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Coffee and the Troops: The Coast Guard

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For more than 200 years, the United States Coast Guard has sailed the open seas, enforcing maritime law, protecting our ports and helping those in trouble on the water. As one of the most unique of the armed forces, the Coast Guard operates as part of Department of Homeland Security, but in wartime works under the Navy. Coast Guardsmen have served in every one of our nation’s conflicts during their long history. And through it all, they’ve turned to coffee for courage, camaraderie and comfort.

Retired Coast Guard CWO Fred Siegel grew up tinkering with electronics. Indulging his love of engineering and communications, Siegel started his own private telephone company when he was just 13 years old. Hoping to make a career out of his passion, Siegel joined the Coast Guard after high school and served as a radioman on several cutters, including the Atlantic-based CGC Cook Inlet. Siegel’s job was to maintain communications with aircraft on trans-Atlantic flights. Long nights made coffee a necessity, he recalls.

“If you didn’t have a five pound can of coffee available, you didn’t get anything done,” says Siegel. “Every ship I was ever on stocked up on coffee prior to heading out.”

Following his retirement, Siegel and his wife moved to Bartow, Florida, and it was there that something unexpected happened. Looking to reunite with other Coast Guardsmen, Siegel returned to his communication roots. He founded a website called Fred’s Place (fredsplace.org), and provided a forum for former CG’s to chat, locate long lost pals, and access free email. Within a few months, the site had become a popular stomping ground for Coast Guardsmen across the country to share their experiences, express their thoughts and swap sailor stories. As it turns out, many of those stories contained memories about coffee.

“For any sailor, coffee is a holy substance blessed by King Neptune himself and gifted with the power to jumpstart any watchstander to a level of alertness that ensures success,” one Coast Guardsman writes on the site. “While engines run on diesel, I’m convinced that some boatswain’s mates run only on coffee.”

What started out as a hobby has become a full-time job for Siegel – Fred's Place joined with Military.com and now boosts a membership larger than the Active Duty force of the U.S. Coast Guard. And his contributions to the Coast Guard family have not gone unnoticed – Siegel was recently recognized with the CG’s Meritorious Public Service Award. Currently working on a website that will allow CG students to keep in touch throughout their Coast Guard career, Siegel enjoys connecting the men and women that serve our coastline, and hopes that he has made a difference.

“Providing a communication channel for thousands of my old friends and new ‘cyber-shipmates’ over the past ten years has been an honor,” says Siegel, “and I look forward to the future.”

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