Coast Guard Hats

The Coast Guard is an armed force that sits under the Department of Homeland Security, not the Department of Defense, which is exactly why Coasties get asked whether they are really military. This collection answers with pride instead of a defense. The service dates its birthday to August 4, 1790, and its people have a nickname for themselves that outran the argument: puddle pirate, cited in print since at least 1992, the self-deprecating kind of label that stops stinging once you say it first. The lines here cover the badges people actually search for, U.S. Coast Guard and Coast Guard Veteran, plus Coastie and the Latin motto Semper Paratus, which already sells on shirts, hats and stickers. The sentence designs carry the work: the unofficial Life-Saving Service line, you have to go out, you don't have to come back, attributed to Patrick Etheridge after the 1904 wreck of the Northeastern and carried to a wider audience by the 2016 film The Finest Hours; the rescue swimmer; and an office that, for some crews, turns into a hurricane during the Atlantic season that runs June 1 to November 30. Every design is custom embroidered on an unstructured dad hat. Choose one for yourself, or for the Coastie, retiree or rescue crew member who has heard every joke twice.