Russell Randolph Waesche, Sr. served as the eighth Commandant of the United States Coast Guard from 1936 to 1946, overseeing the service during World War II.
Background
Russell Randolph Waesche, Sr. was born in Thurmont, Frederick County, Md. , the second of four sons and sixth of eight children. His parents were Leonard Randolph Waesche, a mining engineer, and Mary Martha (Foreman) Waesche; his father's family had come to the United States from Germany about 1836.
Education
After attending Maryland public schools, young Waesche entered Purdue University in 1903 to study electrical engineering, but left after a year when his older brother, an instructor at Purdue, urged the youth to get some military training before continuing his studies. Waesche entered the cadet school of the Revenue Cutter Service at Arundel Cove, Baltimore (forerunner of the Coast Guard Academy), and upon graduating in 1906 was commissioned a third lieutenant; he was promoted to second lieutenant the following year.
Career
Liking the service, he decided to make it his career. For a decade Waesche saw duty as a line officer in cutters patrolling the Atlantic, Pacific, and Arctic oceans. The Revenue Cutter Service was merged in 1915 with the Life Saving Service to form the U. S. Coast Guard, and the next year Waesche became the first head of its Division of Communications. In this wartime post (he was promoted in 1917 to first lieutenant), he organized, modernized, and extended the coastal land lines network and completed a radio communications system. Waesche was advanced to lieutenant commander in 1923, when Coast Guard ranks were adjusted to the equivalent navy ranks, and in 1926 to commander. During the 1920's the Coast Guard helped enforce national prohibition by operating in coastal waters against rumrunners. Waesche served on offshore patrol as commanding officer of the destroyer Beale (1924 - 1926) and, based in the flagship Tucker, as commander of a destroyer division (1926 - 1927). After a tour as the Coast Guard's chief ordnance officer, during which he reorganized the service's field forces, he became in 1932 aide to the commandant of the Coast Guard, serving concurrently as budget officer and chief of the finance division. Four years later President Roosevelt passed over many superior officers to appoint Waesche as commandant, a post he held until his retirement. The appointment brought him the rank of rear admiral. Subsequent promotions to vice admiral (1942) and admiral (1945) made him the first Coast Guard officer to attain these ranks. As commandant, Waesche streamlined the administration of the Coast Guard, inaugurated a new system of gunnery practice that improved the service's marksmanship, and originated the Coast Guard Institute and Correspondence School for warrant officers and enlisted men. At his request the U. S. Lighthouse Service and the Bureau of Marine Inspection and Navigation were transferred to the Coast Guard (in 1939 and 1942). Known for his excellent relations with Congress, the affable Waesche was highly regarded both by his subordinates and by his civilian superiors. With the outbreak of war in Europe in 1939, Waesche's command was charged, under the Neutrality Act, with preventing the shipment of war materials to belligerent nations and with carrying on antisabotage work in American ports. The entry of the United States into the war made the Coast Guard, while retaining its identity, temporarily an integral part of the navy, and greatly expanded its responsibilities. It patrolled the waters off Greenland, manned ocean weather stations, engaged in air patrol and rescue, set up a coastal communications network, and established and operated the Loran system for air and sea navigation. It also engaged in sea combat. As experts in the handling of small boats, Coast Guardsmen manned the landing craft of invasion fleets, taking part in every major naval landing operation in the Atlantic and Pacific. Coast Guard personnel rose from a prewar total of 10, 000 to more than 171, 000 by 1945. Besides its own ships, the service also operated 351 navy vessels, including twenty-two transports, and 288 army vessels. Serving throughout the war, Waesche retired in January, 1946, because of ill health. Waesche died of cancer at the age of sixty at the United States Naval Hospital at Bethesda, Md. , and was buried at Arlington National Cemetery.
Achievements
Personality
Somewhat above average height with a lean, athletic figure and ruddy complexion, Waesche had great drive and practical imagination.
Connections
He was married twice: on October 18, 1911, to Dorothy Rebecca Luke of Seattle, Wash. , and, following a divorce in 1926, on March 21, 1931, to Agnes (Rizzuto) Cronin of New London, Connecticut, a widow. He had four children by his first wife - Harry Lee, Russell Randolph, James Mountford, and Dorothy Rebecca - and one, William Alexander, by his second.