It was Feb. 29 during the leap year of 2024 when Steven Strohmaier was deployed and took a photograph of a cutter. Little did he know that more than two years later, his image would be featured on over 10 million U.S. Postal Service stamps.
Petty Officer 1st Class Strohmaier, of the U.S. Coast Guard, is one of two Guardsmen whose photographs are featured on a new USPS stamp released Sept. 12. The stamp art features photographs of the USCGC Eagle, the Coast Guard Academy’s primary training vessel since 1946, and USCGC Bertholf, a Legend-class national security cutter whose missions include maritime drug interdiction and securing the maritime border.
Strohmaier photographed the Bertholf, while Petty Officer 2nd Class Matthew Thieme captured the Eagle. There are 12 million stamps issued to honor the 150th anniversary of the U.S. Coast Guard Academy.
“I didn’t go out there with any intentions to take a picture exclusively for a stamp,” Strohmaier told Military.com. “I found out this summer, and I was obviously very surprised.”
The timing was also serendipitous considering other events happening in his life. He and his wife were just days away from having their first child, and a few weeks later Strohmaier was busy being a new father when he was told of the stamp’s impending circulation.
“I checked my email and I was like, ‘Wow, hey, I got a stamp coming out.’ That’s how I found out,” he said. “[It was a] very unique and humbling experience.”
How the Photograph Was Taken
The stamp actually portrays two cutters that Strohmaier has been on.
He was onboard the Eagle for 1 1/2 months in 2017, then was deployed on the Bertholf in 2024 for two months.
“I actually looked up the date because I have a selfie of myself in the small boat from that day [I took the photograph now ingrained on the stamp], and it was leap year,” he said. “It was Feb. 29 of 2024, the date the picture was taken.”
He said that when he took that photograph, he was trying to capture joint exercises being conducted with the Singaporean Navy, as part of a press release yet to be issued.
“There was a Singaporean Navy ship that was actually getting in position so that I could capture both ships in one frame, so that’s why I was out on the small boat that day,” he said. “It was like, I don’t know, 20 miles east of Singapore that I took the photo.”
Strohmaier enlisted in the USCG in 2012 and was stationed on a buoy tender in Sioux Ste. Marie in Michigan’s Upper Peninusla. His dream, however, was to become a public affairs specialist for the service.
In 2016, he went to public affairs school at Fort Meade, Md., and then was relocated to New York City—where he spent 3 1/2 years and “absolutely loved.”
“It was a great place to cut my teeth, with the largest media market in North America, and so much going on in the tri-state region that the Coast Guard does with its missions,” he said. “So, I had a great time. I had lived in four of the five boroughs in just about four years, and and then eventually got over to Seattle.
“I advanced in my rank and moved over to Seattle, and was there five years. [I] then did one year down in Astoria, Ore., and then back to Seattle, and that’s where I’m at right now.”
The Artwork Behind the Stamp Itself
Antonio Alcalá served on the Postmaster General’s Citizens’ Stamp Advisory Committee from 2010 until 2011, when he left to become an art director for the U.S. Postal Service’s stamp development program.
The Yale graduate is also the founder and co-owner of Studio A, a design practice working with museums and arts institutions. His clients include the National Gallery of Art, Library of Congress, National Portrait Gallery, National Museum of Women in the Arts, The Phillips Collection, and Smithsonian Institution.
Alcalá explained to Military.com that each year, the Citizens Stamp Advisory Committee, in collaboration with the USPS, selects the subjects to be commemorated on stamps. After subjects are selected, USPS assigns the projects to one of four art directors.
Members of the Citizens Stamp Advisory Committee, three other art directors, and members of the USPS Stamp Development team all play a role in the final artwork.
“I wanted to use imagery that suggested the long tradition of the Coast Guard Academy, but also communicated they are an active, modern part of our military forces,” Alcalá said about the Academy stamp. “The color treatment makes the photos look more timeless and less of a specific moment with the older clipper ship complementing the modern vessel.”
Asked whether it’s a rarity for individuals’ photographs to be presented in stamp form, he said USPS uses photos when it is determined to be the best solution. In the past, such photos for stamps have featured flowers or gardens, or specific locations like a recent set of stamps commemorating the Appalachian Trail.
“The selection process was a lengthy one, with USPS working collaboratively with the USCGA to identify imagery that met the needs of both institutions,” he added. “We relied on both organizations expertise to help winnow the options down to the final two images.
“Of the dozens and dozens of images reviewed, the USCGA and USPS believe these two photos effectively represent both the academy’s history, as well as their role as a contemporary and modern branch of our nation’s military.”
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