Alex Haley served in the United States Coast Guard during the Second World War, Korean Conflict, and Cold War, and was the first African-American Coast Guardsman in the modern era to reach the rank of Chief Petty Officer. This paved the way for many other black men and women to rise into the senior enlisted ranks in the naval services. He also holds the distinction of being the first Coast Guardsman to be designated in the specialty rate of Journalist in recognition of his able service to the Coast Guard's and Navy's public affairs and history programs. This was a significant position of responsibility for shaping the public image of the Coast Guard, and reporting news within the service, and the broke the previous tradition of black sailors serving almost exclusively in menial jobs as cooks, stewards, and stevedores.

Alex Haley's personal motto in life was "Find the Good and Praise It."


Two men he interviewed, Black Muslim leader Malcolm X and American Nazi Party founder George Lincoln Rockwell, were both assassinated. The only person in the history of PLAYBOY magazine to appear both as an interviewer and a celebrity interviewee. Godfather to Malcom X's daughter Attallah Shabazz While negotiating with Reader's Digest over their publication of Roots, he was flown out to the company headquarters on their private jet. While sipping the company's scotch and eating their complimentary nuts he thought to himself, "I guess it finally jelled!" While in the Coast Guard he submitted articles and short stories to various magazines, and posted his rejection slips on the walls of his cabin, and eventually in the galley when he ran out of wall-space in his own quarters. While researching his family in Africa, he was driven to an outlying village where his ancestor had come from. A crowd was waiting there, and they chanted in a language Haley didn't understand. When he asked his guide for a translation, the man replied, "They are saying, 'A son of the village has returned.'"