United States naval district
The United States Naval Districts is a system created by the United States Navy to organize military facilities, numbered sequentially by geographic region, for the operational and administrative control of naval bases and shore commands in the United States and around the world. Established in 1903, naval districts became the foundational system for organizing U.S. naval forces ashore during the 20th century. The term "Naval" forces includes United States Marine Corps and current United States Coast Guard units.
About half of nearly 20 numbered naval districts, after decades of service as successful naval operational support commands, were merged or disestablished by the U.S. Navy between 1970 and 1998. By 1999 the remaining U.S. naval districts were reorganized and renamed as Navy Regions, except for Naval District Washington DC. The revised U.S. Navy organization of 11 geographic regions is now administered under Commander, Naval Installations Command in Washington DC.
United States Marine Corps naval infantry forces operating with the USN are supported by the naval district system. Since 1903, USMC strength has grown immensely with combined-arms artillery, armor, and aviation capability, especially for expeditionary and amphibious warfare during World War I in Europe and World War II in the Pacific. Although part of the Navy Department, the Marine Corps is a separate branch of the U.S. armed forces that now maintains its own organization of USMC support base locations.
United States Coast Guard forces, responsible for U.S. maritime security, continue to operate today in nine USCG naval Districts, using a revised version of the original numbered United States Naval District map, consolidated under two USCG Area commands, CG Atlantic Area and CG Pacific Area.
In 1903 the Department of the Navy first created 13 numbered U.S. Naval Districts as a system to improve the naval defense of the U.S. coast and extended territories from foreign attack. The Secretary of the Navy ordered creation of a system of districts for "the purpose of decentralizing administrative functions with respect to the control of coastwise sea communications and shore activities in states and territories outside department headquarters in Washington DC".
The United States Naval District system established a geographic naval forces map, numbered in a clockwise sequence, that centralized under one regional command:
Navy Regulations article 1480 first laid down the boundary limits of naval districts, which were based on existing coastal lighthouse districts dating to 1838. "Those limits extend to seaward so far as to include the coastwise sea lanes". The Navy specified that "each naval district shall be commanded by a designated commandant, who is the direct representative of the Navy Department, including its bureaus and offices, in all matters affecting district activity".
During World War I and World War II, the number of Naval Districts grew from thirteen to seventeen.
The USN and USCG district system evolved continuously over the 20th century, with naval district shore activities, base facilities, and many ships, cutters, patrol boats, air stations, and jurisdictional map boundaries changing over the decades. Today, each of the current 11 U.S. Navy named Regions and 9 U.S. Coast Guard numbered Districts is commanded by a two star or one star rear admiral.
Naval Districts in the U.S. Navy and U.S. Coast Guard
The 1903 U.S. Navy District Plan designated a major regional naval base or shipyard facility as headquarters for each district. Some districts had no staff until after the outbreak of World War I during August 1914.During World War II, the U.S. naval plan had grown to define 17 numbered districts on a coastal map of the United States and global U.S. territories, starting with the First Naval District in the Atlantic northeast, then proceeding clockwise south through Florida, across the Gulf of Mexico Eighth District, up to the Great Lakes, west to the Pacific Ocean, and northwest to the Seventeenth District in Alaska and beyond.
In 1915, the newly formed United States Coast Guard also adopted the geographic organization of U.S. Naval Districts for operations and administration of USCG bases, stations, cutters, aircraft, and boats. As an agency in the U.S. Department of Treasury from 1790 to 1967, the USCG predecessor Lighthouse Board was the first maritime bureau to establish a district organization as directed by an 1838 act of Congress for steamboat safety.
When the U.S. Revenue Cutter Service and U.S. Life Saving Service merged to become the U.S. Coast Guard in 1915, the naval district map system was used to organize the combined service. In the Coast Guard naval district organization, USCG districts were placed in the CG Eastern Area or Western Area. The two Coast Guard Areas were each commanded by a USCG admiral senior to their district commanders. Later, during World War II the Coast Guard military organization also absorbed three other legacy U.S. maritime safety agencies: the Steamboat Inspection Service, Bureau of Navigation, and U.S. Lighthouse Service.
United States federal law specifies the Coast Guard is a maritime multi-mission military branch of the U.S. armed forces, fully interoperable with the Navy and Department of Defense services outlined under Title 10 USC, that in time of war when directed by the President becomes a part of the U.S. Navy fleet, as happened during World War I and World War II.
Homeland Defense: Today's structure of land, air, and naval United States armed forces, with active duty and reserve components, was configured from 1903 to 1947 by a series of Congressional laws enacted to modernize U.S. state militias into a National Guard, strengthen military mobilization capability, and optimize U.S. land, air, and sea service organizations for the global conflicts of the 20th Century. The terrorist attacks of 11 September 2001 prompted efforts to improve United States homeland defense for the 2First Century.
Homeland Security: In 2003, when the Homeland Security Act transferred the Coast Guard from the U.S. Department of Transportation to the new U.S. Department of Homeland Security along with other federal protection agencies, CG District Commanders also began overseeing a coastal border organization of sectors.
Sectors, named by region, state, or city within each district, align the maritime multi-mission coastal, ports and waterways activities of Coast Guard forces with U.S. Homeland Security Customs and Border Protection officers at land boundary ports of entry. USCG Districts and USCG Sectors are key parts of DHS.
First Naval District
First Naval District was established on 7 May 1903, headquartered at Portsmouth Navy Yard in Kittery, Maine for coastal defense of the New England states in accordance with Navy General Order No. 128 issued by Acting Secretary of the Navy Charles H. Darling. Until late 1915 no personnel were assigned to First Naval District staff. During World War I and World War II, large historic naval shipyards in the northeast United States peaked in ship building and repair activity. Naval bases in northeastern cities were key to supporting U.S. forces during the Battle of the Atlantic 1914–1918, and again in 1939–1945. By the end of World War II, First Naval District headquarters had transferred to Charlestown Navy Yard in Boston, Massachusetts, with geographic boundaries for coastal defense of Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Vermont.From 1960 to 1980, the Navy closed several naval bases in the northeastern states. On 7 October 1976, First Naval District at the old Boston Naval Shipyard was disestablished and passed command to the Fourth Naval District in Philadelphia, PA. The New England states area of responsibility in the former First Naval District is now part of U.S. Navy Region Mid-Atlantic.
First Coast Guard District is headquartered in the downtown Boston Massachusetts harborfront, and protects the navigable waters of the northeast United States within boundaries that include the entire New England coast. First Coast Guard District encompasses the states of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut, plus eastern New York and northern New Jersey. First Coast Guard District includes five coastal sector commands, and is homeport for units including major Atlantic patrol cutters, buoy tenders, icebreaker tugs, homeland security boats, stations, shore bases, and a large air station on Cape Cod.
Second Naval District
Second Naval District was the smallest of the original naval districts established in 1903. Second Naval District covered only Rhode Island and adjacent waters, including Block Island and NAS Quonset Point, with headquarters at Naval Station Newport, Rhode Island. Second Naval District was disestablished after the end of World War I on March 15, 1919, and its geography incorporated into the First and Third Naval Districts. The New England states area of responsibility in the former Second Naval District is now part of U.S. Navy Region Mid-Atlantic.Second Coast Guard District: During World War II, when the U.S. Bureau of Navigation, a key part of the large central U.S. maritime transportation system, merged into the Coast Guard, the USCG designated the United States midwest geography containing the many navigable inland waterways of the Mississippi, Ohio and western rivers as the Second Coast Guard District with headquarters facilities in St. Louis, Missouri. After 50 years of protecting vital river transportation, in 1996 the Second Coast Guard District was disestablished, and all inland western rivers operations became part of the new enlarged Eighth Coast Guard District headquartered in New Orleans LA.
Third Naval District
Third Naval District, headquartered at the Brooklyn Navy Yard in New York City, was established on 7 May 1903 in accordance with General Order No. 128, signed by Acting Secretary of the Navy Charles H. Darling. Puerto Rico was initially part of the district due to good communications between New York and Puerto Rico. In 1919 Puerto Rico was removed from Third District and placed directly under the control of the Chief of Naval Operations. By 1945 Third District geographic boundaries included: Connecticut, New York, the northern part of New Jersey, and also the Nantucket Shoals Lightship. In 1966, after the Brooklyn Navy Yard had provided significant maritime forces to win the Atlantic naval campaigns during both world wars, the U.S. Navy closed the aging yard as an operational naval base. Third Naval District was disestablished on 7 October 1976, and command functions were transferred to the Fourth Naval District in Philadelphia, PA. The northeastern states area of responsibility in the former Third and Fourth Naval Districts is now part of U.S. Navy Region Mid-Atlantic.Third Coast Guard District operated from 1915 until disestablished on June 30, 1987, during Coast Guard re-alignment. CGD3 geographic area of responsibility was split between First Coast Guard District and Fifth Coast Guard District. On July 1, 1987, the Coast Guard consolidated major cutter, aviation, and shore base resources to a new Maintenance and Logistics Command for the five remaining districts comprising Coast Guard Atlantic Area. As an agency in the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, after 2010 USCG Atlantic Area MLCs were re-organized. USCG command for maintenance and logistics facilities now falls under one three star vice admiral, who is the Coast Guard Deputy Commandant for Mission Support.
Coast Guard founding in New York: New York City, the first U.S. capital, has been a key Coast Guard homeport ever since 4 August 1790, when the first Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton established the Revenue Marine there. Hamilton requested President George Washington and the First United States Congress authorize construction of 10 fast, armed cutters to be stationed at Atlantic seaports in the 13 original U.S. states for defense and maritime law enforcement. In 1789 Hamilton had also established the U.S. Customs Service for coastal commerce security, followed in 1791 by the U.S. Lighthouse Establishment for navigation safety.
U.S. Coast Guard Atlantic Area: New York Harbor, the major U.S. seaport from 1790 to 1914, continued serving as USCG Eastern/Atlantic Area headquarters from 1915 through the 1990s. In 1996 however, as part of the Coast Guard portion of the U.S. military's Base Realignment and Closure process, the service closed the large USCG cutter support base on Governors Island NY and moved CG Atlantic Area headquarters to Portsmouth VA.