Reservist

ISS1 2016

Reservist Magazine is the award-winning official publication of the United States Coast Guard Reserve. Quarterly issues include news and feature articles about the men and women who comprise America's premier national maritime safety and security

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Eugene E. Oxley at Normandy: A Coast Guard Hero & The Loss of the Coast Guard-Manned LCI(L) 85 Story by Mr. Scott Price, Historian, U.S. Coast Guard Nearly seventy two years ago, Coast Guardsmen, along with their fellow service members and Allies, participated in the largest amphibious operation the world had seen in centuries. This invasion, the Allied landings on the Normandy coast of France, would become one of the defining moments in western history. That operation, which carried the code name of OVERLORD, with the naval component referred to as NEPTUNE, led directly to the defeat of Nazi Germany and the end of the Second World War in Europe. That victory would lead to the ascendance of the United States into a superpower and the triumph of liberal democracy over fascism. That victory, however, came at a terrible cost. Attacking a heavily defended coastline required a number of factors to be successful, and one of the most important was delivering combat troops in sufficient numbers at the right points along the assault areas. The British developed an unusual looking landing craft, with some crediting its genesis to Winston Churchill, that would ultimately be called the LCI(L) for Landing Craft, Infantry. Unlike its larger cousin, the LST, or its smaller relatives, the LCVP and LCT, the LCI was designed to do one thing: deliver combat troops directly onto a beach after travelling almost any distance at sea. Whereas the LST, LCT, DUKWs and LCVP could carry equipment, trucks or tanks in addition to troops, the LCI carried only troops, up to 250, albeit Wounded american fghters lay on stretchers on the deck of a Coast guard LC! (landing craft, infantry), ready to be transferred to an assault transport just before the Coast guard ship rolled over and sank after being hit during the invasion of the French Coast. ReseRvist Magazine a light on yesteRyeaR 50 RESERVIST � Issue 1 • 2016

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