The Surfman Badge is a military badge of the

United States Coast Guard The United States Coast Guard (USCG) is the maritime security, search and rescue, and Admiralty law, law enforcement military branch, service branch of the armed forces of the United States. It is one of the country's eight Uniformed services ...

, issued to enlisted or officer personnel who qualify as

Coxswains The coxswain ( or ) is the person in charge of a boat, particularly its navigation and steering. The etymology of the word gives a literal meaning of "boat servant" since it comes from ''cock'', referring to the cockboat, a type of ship's boat, ...

authorized to operate surf boats in heavy surf. Those so qualified are referred to as surfmen, a term that was originally used by the

United States Life-Saving Service The United States Life-Saving ServiceDespite the lack of hyphen in its insignia, the agency itself is hyphenated in government documents including: and was a United States government agency that grew out of private and local humanitarian eff ...

, one of the predecessors to the Coast Guard. Surf boats are boats that are designed to operate under

extreme weather Extreme weather includes unexpected, unusual, severe weather, severe, or unseasonal weather; weather at the extremes of the historical distribution—the range that has been seen in the past. Extreme events are based on a location's recorded weat ...

and sea conditions. Some of the surf boats that the Coast Guard operates include the

47-foot Motor Lifeboat The 47-foot MLB is the standard Lifeboat (rescue), lifeboat of the United States Coast Guard (USCG). The 47′ MLB is the successor to the 44-foot motor lifeboat, 44′ MLB, which were in service from 1963 until 2009. Design The 47′ MLB is de ...

(MLB), the (now decommissioned) 44-foot MLB, 42-foot Near Shore Lifeboat (SPC-NLB) and the 52-foot MLB (the only "Boats" in the Coast Guard to be given names, such as ''Victory'' at Station Yaquina Bay, Oregon, the oldest steel motor lifeboat in the US Coast Guard).

Requirements

To be awarded the Surfman Badge, a service member must undergo training in actual surf and breaking bar conditions, accumulate a minimum number of hours operating in these conditions, while conducting practical exercises and undergo a rigorous underway check ride as well as an oral review board. The process to qualify for a Surfman Badge requires at least eight years of training and experience. Coast Guard regulations do not permit the wearing of both Surfman and Coxswain insignia simultaneously. The training includes a monthlong course at the National Motor Lifeboat School at Station Cape Disappointment (

Ilwaco, Washington Ilwaco ( ) is a city in Pacific County, Washington, Pacific County, Washington (state), Washington, United States. The population was 1,087 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. Founded in 1890, the city was home to the Ilwaco Railway an ...

) to train prospective surfmen in handling the 47' MLB in rough weather.

History

Although the earliest ancestors to the United States Life-Saving Service started before the Civil War, it was not officially established as a branch of the

United States Treasury Department The Department of the Treasury (USDT) is the national treasury and finance department of the federal government of the United States. It is one of 15 current U.S. government departments. The department oversees the Bureau of Engraving and ...

until June 1878, under Sumner I. Kimball, who led the Treasury's Revenue Marine Service. Kimball established the first training routines for surfmen, which included the Beach Apparatus Drill (firing rope lines via

Lyle gun A Lyle gun was a line thrower powered by a short-barrelled cannon. It was invented by Captain David A. Lyle, US Army, a graduate of West Point and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and was used from the late 19th century to 1952, when ...

to establish a

breeches buoy A breeches buoy is a rope-based rescue device used to extract people from wrecked vessels, or to transfer people from one place to another in situations of danger. The device resembles a round emergency personal flotation device with a leg harne ...

for rescues close to shore; the drill had to be completed within five minutes), boat handling (righting

surfboat A surfboat (or surf boat) is an oar-driven boat designed to enter the ocean from the beach in heavy surf or severe waves. It is often used in lifesaving or rescue missions where the most expedient access to victims is directly from the beach. ...

s), first aid, signal flags, and nightly beach patrols.

Motto

The Surfmen's motto was adopted around the beginning of the 20th Century: "The book says that you've got to go out, but it doesn't say a word about coming back." This is sometimes shortened as "You have to go out, but you don't have to come back", as popularized in the 2016 film ''The Finest Hours''.

References

Badges of the United States Coast Guard {{USCG-stub