The Coast Guard’s current naming system for district commands is obsolete. The service should rename district commands to reflect their geographical areas of responsibility.
The construct today dates to World War II, when Coast Guard district commands were made to parallel naval districts. The naval districts were named numerically, starting with the First District in the U.S. Northeast and going west, ending with the Seventeenth Naval District covering Alaska. The numbers themselves were meaningless, but for the Coast Guard, following the Navy’s naming convention increased interoperability. This made sense for the times as the Coast Guard was part of the Navy Department for the duration of the war.
All the naval districts except Naval District Washington were disestablished by 1980. It no longer makes sense for the Coast Guard to maintain a naval naming convention. The names of Coast Guard district commands should have some intrinsic meaning.
