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The Coast Guard In Film

by Commander Ralph Judd, USCG, Retired; Foreword by Vice-Admiral Clyde T. Lusk, USCG, Retired

324 pages; quality trade paperback (softcover); Includes black and white images and colour images; catalogue #06-0169; ISBN 1-4120-8414-8; US$36.54, C$42.02, EUR30.02, £21.01

Ralph Judd has performed yeoman service by compiling films about the U.S. Coast Guard. His book fills a void in the documented history of the service and is written with authority punctuated by humor.

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About the Book

About the Author

Excerpts

About the Book

The extensive use of publicity material is unique in the field of publishing. The original posters which are shown in the book have been donated by the author to the US Coast Guard Museum which is open daily to the public.

The films discussed include documentaries, short subjects and Hollywood features. Included are films about progenitors of the service such as the Revenue Cutter Service, the US Lifesaving Service, the US Lighthouse Service, and the US Steamboat Inspectors.

Also found are films showing the Coast Guard cooperating with other agencies such as the US Public Health Service, the Bureau of Customs, the Narcotics Bureau, and the Weather Bureau. Some of the documentaries involve all of the US Armed Forces. Even Walt Disney's Pluto and James Bond (Agent 007) get into the act.

The critic's comments are most interesting and come from a vast variety of contemporary sources - many of which have long ago ceased publication.

This masterly contribution to popular culture is well researched and fun to read. It captures the Hollywood image of the Coast Guard as presented to the public throughout the Twentieth Century. The story was particularly nostalgic for me because of my father's and uncle's Coast Guard careers as well as my own. I suggest any reader will enjoy and profit from it.

Clyde T. Lusk
Vice Admiral (Retired)
Former Vice Commandant
United States Coast Guard

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About the Author

Ralph Judd was one of 125 students nationwide to receive a Certificate of Merit from the National Honor Society while attending Yakima, Washington Senior High School. At Harvard, he participated in a eugenics experiment, which required him to pose in the nude at age 17. The photos were in the Smithsonian for awhile.

He was elected chairman of the Harvard Smoker Committee ten years after John F. Kennedy held that post. Fifteen years later, he met JFK while serving as a liaison officer to the Secret Service during a Presidential visit to the Coast Guard Bark Eagle.

He directed ship convoys through ice fields in the Arctic in support of construction of DEW (Distant Early Warning radar) line. He was an airborne ice-observer in the Antarctic during the International Geophysical Year. He also delivered motor fuel to Sir Edmund Hillary of the Commonwealth Trans-Arctic expedition to the South Pole. He appeared as a mystery guest on What's My Line? on Australian television. He set the buoys for the Championship Gold Cup Hydroplane race.

He was chief of Physics at the Coast Guard Academy when the first nuclear reactor was installed. He was construction Expediter and first commanding officer of an electronics station in Vietnam, where he was stalked by three prison escapees, including one hardcore VC who had bombed the American Embassy. The navigation station was used by the Armed Forces plus the CIA.

At Coast Guard headquarters, he was in charge of resale programs which included all the Exchanges, clubs, commissary stores plus all the general messes in the Coast Guard.

For more information about this author pick up the book from Trafford Publishing!

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Excerpts

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