Coast Guard Recruit Training Center’s Worth to Area is Monetary, Social

CAPE MAY – On an April 2015 day, yet to be announced, a federal document will pass between officials to designate Cape May County as a “Coast Guard Community.” The designation as “Coast Guard City” is held by 13 cities in the nation. Thus, such a designation would be cherished by county officials and businesses, as well as the public at large.
Unique in the nation, Cape May County hosts the sea service’s only recruit training center. That, in itself is special, but the 171-page document, filed in support of the county’s application for the designation, repeatedly reinforces a close bond between the Coast Guard and the county community at large. Thus, for reasons economic and social, according to the county that special title will make the bond even stronger.
The long-awaited act has been the focus of many meetings, several hundred letters and congressional action. Many hands have thus far been a part of that designation, among them elected officials of every county municipality, schools, business organizations and private citizens. The last to touch the application before submission to Coast Guard headquarters and there to Congress was Coast Guard Commandant Robert Papp, now retired, when he visited Cape May and the training center May 23. At the time, Papp reassured officials from various levels of government, there would be “no problem” with Cape May County securing the designation.
The odyssey toward the designation began for Freeholder Will Morey, director of Planning and Economic Development, shortly after he assumed office in January 2012. Capt. William Kelly was commanding officer of the training center. Morey was interested in learning what the center meant to the county, what was done there training recruits and other activities, such as vessels homeported in Cape May. All of those related to the local economy to some degree.
One of the first economic facts Morey learned was that the base brings over $150 million annually to the county. When the service’s social impact was explained, “It was gigantic as well, from the Coast Guard men and women living here, and those who want to retire here,” Morey said. It became evident that link was even more valuable than the monetary one: unnamed citizens bought dinners for recruits on liberty; the county provides transportation to Rio Grande during recruits’ Saturdays of liberty; many families host recruits at Thanksgiving and Christmas through the American Red Cross’ Operation Fireside.
Economics first, the center directly employs an estimated 860, (700 military and 160 civilian) personnel. When $8 million in wages of the approximately 300 recruits is added, wages total about $48 million annually, according to “Economic Impact of the U.S. Coast Guard Training Center at Cape May, N.J.” done by the Center for Regional and Business Research at Atlantic Cape Community College by Dr. Richard Perniciaro.
At any given time in the year, about 300 recruits are in training. All enlisted men and women start their Coast Guard careers at the center with seven and a half weeks of training. Add to that tally 150 year-round contractors and other “non-appropriated fund” employees, and $18 million in capital projects extending over about two years, and the economic impact increases.
On graduation day, families and friends from throughout the nation converge to watch their special person become a full-fledged service member and receive their first duty assignment. Those visitors total an estimated 41,000, according to the Perniciaro’s report. Many of those families stay locally prior to graduation to be present for the Friday morning ceremony. While in the area it is estimated they will spend an average $763 per visit per party of 2.4 people. That equates to $13.1 million annually.
“The resulting economic impacts indicate that the center is a very large contributor to the economy of the region, here defined as Cape May County. Direct spending by the center will total approximately $85 million in 2013. This spending will cause a secondary impact of an additional $88.5 million as vendors, staff, construction workers, and recruits in turn spend the dollars they receive from the center,” the report states. Total impact of economic activity from the center was placed at $173 million, ($84.5 million direct impact, $88.5 million indirect impact); wages, $78 million ($48 million direct, $30 million indirect); employment total 1,272 (860 direct, 412, indirect). The latter, regarding employment, “Provides stability to the local economy, especially in the off-season months,” the report states.
It also reported that “The non-recruit workforce earns an average of over $70,000 per year, well in excess of the average earnings in the county.”
“Although the Coast Guard base is relatively well known in Cape May County, it’s surprising to me there is not more awareness of the size and significance of that base in New Jersey, from a national perspective,” Morey said in a telephone interview Sept. 12.
Eighty percent of Coast Guard personnel go through Cape May at some point in their careers, Morey noted. “In some respects it (the base) was similar in many ways to the Naval Academy (Annapolis, Md.) We have a really strong connection. I think that is important.”
The actual Coast Guard Community designation was passed by Coast Guard senior leaders, Morey said. From there, the application went to Congress, which has the ability to question or possibly require further information.
Should the application be acted upon favorably, Cape May County would be “only the second community to receive the Coast Guard Community designation,” said Morey. Coast Guard Cities, granted under a 1998 law, include: Grand Haven, Mich., Eureka, Calif., Mobile, Ala., Wilmington, N.C., Newport, Ore., Alameda, Calif., Kodiak, Alaska, Rockland, Maine, Portsmouth, Va., Traverse City, Mich., Sitka, Alaska, Astoria, Ore. and Clearwater, Fla. (pending).
Morey said coordination of the day of the formal proclamation is being done in cooperation with service officials and “at their convenience.” One possibility, he added, would be when the 210-foot Cutter Dependable departs for its new Virginia homeport, the ceremony would be an appropriate manner in which to bid farewell to crew and their families. Three, 150-foot fast response vessels will ultimately be assigned to homeport in Cape May. They will assume some of the duties performed by the larger, older cutters.
Crew members and their families, although fewer than larger vessels, will reside in Cape May County.
Morey traveled to Grand Haven, Mich. to get an understanding of what such a celebration is in a designated city. He found the summer festival designed as an important remembrance, “to recognize and celebrate the community’s relation and service of the Coast Guard.”
One of the key remembrances of that city’s festival is to memorialize the crew of USCGC Escanaba (WPG-77), the first cutter stationed at that Great Lakes station. Townspeople were devastated June 13, 1943 when Escanaba was torpedoed by a German U-boat while escorting a convoy across the Atlantic. It quickly sank taking 101 crewmen to a watery grave, only two survived. The following year the town raised $1 million in war bonds to replace that vessel.
Morey said a memorial service is also held for Coast Guard members who may have lost their lives in the previous year. Aside from the solemnities, Morey also saw the festive mood of fireworks, food courts and station and ship tours. He hopes the same might take place in Cape May.
Raising public awareness of the Training Center Cape May’s missions, Morey said officials are exploring possible ways to get the public through its guarded gate to help them “get a sense of appreciation.” He envisions, perhaps a two-day event that would include a ship and facility tour as well as a helicopter demonstration. That way, more residents and visitors could become acquainted with the work done by service members.
In addition, Morey noted such events would be educational for the entire family with, perhaps, a recruit parade or graduation ceremony. One of those he attended, he termed, “like walking into a Norman Rockwell painting. It doesn’t get any purer than that.” That’s because he witnessed many “heartwarming scenes” at the ceremony he attended. Families were there to support their new graduate, even a proposal for marriage was made following the event, he said.
“Capt. Todd Prestidge (current commanding officer) has been fantastic to work with and he is excited with the countywide relations. It’s a big effort to work collaboratively with the county and all the communities,” he said. Prestidge was a featured speaker at the county’s Sept. 11 Patriot’s Day ceremony. He was joined by the center’s ceremonial detail. That detail has annually joined those ceremonies. The service joins many county functions, including Veterans and Memorial Day ceremonies as well as many municipal parades and other events.
Morey cited some ways in which the county supports the service. When threatening storms target the county, the county allows the service to store small boats and other vulnerable equipment at the county airport in Erma. He noted the county’s Fare Free Transportation provides rides for recruits on Saturday mornings when they are on-liberty and near-graduation, to Rio Grande and to Cape May’s business district to spend their day off.
“One example was our 9-11 ceremony,” said Morey. “The Coast Guard was a prominent part of that. It clearly made that event all the more valuable and worthwhile given the Coast Guard’s role in homeland security.”
Local fire departments also benefit from mutual aid agreements with the Training Center’s Air Force-trained firefighting crew.
“To me, I am privileged to have them here. Through this designation, it will help residents, businesses and visitors to understand the special, important work they do and the relationship we have here,” Morey said.
Vicki Clark, president of the 850-member Cape May County Chamber of Commerce, in a Sept. 5, 2013 letter of support wrote, “Many of our member businesses employ spouses and teenage children of Coast Guard personnel. Our Realtor members often handle the purchase or renting of homes for Coast Guard families, who do not live on base, and our local banks open accounts as new personnel and families move to the area. TRACEN’s footprint and impact is wide-spread throughout the region, and the region’s businesses have welcomed TRACEN families as customers, clients and, most importantly, neighbors.”
County Engineer Dale Foster, wrote as a private citizen, and noted the importance Operation Fireside has for his family on Thanksgiving. “We have met remarkable young men and women from all parts of the country. It is heartwarming to experience how truly appreciative they are for the opportunity to share the holiday with us. Most of the recruits are young adults who, for the first time, are away from their own families during the holidays.”
From Rev. Dr. Jeffrey W. Elliott, pastor, Cape May Lutheran Church, “As a Navy Reserve Chaplain and later as a civilian pastor at Cape May Lutheran Church, I have been privileged to support the Coast Guard community on many occasions and in many ways. As I reviewed my files, I discovered that my first prayer at a retirement ceremony was for CWO2 Guy D. Garner back in 1996. Since that time I have been privileged to conduct Protestant worship services on many occasions, offer prayers at many graduation ceremonies, visit hundreds of seaman recruits in weekly squad bay visits, teach classes in basic indoctrination, suicide prevention, and being ‘married in the military…TRACEN is vital to the life of our Cape May County community.”
Also supporting the county’s designation were two retired Coast Guard rear admirals, both Woodbine natives, David E. Ciancaglini and Fred Golove. Each wrote letters describing the closeness of the community with the Coast Guard, having themselves been raised to the service’s upper echelon.
The Borough of Woodbine, too, benefits from the Coast Guard, since it hosts the service’s Uniform Distribution Center. That sprawling facility, located in the heart of the borough, is responsible for supplying uniform clothing for all the service’s members.