merle Smith Jr., the first Black cadet to graduate from the Coast Guard Academy, has died, his family said. He was 76. Smith died on June 16 of complications from Parkinson’s disease and COVID-19, his wife Lynda Smith said. Smith commanded a cutter in Vietnam, taught law classes at the academy in New London and retired from active-duty service with…

For 240 Coast Guard cadets, Wednesday’s commencement was something they will never forget.

President Biden spoke Wednesday at the 140th commencement of the Coast Guard Academy in New London.

President Joe Biden will deliver the commencement address at the U.S. Coast Guard Academy in New London on May 19, the Coast Guard announced Monday. The graduation ceremonies are scheduled to begin at 11 a.m. on Cadet Memorial Field, but will not be open to the public. “We are honored to host the Commander-in-Chief as we celebrate the accomplishments of…

After more than a year of not being able to perform together, the Coast Guard Academy band is preparing for a live performance.

As Thanksgiving approaches, in-person learning for the fall semester is winding down at colleges and universities across the country. The first semester back during the pandemic proved difficult for many institutions, overshadowed by COVID-19 outbreaks. But two New London institutions were able to avoid any large outbreaks or mass quarantines. Connecticut College, a small liberal arts college, and the United…

In an NBC Connecticut exclusive, we get a look inside a unique COVID testing program at the U.S. Coast Guard Academy.

All classes at the Coast Guard Academy will be virtual Thursday after a cadet tested positive for COVID-19. A spokesperson for the academy said the academy will conduct mass testing to learn more about the potential spread of the virus on campus. Coast Guard Academy officials learned of the cadet’s positive case late Wednesday through the random testing program....

Cadets from the U.S. Coast Guard Academy are being credited with saving a national security mission after COVID-19 sidelined a tenth of a Coast Guard Cutter’s crew. The Coast Guard Cutter Munro was just getting underway in June when a crew member tested positive for the virus. After contact tracing was completed, 18 crew members had to be taken...

Several Coast Guard cadets helped complete a mission when COVID-19 sidelined part of the crew.

The US Coast Guard Academy’s class of 2024 kicked off training in New London Wednesday. The training for the freshmen, traditionally called Swab Summer, looked very different from previous years. “We are not being yelled at, at all, and they are being very nice to us which is scary because I was expecting them to yell at us,” said Sidney…

Rear Admiral William Kelly, superintendent of the United States Coast Guard Academy, discusses an Office of Inspector General report that the CGA failed to properly investigate race-based harassment claims.

The Coast Guard Academy failed to properly investigate, track and discipline several race-based harassment claims, according to a newly published report from the Office of Inspector General. The OIG, under the Department of Homeland Security, launched an investigation into the CGA in 2018 and evaluated how the Academy handled race-based harassment incidents and allegations during a five year period, from…

The Dept. of Homeland Security’s Office of Inspector General released a report saying the U.S. Coast Guard Academy needs to better handle investigating racial incidents at the service school

The United States Coast Guard Academy is preparing for a historic graduation ceremony. On May 20 the academy will graduate its largest class, the class with the most female cadets and the first class to ever attend a US military academy graduation hosted entirely online. “A lot of firsts,” said Rear Admiral William Kelly, the superintendent of the US Coast…

This is the Coast Guard’s largest class and the only graduation to be done virtually.

With stories of personal protective equipment (PPE) shortages across the country, people have taken to their 3D printers to make masks of their own in an effort to help those on the front lines. The question remains: which design is the most effective? A team of faculty members at the Coast Guard Academy in New London are working to answer…