<P> "First Fleet" is a term occasionally used as an informal reference to the Coast Guard, although there is no indication that the United States has ever officially used this designation with reference either to the Coast Guard or any element of the Navy . The informal appellation honors the fact that between 1790 and 1798, there was no United States Navy and the cutters that were the predecessors of the Coast Guard were the only warships protecting the coast, trade, and maritime interests of the new republic . </P> <P> The modern Coast Guard was created in 1915, when the Revenue Cutter Service merged with the U.S. Life - Saving Service . In 1939, the Lighthouse Service was brought under the Coast Guard's purview . In 1942, the Bureau of Marine Inspection and Navigation was transferred to the Coast Guard . In 1967, the Coast Guard moved from the U.S. Department of the Treasury to the newly formed U.S. Department of Transportation, an arrangement that lasted until it was placed under the U.S. Department of Homeland Security in 2003 as part of legislation designed to more efficiently protect American interests following the terrorist attacks of 11 September 2001 . </P> <P> In times of war, the Coast Guard or individual components of it can operate as a service of the Department of the Navy . This arrangement has a broad historical basis, as the Coast Guard has been involved in wars as diverse as the War of 1812, the Mexican--American War, and the American Civil War, in which the cutter Harriet Lane fired the first naval shots attempting to relieve besieged Fort Sumter . The last time the Coast Guard operated as a whole within the Navy was in World War II . More often, military and combat units within the Coast Guard will operate under Navy or joint operational control while other Coast Guard units will remain under the Department of Homeland Security . </P> <P> The new Department of Homeland Security headquarters complex is on the grounds of the former St. Elizabeths Hospital in the Anacostia section of Southeast Washington, across the Anacostia River from former Coast Guard headquarters . </P>

When was the last time the coast guard was part of the navy