Texas Border Business
By Roberto Hugo González / Texas Border Business
McALLEN, Texas — Retired U.S. Coast Guard Commander Joseph “Joe” Brown recalled dangerous storms, maritime law enforcement operations and unusual assignments during his military career while addressing veterans and community leaders at Texas Regional Bank’s Veterans Day celebration on November 10, 2026.
Brown served four years on active duty and 26 years in the Coast Guard Reserve before retiring in July 1999 as a commander.
Speaking about his early assignments, Brown described working aboard Coast Guard buoy tenders that maintained navigation equipment along American waterways.
He recalled spending about four hours on deck off North Carolina in freezing weather while the crew completed work on a navigation buoy.
“I had ice in my sideburns and my mustache,” Brown told the audience.
Another assignment placed him aboard a 180-foot buoy tender during a severe storm.
“Probably the scariest experience of my life was being aboard a 180-foot buoy tender during a storm with 30-foot seas,” Brown said. “When you’re on a 180-foot ship in 30-foot seas, you get close to God.”
Brown also described an assignment off the Georgia coast involving a large navigation buoy that had broken loose and washed ashore.
Serving as a duty swimmer, he entered the water carrying a shovel and helped prepare the stranded buoy for recovery.
He remained on the isolated beach until the following morning, when the crew retrieved the equipment.
During the assignment, Brown caught a flounder in a tidal pool. When he returned to the ship hungry, he offered the fish to the cook, who agreed to prepare him a T-bone steak instead of a bologna sandwich.
Brown also recalled a major drug interdiction operation during the early 1980s while serving as a Reserve lieutenant aboard the 210-foot Coast Guard cutter Durable.
During a law enforcement patrol off Belize, he led a boarding party onto a suspicious vessel and discovered a concealed compartment containing approximately 15 tons of marijuana, totaling 550 bales.
Brown addressed a common misconception about the Coast Guard’s involvement in the Vietnam War.
“I did not go to Vietnam,” he said, explaining that more than 8,000 Coast Guard personnel served there, including crews operating 82-foot patrol boats.
He emphasized that Coast Guard responsibilities extend beyond American coastal waters, with personnel serving worldwide.
Brown said his military assignments eventually brought him to Texas, changing the direction of his life.
“But the Coast Guard brought me to Texas, and that changed everything,” he said.
He concluded by thanking the community for recognizing veterans and their contributions.
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