<p>A U.S. Coast Guard helicopter hovers over a boat.</p>

ASTORIA Lewis and Clark National Historical Park, Fort Clatsop is pleased to announce Decembers In Their Footsteps free speaker series event. This months program is U.S. Coast Guard Air Station and Group Astoria by Susan L. Glen. This talk and book signing event is scheduled for 1 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 15 in the Fort Clatsop Visitor Centers Netul River Room.

U.S. Coast Guard Air Station and Group Astoria was established in 1964 at Tongue Point. It is currently headquartered at the Astoria Regional Airport in Warrenton two miles from Fort Clatsop. The group includes Air Station Astoria, the Aids to Navigation Team, Station Grays Harbor at Westport, Wash., Station Cape Disappointment in Ilwaco, Wash., and Station Tillamook Bay at Garibaldi. It also supports the U.S. Coast Guard cutters Alert, Steadfast and Fir, the National Motor Lifeboat School, the Electronic Support Detachment at Astoria, the Advanced Rescue Swimmer School, the Marine Safety Detachment and the Advanced Helicopter Rescue School. In 2011 the unit became U.S. Coast Guard Sector Columbia River.

U.S. Coast Guard Air Station and Group Astoria is Glens fifth book in Arcardia Publishings Images of America series. Each of these books features more than 200 vintage images, capturing often forgotten bygone times and bringing to life the people, places and events that defined a community. Glens previous titles are Governors Island, Seaside: 1920-1950, Fort Stevens and Warrenton-Hammond.

Glen is a former school teacher married to a retired Coast Guard helicopter pilot who was stationed at Air Station Astoria from 1976 to 1981. They returned to the area following his retirement after 29 years of service, and the photographs in this book are from many people who have been stationed there since the bases inception, as well as from Coast Guard Community Relations. Glen loves history and is active with the Daughters of the American Revolution and several historical and genealogical societies. Her book will be available for purchase in the Lewis and Clark National Park Association bookstore in the Fort Clatsop Visitor Center during this event, and she will have a book signing after her talk.

This free third Sunday forum is sponsored by the Lewis and Clark National Park Association. For more information, call the park at 503-861-2471.