Thank you to Duane Treadon for submitting this week’s article.
This past weekend Division One held its spring meeting at the National Naval Aviation Museum, Naval Air Station (NSA) Pensacola. Division Commander Mike Fitzgerald began the meeting by welcoming everyone and recognizing Coast Guard Operations and Training Officer Kevin Smith CWO-2 of the Director of Auxiliary Office, New Orleans for our District.
A lot of great information was passed on, including discussion on how best to improve boating safety. D-Capt East Doug Ritchie talked about the importance of the Vessel Safety Check program. He explained that this program can be thought of as preventative search and rescue mission. When Vessel Examiners interact with boaters they educate them about safe boating practices and ensure proper safety equipment is onboard the boat.
Another exciting announcement was that after several decades of not having an air asset, our Division now has one. Aux Air is the aviation program of the Auxiliary where members can offer the use of their airplane for safety patrol and search and rescue operations. The aircraft is based out of Panama City making it centrally located to respond across our Division.
Prior to the meeting closing OTO Smith giving an overview of updates to the surface operations program. Of local interest is the adoption of standardized drill sheets. These drills cover training in person-over-board, vessel fires, grounding, search patterns and towing to name a few. These drill sheets are set up to be a quick reference for crews when out on safety patrols to augment their time with training. When you are out and about boating on our great waters and see us you might see us training through one of these evolutions.
Fellowship followed the meeting where many enjoyed touring the impressive collection of airplanes housed within the museum’s two huge hanger-like buildings. There was even a special section dedicated to Coast Guard Aviation.
If you would like to learn more about vessel safety checks, please contact Steve Hults, Staff Officer for Vessel Examinations at steve.hults@uscgaux.net.
Please contact us for more information about our safe boating classes or learning more about getting involved in the Auxiliary, check out our website at www.uscgaux.net follow us on FaceBook @ Apalachee Bay Flotilla 12 or contact our Flotilla Commander Phil Hill at pnkkhill2000@yahoo.com.
The Coast Guard Auxiliary is the uniformed civilian volunteer component of the U.S. Coast Guard and supports the Coast Guard in nearly all mission areas. The Auxiliary was created by Congress in 1939. For more information, please visit www.cgaux.org.
