Coast Guard
Auxiliary District Nine, Eastern Region, Division Three, located in
western New York state, has an area of responsibility (AOR) encompassing
eastern Lake Erie from the Pennsylvania border to Niagara Falls, and
Lake Ontario from Niagara Falls halfway to Rochester. This AOR includes
Niagara and Buffalo Rivers, the terminus of the Erie Canal, and several
minor bodies of water. Division Three personnel routinely facilitate
public safety classes, perform courtesy vessel safety checks (VSCs),
visit marine dealers, perform safety patrols afloat and ashore, augment
active duty personnel where needed, and other missions as directed
by the Commandant of the U.S. Coast Guard.
ABOUT
THE COAST GUARD
The Coast
Guard is an armed maritime service with military, law enforcement,
marine environmental protection, preventative safety and search-and-rescue
(SAR) missions. In an average day, the Coast Guard conducts 109 SAR
cases, saves 10 lives, assists 192 people in distress, protects $2.8
million in property, conducts 396 small boat patrols and 164 aircraft
flights, boards 144 vessels and seizes 169 pounds of marijuana and
306 pounds of cocaine worth $9.6 million, interdicts 14 illegal immigrants,
processes 238 merchant mariner licenses and documents, boards 100
large vessels for port safety checks, responds to 20 oil or hazardous
chemical spills totalling 2,800 gallons, services 135 buoys and other
aids to navigation, safely conducts 2,509 vessels in and out of major
ports, and its icebreakers assist 197,000 tons of shipping. Yet, interestingly
enough, the Coast Guard maintains the same personnel levels as it
did in 1967 and is smaller the New York City police department.
Formed
as the Revenue Cutter Service in 1790 by Alexander Hamilton to collect
taxes and deter piracy, the Coast Guard is the oldest armed, uniformed
service in continual operation since 1790. (The Army, Navy and Marines
were disbanded after the War for Independence and only later formed
again; the Air Force was created in 1947.) In 1915, the federal lighthouse
and lifesaving services were merged with the Revenue Cutter Service
and renamed the Coast Guard. The
Coast Guard was nominally under the administration of the Department
of the Treasury (except during times of war, when it was under the
Navy Department) until the 1960s, when it was transferred to the authority
of the Department of Transportation. In March, 2003, the Coast Guard
was transferred to the Department of Homeland Security.
ABOUT
THE COAST GUARD AUXILIARY
Formed
in 1939 as the Coast Guard Reserve, the Coast Guard Auxiliary was
given its present name after the outbreak of World War II necessitated
the formation of a military reserve. The Auxiliary is comprised of
some 27,000 uniformed, civilian volunteers — veterans, professionals
and spirited citizens — who serve side-by-side with active and
reserve duty personnel, assisting the Coast Guard in every mission
area except direct military action and law enforcement, as directed
by the Commandant of the Coast Guard. In an average day, Auxiliarists
save one life, assist 56 people in distress, save $719,000 in property,
educate 936 people about boating safety, perform 615 VSCs, conduct
19 SAR missions, complete 100 safety patrols afloat, and participate
in 120 operational support missions for the Coast Guard. Dubbed “America’s
Volunteer Lifesavers,” they comprise about one-third of the
Coast Guard's total manpower.
