In 2003, Wilmington officially became a Coast Guard City at the inaugural Wilmington Nautical Festival along the Cape Fear River. Wilmington became the first Coast Guard City on the East Coast and was just the fifth in the nation at that time. Adm. Thomas Collins told the audience that day that Wilmington deserved this designation because of the hospitality the city has shown the Coast Guard through the years. Then Governor Mike Easley, then US Senator John Edwards, and then US House Representative Howard Coble all wrote letters to DC in support of this designation.
