Greetings, While I was on active duty and involved in some flight ops, I kept/used USGS Joint Air Ops Charts. These are topographic w/aviation (VFR) info included. I found these extremely useful for overland SAR missions since our AirSta didn't keep anything but VFR and ocean Nav charts on hand. I have made a few special deliveries to AirSta New Orleans and/or Lakefront airport to get these charts into the hands of the Pilots before they left for a SAR mission up north.
These charts have both UTM and Lat/Long ticks and contain considerable detail. I still keep a few of them on hand for backpacking/camping because of the amount of detail (includes dirt roads).
The charted info is USAF Sat derived and may be a few years behind in updates as far as CONUS areas are concerned (we haven't been invaded since 1814) but they are certainly more detailed than anything else you are likely to find and were designed with the purpose you have in mind.
IRT the chart datum to use, I have found that some chart datums are more accurate in some areas versus others. In the Black Sea and much of the Carribbean, the Naval Hydrographic charts have much to be desired, but the British Admiralty charts of the Med (and Black Sea) were on the money IRT the GPS coordinates. NOAA charts were the overall best in U.S. waters and as far out as they were useful (including crossing the N. Atlantic Ocean. Comparison of gps position, known position, and the various datum charted positions will generally tell you which is the best to use in whatever area you are operating in. In CONUS, I find the 1927 datum to be about the overall best when covering a large area in a short amount of time. For a small area, the 1984WGS seems to work best.

And the answer is NO, I did not have the "NORMAL" USCG career path. <img src="/images/graemlins/tongue.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />