Ok, here goes. I think it's about time for a Coast Guard question. This one's pretty obscure, but it relates to an aspect of World War II that I think is rather interesting - and not without importance.
The 327-foot cutters of the "Treasury" class, the Spencer, Campbell, Alexander Hamilton, Taney, Ingham, and Duane, went through a number of major modifications during their long careers. They originally were designed, back in the thirties, as long-range patrol vessels, with particular emphasis on search-and-rescue capabilities. One of the designers' concerns was the increasing popularity of trans-oceanic air travel; finding the survivors of an airliner that had gone down at sea would be quite a challenge. All six of those cutters originally were equipped to handle aircraft - either Grumman Ducks or Curtiss Seagulls, which were mounted rather precariously on deck aft of the superstructure and hoisted over the side by crane into the water. [Later edit: the Coast Guard Historian's Office website says the Campbell and Ingham "apparently never carried aircraft." The records on that point are sketchy, and photos of the 327-footers with their aircraft embarked are rare.]
The Campbell was one of the most famous in the class, largely because of her work as a convoy escort in the North Atlantic (her airplane-handling gear [if she ever had it] having long since been replaced by an additional 5" gun). Earlier in the war, though, she made a rather significant, if somewhat indirect and unpublicized, contribution to American aviation.
The question: what was that contribution?
Youth, talent, hard work, and enthusiasm are no match for old age and treachery.