Thomas McAdams
Thomas D. McAdams (born June 14, 1931) is a retired US Coast Guard master chief petty officer and former rescue boat commander. He is considered the most famous enlisted person to serve in the US Coast Guard in history, saving over one-hundred lives over a 27-year-long career throughout the Pacific Northwest. After retiring from the Coast Guard in 1977, McAdams became an officer in the volunteer fire department in Newport, Oregon, the same community where he had commanded his motor lifeboats. Early life McAdams was born in 1931 in Seattle, Washington, and was raised in the Ballard neighborhood. McAdams graduated from Ballard High School in 1950. Career McAdams entered the US Coast Guard on December 7, 1950, in Seattle, Washington during the Korean War. McAdams commanded the Coast Guard's 36-foot motor lifeboat, its 44-foot motor lifeboat, and its 52-foot motor lifeboat, and helped design the current 47-foot motor lifeboat. McAdams rounded out his 27-year Coast Guard career by commanding the Coast Guard's Motor Lifeboat School at Cape Disappointment, Ilwaco, Washington, where he wrote its first training manual. In 1957, he was awarded a Gold Lifesaving Medal for a case in 1957 at Yaquina Bay, where he saved four persons in