U.S. Coast Guard Station Montauk is located on the eastern most end of of Long Island

Long Island

Long Island is an island located in the southeast part of the U.S. state of New York, just east of Manhattan. Stretching northeast into the Atlantic Ocean, Long Island contains four counties, two of which are boroughs of New York City , and two of which are mainly suburban...

 in Montauk, New York

Montauk, New York

Montauk [ˈmɒntɒk] is a census-designated place that roughly corresponds to the hamlet with the same name located in the town of East Hampton in Suffolk County, New York, United States on the South Shore of Long Island. As of the United States 2000 Census, the CDP population was 3,851 as of 2000...

. Station Montauk was officially opened on October 1, 1955 and has remained an active Search and Rescue and Law Enforcement unit. Today the station is one of eight small boat units that are a part of Sector Long Island Sound. Station Montauk is made up of active duty, reserve, and auxiliary personnel to maintain watch over the south shore

South Shore (Long Island)

The South Shore of Long Island, in the U.S. state of New York, is the area along Long Island's Atlantic Ocean shoreline. Though some consider the South Shore to include parts of Queens, particularly the beach communities in the Rockaways such as Belle Harbor, the term is generally used to refer to...

 of Long Island and Long Island Sound

Long Island Sound

Long Island Sound is an estuary of the Atlantic Ocean, located in the United States between Connecticut to the north and Long Island, New York to the south. The mouth of the Connecticut River at Old Saybrook, Connecticut, empties into the sound. On its western end the sound is bounded by the Bronx...

.

History

Many of the old Lifesaving Service Stations converted to Coast Guard use along the south coast of Long Island had been closed down by 1950, some of which had been destroyed by the Great Hurricane of 1938 or closed after World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

. During the decades of the 1940s and 1950s, two stations provided rescue coverage for the East End

East End (Long Island)

The East End of Long Island is constituted by the five townships at the eastern end of New York's Suffolk County, namely Riverhead, Southampton, Southold, Shelter Island, and East Hampton. Long Island's North Fork and South Fork are part of the East End...

: Ditch Plains and Napeaque

Napeague, New York

Napeague is a census-designated place that roughly corresponds to the hamlet with the same name in the town of East Hampton in Suffolk County, New York, United States...

. By 1955, Coast Guard operations on the south fork had become centralized with the establishment of the new station on Star Island.

Instead of building a new structure, the station at Napeague was be closed and moved by barge to Lake Montauk

Lake Montauk

Lake Montauk is a 900-acre embayment in Montauk, New York that is home to the largest commercial and sporting fish fleets in the state of New York.-History:...

, an operation that took six months. While en route by barge from Napeague Bay, the station was blown onto a sand bar by a winter storm. There the barge remained for two months while tugs tried to free her and in July 1954 the voyage of Montauk Station ended. The building arrived in Lake Montauk after a half year odyssey. Another year of work lay ahead to mount the building on a foundation and construct workshops and a large pier. On October 1, 1955 Montauk Station was commissioned as an active unit of Moriches Group, which included Shinnecock and Moriches stations.

Unfortunately, the Star Island facility had not yet been built when one of the worst boating tragedies in recent local history struck the Montauk area. This incident was the disastrous floundering of the fishing vessel Pelican on September 1, 1951. Patrol craft were not assigned to the Montauk area on a permanent basis until the 82 feet (25 m) cutter Point Wells was stationed there in 1962. During the summer of 1979, a trawler brought back to Star Island a live, but undetonated depth charge in its net. The entire island was evacuated when Suffolk County Police bomb squad and United States Navy

United States Navy

The United States Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven uniformed services of the United States. The U.S. Navy is the largest in the world; its battle fleet tonnage is greater than that of the next 13 largest navies combined. The U.S...

 Demolitions experts from New Jersey defused this hot potato. Regular law enforcement patrols have been part of the station’s mission since 1978. In October 1978, Montauk’s Cutter Point Wells made a large drug bust when she seized seven tons of marijuana aboard the 70 feet (21.3 m) sailing vessel Scott Bader off Gardiners Island

Gardiners Island

Gardiners Island is a small island in the town of East Hampton, New York, in eastern Suffolk County; it is located in Gardiners Bay between the two peninsulas at the eastern end of Long Island. It is long, wide and has of coastline...

. On January 24, 2001, the Point Wells was replaced by the 87 feet (26.5 m) Marine Protector Class Coastal Patrol Boat Ridley.

On September 30, 2005, the unaccompanied personnel housing at Coast Guard Station Montauk was dedicated to the memory of Petty Officer 3rd Class Nathan B. Bruckenthal

Nathan Bruckenthal

Nathan B. "Nate" Bruckenthal was a Damage Controlman Third Class in the United States Coast Guard. He was the first Coast Guardsman to die in wartime action since the Vietnam War. Bruckenthal died along with two U.S...

, the only Coast Guardsman killed in action since the Vietnam War

Vietnam War

The Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...

, who was killed off the coast of Iraq

Iraq

Iraq ; officially the Republic of Iraq is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert....

. Bruckenthal had served on the Cutter Point Wells when he first entered the Coast Guard.

External links

• U.S. Coast Guard Website