A note from the commanding officer

Shipmates, 
I had a recruit from November Company ask me about the history of the term "Cutter". I knew that one type of a sailboat is a cutter, but wasn't sure how that came to be of use in our service. Rather than make up some story, I promised him that I would put the answer onto the blog page. So here it is, as found on our historian's web page:

What is a Cutter?
The Revenue Marine and the Revenue Cutter Service, as it was known variously throughout the late 18th and the 19th centuries, referred to its ships as cutters. The term is English in origin and refers to a specific type of vessel, namely, "a small, decked ship with one mast and bowsprit, with a gaff mainsail on a boom, a square yard and topsail, and two jibs or a jib and a staysail." (Peter Kemp, editor, The Oxford Companion to Ships & the Sea; London: Oxford University Press, 1976; pp. 221-222.) The Royal Navy's definition of a cutter was a small warship capable of carrying 8 to 12 cannons. By general usage, the term cutter came to define any vessel of Great Britain's Royal Customs Service and the term was adopted by the U.S. Treasury Department at the creation of what would become the Revenue Marine. Since that time, no matter what the vessel type, the service has referred to its largest vessels as cutters (today a cutter is any Coast Guard vessel over 65-feet in length).

I also cut my speech short for Oscar Company due to the weather and heat conditions in the gym today. If you are interested, here is the entire speech as it was supposed to have been given that you can download.

Oscar... be safe. A shipmate from November-181 was in a serious car accident yesterday on the way to the airport to get to his first unit. We understand he's going to survive, but I can't overemphasize the need for safety.

The Master Chief and I just formed Whiskey 181. They impressed me with their enthusiasm and spirit, but I know they have a lot of work to do. They'll be the senior company on Coast Guard Day (August 4th) which means they can take turns dunking me and their company commanders into the dunk tank! This, of course, presumes that they earn the right to attend CG Day... I'm confident they will.

I am meeting with a group of Coast Guard Academy cadets this evening; we are training them to help them get ready for their own leadership roles as the new "swabs" come to begin their training at the Academy. A "swab" is a first year cadet and they are trained by the second class cadets that are beginning their third year at CGA.

We hosted Army recruiting command staff today. We often share best practices among the various services... we also wished the Army Happy 234th Birthday!

Tomorrow morning I'll be at Cape May Point running with Quebec 181 around town. That should be fun... in the afternoon, my husband and I are "Paddling for a Purpose" to help raise money for a local scholarship fund. Hilarious will describe the process of getting in and out of the kayaks in a graceful manner.

Hope to meet you all at the various graduations of your loved ones! Keep those cards and letters of support coming. It means so very much to them to hear from you all and your words of encouragement.

v/r Cari Batson Thomas, Captain
Commanding Officer
Training Center Cape May