HU-16E Albatrosses were in the U.S. Coast Guard fleet from 1951 to 1983.  These aircraft were used on many types of missions. They were used as search platforms looking for lost boaters or downed aircraft and to locate sinking fishing boats. If they were needed, de-watering pumps were dropped by parachute.  Crews launched day or night. The aircraft were used to check on ship collisions or to locate vessels with ill crewmen. Many times the aircraft escorted helicopters to complete rescues, and rarely this amphibian landed on water to make a rescue.

At other times crews used Albatrosses to evacuate ill personnel from remote islands and other locations. Medical personnel were transported from bases to remote locations. During some night searches parachute flares were dropped.  Many times on large over-ocean searches the crew would be designated On-Scene-Commander and coordinate the efforts of a large fleet of aircraft. On a few occasions, when an airliner crashed on land, the Coast Crew was designated On-Scene Commander to coordinate helicopter flights to and from the scene. On at least one occasion in Florida two Albatrosses were used on an FBI manhunt.

Albatrosses were used on the International Ice Patrol and they patrolled in search of boat people from Cuba and Haiti. When boat people were spotted the crew would call in a helicopter or boat to make the rescue. If needed,  survival gear and water were parachuted to the survivors.  Another use of the Albatross was for fisheries patrols, checking the positions of American, Russian, and Japanese boats. In the late 1970's, patrols were made for drug interdiction off the Miami, Florida coast and in the Caribbean.