Coast Guard Auxiliary

[Nacho_Eater]

For those who have worked alongside or have been a member of the Coast Guard Auxiliary, what can you tell me about them?

Do they have a meaningful mission? Are they respected by the active duty Coast Guard?

Thanks in advance for any info.

[RickD427]

Originally Posted by Nacho_Eater

For those who have worked alongside or have been a member of the Coast Guard Auxiliary, what can you tell me about them?

Do they have a meaningful mission? Are they respected by the active duty Coast Guard?

Thanks in advance for any info.

I did 24 years in the CG.

Like any volunteer organization, the Auxiliary has some minor issues (that work both ways), but on the balance it is a very solid organization that takes a load off of the regular CG and provides many services to the boating community that would not otherwise be available.

As the the "issues", they pretty much fall into two different categories:

1) Some members of the Auxiliary affiliate for the uniform and title. They generally draw more out of the organization than they contribute. They're small in numbers, and generally don't stay affiliated very long. The Auxiliary is a volunteer organization, but not everyone can volunteer to be a Commodore. On the other hand, a lot of retired CG members continue their service in the Auxiliary and bring a lot to the table.

2) On unfortunate aspect of the military organization is it's focus on rank and structure. At the junior end of the scale, that invites conduct where folks act to make themselves feel important by making others feel small. It's reality and people get over it with time, but I've seen many instances where junior CG members tend to look down on the Auxiliary. That also doesn't last long. I was working patrol boats when the CG was getting out of the "AAA" business, but many times the Auxiliary would relieve us of a "AAA" tow job so that we could move other to other higher priority work.

On balance, I would very highly recommend the Auxiliary to folks looking to serve, just understand that it's not perfect. But that leaves some room for you to improve it.

The CG has changed a lot since I was in. The Auxiliary performed two primary missions during my time. They operated a number of boats (some personally owned, and some were CG owned) and handled simple search and rescue cases (what we termed "AAA Calls") and they performed a lot of educational functions. The CG made a major effort to get out of the "AAA" business and I'm not sure how that has impacted the Auxiliary. When I started on patrol boats, a distressed mariner would call us on the radio and say "I've broken down offshore" and we'd go out and tow them in. Today, they make the same radio call and we ask what commercial service they'd like us to forward the request to.

[Nacho_Eater]

Originally Posted by RickD427

I did 24 years in the CG.

Like any volunteer organization, the Auxiliary has some minor issues (that work both ways), but on the balance it is a very solid organization that takes a load off of the regular CG and provides many services to the boating community that would not otherwise be available.

As the the "issues", they pretty much fall into two different categories:

1) Some members of the Auxiliary affiliate for the uniform and title. They generally draw more out of the organization than they contribute. They're small in numbers, and generally don't stay affiliated very long. The Auxiliary is a volunteer organization, but not everyone can volunteer to be a Commodore. On the other hand, a lot of retired CG members continue their service in the Auxiliary and bring a lot to the table.

2) On unfortunate aspect of the military organization is it's focus on rank and structure. At the junior end of the scale, that invites conduct where folks act to make themselves feel important by making others feel small. It's reality and people get over it with time, but I've seen many instances where junior CG members tend to look down on the Auxiliary. That also doesn't last long. I was working patrol boats when the CG was getting out of the "AAA" business, but many times the Auxiliary would relieve us of a "AAA" tow job so that we could move other to other higher priority work.

On balance, I would very highly recommend the Auxiliary to folks looking to serve, just understand that it's not perfect. But that leaves some room for you to improve it.

The CG has changed a lot since I was in. The Auxiliary performed two primary missions during my time. They operated a number of boats (some personally owned, and some were CG owned) and handled simple search and rescue cases (what we termed "AAA Calls") and they performed a lot of educational functions. The CG made a major effort to get out of the "AAA" business and I'm not sure how that has impacted the Auxiliary. When I started on patrol boats, a distressed mariner would call us on the radio and say "I've broken down offshore" and we'd go out and tow them in. Today, they make the same radio call and we ask what commercial service they'd like us to forward the request to.

Thanks, Rick. That's exactly the info I was looking for.

[Fingergunscootersquirrel.]

RickD summed it up, that’s how it was while I was in. They would do presentations for schools about boater safety, be the outermost layer of security for certain events, some aids to navigation duties and tow a vessel when it was necessary. I only got irritated with them when they would hang out in the galley until their food dried to the plates, it would take me longer to wash. I’d still render a salute to a couple of them though it wasn’t necessary.