History

Rear Admiral Frederick C. Billard

Commandant, United States Coast Guard · active 1924–1932

Commandant of the U.S. Coast Guard, who with Mrs. Billard travelled from Washington to Ocean City, Md., for the banquet closing the second annual convention of the Atlantic Coast Guard on 24 August 1927 — a hundred Coast Guardsmen and their families, officers from stations from Maine to Key West, and the official flag of the cutter Bear over the speaker's table in the Atlantic Hotel's dining room. He read the bravery citation for the Ocean City bathing guard Elisha Victor Bunting, and Mrs. Billard pinned the medal on him.

In the record (2)

  1. 1927

    Elisha Victor Bunting, an Ocean City guard, gets his medal pinned on by the Commandant's wife.

    The August 1927 Coast Guard banquet at the Atlantic Hotel culminated "in the conferring of the Congressional Medal for Bravery on Elisha Victor Bunting, a member of the Ocean City guard. Bunting, as he is universally called, saved three reckless swimmers who had gone out beyond their depths and brought them to safety. Admiral Billard read the citation for bravery and gave a spirited account of the episode, and then Mrs. Billard pinned the medal on the guard's breast."

    The Evening Star's society writer called it a Congressional medal; it was almost certainly a Treasury life-saving medal, which is what the Coast Guard awarded. What matters is the shape of it — the town's own bathing guard, honoured by the service's commandant in the hotel his town had just rebuilt, in front of officers from Maine to Key West.

    United States Coast GuardElisha Victor Bunting

    Source · checked 2026-08-06

  2. 1927

    The Commandant of the Coast Guard brings a national convention to Ocean City, and closes it with a banquet in the rebuilt Atlantic Hotel.

    On the evening of Wednesday 24 August 1927 the second annual convention of the Atlantic Coast Guard closed with a banquet in the dining room of the Atlantic Hotel at Ocean City, Md., attended by 100 members of the Coast Guard and their families, with officers from stations "from Maine to Key West, Fla." Rear Admiral F. C. Billard, Commandant of the Coast Guard, and Mrs. Billard travelled from Washington as guests of honour. "The dining room of the Atlantic Hotel was gay with gladioli, dahlias and shasta daisies, and the official flag of the Bear, the famous cutter, floated over the speaker's table with the Stars and Stripes." Capt. William I. Purnell, in charge of the Ocean City station, was master of ceremonies; Mrs. Purnell was hostess to the forty or more ladies who had come with the officers. Speakers included Representative Robert G. Houston of Delaware, O. M. Maxam (chief of the division of operations at Coast Guard headquarters), State Senator Louis Drexler of Delaware, Comdr. Louis Oliver Osborn of the Sixth Coast Guard District, S. R. Sands of Portsmouth, N.H., Edward Rasmussen of Asbury Park, N.J., and T. E. Tunnell of Delaware. State Senator Harrison of Maryland represented Governor Ritchie; District Commander John W. Richardson of Baltimore and Mayor William McCabe of Ocean City made the addresses of welcome.

    Twenty months after the town's fire department was called practically useless and its hydrants froze, Ocean City was hosting the Commandant of the United States Coast Guard, and the room it happened in had been ashes. Two rebuildings in one sentence.

    Atlantic HotelUnited States Coast GuardCapt. William I. PurnellWilliam W. McCabeOrlando Harrison

    Source · checked 2026-08-06