President Barack Obama told this year’s graduating class of the U.S. Coast Guard Academy that they are joining a service with a long tradition devoted to risk-taking while serving the U.S. from the nation’s waterways to oceans a world away.
“Today is a celebration of your success” as cadets who are now ready to report for duty on missions such as rescuing Americans from flood waters, aiding in environmental cleanups and battling piracy off the coast of Somalia, the president told 229 graduates of the U.S. Coast Guard Academy, a waterfront campus on the banks of the Thames River in New London, Connecticut.
