Eighth District

New Orleans, Louisiana

District Commander:

vVADM  Larry Shelton, (acting DCO)

CG8001

Chief of Staff:

vacant

The Eighth Coast Guard District, headquartered in New Orleans, covers all or part of 26 states throughout the Gulf Coast and heartland of America. It stretches from the Appalachian Mountains and Chattahoochee River in the east to the Rocky Mountains in the west, and from the U.S.-Mexico border and the Gulf of Mexico to the Canadian border in North Dakota, which includes 1,200 miles of coastline and 10,300 miles of inland navigable waterways.

The ports of New Orleans and Houston, located in the Eighth District, are two of the busiest shipping ports in the nation, with more than two million barrels of oil and one million tons of cargo imported daily. Seventeen of the top 40 busiest ports by tonnage are located in the Eighth District.

There has been a Coast Guard presence in the Gulf of Mexico and Midwestern regions for nearly two centuries. In the Gulf area, the Coast Guard's history ranges from the Revenue Marine Service Cutter LOUISIANA driving the British away from the Mississippi River levee area during the War of 1812, to the Coast Guard patrolling the Gulf for German U-Boats during World War II. In the Midwest, Coast Guard history includes establishing aids to navigation in the early 1900s, as well as marine safety missions and flood response. This Midwestern region, formerly known as the Second Coast Guard District, merged with the Eighth Coast Guard District in May 1996, creating the present expansive Eighth Coast Guard District boundaries.