Cape May County Community,
This year, as we celebrate the re-designation of Cape May County as a “Coast Guard Community,” I wanted to take a moment to reflect on the relationship between Cape May County and the Coast Guard.
We share a deep-rooted connection with more than 100 years of history built on trust and sustained by an invaluable sense of community. It has been my personal mission to proclaim emphatically that Cape May County is the Coast Guard’s hometown! This could not be said without the dedication every one of you has shown in ensuring that the men and women who serve here feel like family. All of you have embraced our service and supported our members through a myriad of individual and organizational outreach efforts that offered not only kind words, but also kind actions.
Whether it is thanking our newest recruits for their service as you see them on their first off-base liberty, lining the streets after graduations wishing graduates well, organizing events to assist our members in uncertain financial times, or opening your homes and hearts during the holidays annually to more than 300 recruits for Operation Fireside, it is no wonder that Cape May County earned its designation as a Coast Guard Community again! It is also why those who serve here feel that we aren’t just the Coast Guard, but your Coast Guard.
With more than 80% of our entire workforce receiving their initial training here, Cape May County is significant to our service’s cultural identity. This is where they learn to live by our core values of Honor, Respect, and Devotion to Duty. They are reborn as Coast Guardsmen here and will forever hold Cape May as the place where their careers began. It is for this reason that we are forever tied to this community in service and in spirit.
While the designation as a Coast Guard Community is emblematic of our past relationship, it stems from and is sustained through a pattern of mutual support and engagement. Every five years, our partnership undergoes external scrutiny to ensure it is indeed a vibrant relationship worthy of its moniker. As our community looks at accomplishments already in our wake and toward the horizon of planned engagement, I expect we will be astounded to see the full depth and breadth of the impacts we have experienced together. Further, I expect our relationship will continue to grow as we all work to recover from the COVID pandemic. As a community, in good times and bad, we are in it together as the Cape May County family.
Thank you for your unwavering support and for taking pride in the community’s achievement of becoming a Coast Guard Community. This is an opportunity to show to the nation both the pride we have in calling Cape May County home, and the continued dedication to our service that only the citizens of South Jersey can claim.
Semper Paratus,
Captain Kathy Felger
Commanding Officer
Coast Guard Training Center Cape May
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