Coast Guard profile series: Hugh Lusk
Editor's note: Retiring from the U.S. Coast Guard often does not mean retiring from service and leadership. In light of New London's recent designation as a Coast Guard City, The Day interviewed several people who served in the Coast Guard and live in the area, and through their jobs or volunteer work are contributing to the local community.
Readers are invited to tell The Day about other retired Coast Guard men and women who make southeastern Connecticut a better place to live. Go to: www.theday.com/submitcoastguardprofile
New London — A few weeks ago Hugh Lusk, 96, returned to his alma mater to talk to cadets who are more than 70 years his junior.
Lusk, a retired Coast Guard captain, shared stories of his time as a cadet at the U.S. Coast Guard Academy during World War II and his career, spanning 33 years.
"Capt. Lusk truly inspired our Academy team with his mentoring advice, rousing stories and candid humor," said Capt. Jack Vogt, assistant superintendent, the same position Lusk held more than 40 years ago. Connecting the cadets to someone like Lusk, Vogt said, "is very important to their development as future service leaders."
A member of the class of 1943, Lusk served on a submarine-chasing convoy during the war, about 24 missions in total, according to his partner of seven years, Ann O'Reilly. Almost all were transatlantic convoys.
During the war the Coast Guard was part of the Navy, and afterward Lusk was a member of Navy and Coast Guard crews that repatriated Japanese citizens from Pacific islands. Some were soldiers and didn't yet know that the war was over.
One of Lusk's favorite assignments was at the American consulate in Antwerp, Belgium, where he was in charge of American ships in foreign ports. His career took him all over the world, but when he returned to New London to be the assistant superintendent at the academy from 1970 to 1972, it was "like coming home."
After retiring from the Coast Guard, he stayed in New London and worked for the Tennesee Transmission Gas Co. and served on the city's Board of Ethics.
He's a supporter of the National Coast Guard Museum planned for downtown New London.
Nowadays, Lusk, who uses a wheelchair, lives with O'Reilly in Essex Meadows. Black and white photographs of the ships on which he served line a wall of his room there: the destroyer USS Marchand, the icebreaker East Wind, and others.
Twitter: @JuliaSBergman
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