07.20.2026
« Return to News#10 – When the Great Lakes Freeze, the Coast Guard Gets to Work
By Donnie Brzuska, Coast Guard Mutual Assistance
Before you ever see a Coast Guard cutter, you hear it.
Ice on the Great Lakes doesn’t simply crack. It groans under pressure, giving way with a deep report as thousands of tons of steel climb onto its surface before crushing through. Behind the cutter, a channel begins to open. Before long, another freighter is moving again.
For most Americans, winter means frozen shorelines and lake-effect snow. For the U.S. Coast Guard, it signals the start of one of the Service’s oldest and least understood missions: keeping the Great Lakes open for commerce.
Every winter, Coast Guard icebreakers head into some of the harshest conditions in the country to ensure ships carrying iron ore, coal, limestone, grain, road salt, petroleum products, and other cargo can continue moving across the nation’s largest freshwater system. When navigation stops, supply chains feel it. Steel production slows. Deliveries are delayed. Communities wait.
That work rarely makes national headlines. It should.
Great Lakes icebreaking earns the No. 10 spot in the 2026 U.S. Coast Guard Top 10 Videos of the Year Competition because it showcases a mission that quietly affects millions of Americans every winter.
Keeping the Lakes Open
Each January, the Coast Guard launches Operation Coal Shovel, coordinating cutters across the Great Lakes to prevent ice from closing critical shipping routes. Working with Canadian partners and commercial shipping interests, crews break channels, escort vessels through heavy ice, and respond whenever changing conditions threaten navigation.
This is deliberate work. Cutter crews study ice conditions, wind, currents, and vessel traffic before making hundreds of small decisions that keep ships moving safely. Success is measured not by dramatic rescues but by cargo arriving on time and ports remaining open.
The featured video captures cutters Mackinaw, Neah Bay, and Bristol Bay doing exactly that. Rather than forcing straight through thick ice, the cutters often ride onto the surface, using the ship’s weight to fracture it before repeating the process again and again until a navigable channel is created.
Among the vessels assisted this winter were the 1,004-foot freighter American Spirit and the Wilfred Sykes, both of which relied on Coast Guard escorts to continue their voyages through heavy ice.
Stranded on the Ice
Icebreaking may be the plan for the day, but Coast Guard crews know plans rarely survive contact with the next radio call.
During this year’s operation, Mackinaw shifted from facilitating commerce to rescuing a 55-year-old man stranded on the ice near Mackinac Island during blizzard conditions. Helicopter crews determined deteriorating weather made an aerial rescue unsafe. Mackinaw altered course, launched its ice rescue team, recovered the man safely, and transferred him ashore for medical care.
From supporting commerce one moment to saving a life the next, #10 captures what makes the Coast Guard unique. Coast Guardsmen are Always Ready for any mission.
Why The Mission Matters
Many Americans associate the Coast Guard with search and rescue helicopters, drug interdictions, or hurricane response. Fewer realize that every winter another demanding mission unfolds across the Great Lakes.
The work is methodical. Crews stand watch for weeks in freezing temperatures so families have home heating fuel, manufacturers receive the raw materials they depend on, road crews have salt before the next winter storm, and the flow of commerce across the Great Lakes never comes to a halt.
Most people will never witness an icebreaker at work. That’s precisely why this mission deserves to be seen.
Supporting the People Behine Mission
Behind every cutter are Coast Guard members serving far from home during the toughest months of the year, and families managing the demands of military life while they stand the watch.
For more than a century, Coast Guard Mutual Assistance has helped those families through emergency financial assistance, education programs, disaster relief, and other support when life takes an unexpected turn. While Coast Guard crews keep America’s waterways open, CGMA helps ensure their families have someone looking out for them.
Vote for No. 10
If Great Lakes Icebreaking deserves your vote, like, comment on, and share the official video across CGMA’s social media channels.
Every $1 donated to No. 10 adds five votes to its total while directly supporting Coast Guard members and families through Coast Guard Mutual Assistance.
Photo & Video Credits
Video and imagery courtesy of the U.S. Coast Guard and the Defense Visual Information Distribution Service.
Special thanks to the U.S. Coast Guard Great Lakes District Public Affairs Office and the public affairs specialists, photographers, videographers, and crews whose coverage of Operation Coal Shovel and Great Lakes icebreaking operations made this feature possible.