Auxiliary Augments Coast Guard for 75 Years

CAPE MAY – When a Coast Guard recruit needs to see a doctor off base, who you gonna call? The Coast Guard Auxiliary. 
If someone needs to answer the emergency channel at the small boat station, who you gonna call? The Coast Guard Auxiliary.
If you need to prepare 200 dinners and breakfasts ahead of recruit graduation or provide tours to thousands of visitors annually, who you gonna call? The Auxiliary, that’s who.
Without their help, Cape May’s Coast Guard Training Center team would still operate its mission-critical operations, but some things, like the tour program, might not be as “robust” as it is today run by the Auxiliary.
Cape May’s Flotilla 82, Lower Township’s Flotilla 86 and Wildwood’s Flotilla 83 support Cape May’s Coast Guard Training Center staff, taking advantage of their geographic proximity to the training center in providing services in any of 13 mission areas.
According to Cape May Flotilla Commander James Carey, it’s a chance to “give back and serve their nation,” especially if they are among the 60 percent of members who never served in the military.
As a retired Pennsylvania police officer, Carey worked on-base as a security officer when he learned about the Auxiliary. It is a civilian group authorized by Congress in 1939 to promote safety on and over the high seas and the nation’s navigable waters, augmenting the Coast Guard.
Their value is priceless: When the nation entered World War II, for example, 50,000 Auxiliary members joined the war effort as military teams. Many of their private vessels were placed into service in an effort to protect the nation.
“The local auxiliary is a valuable resource to the training center,” said Chief Warrant Officer John Edwards, external affairs officer for the training center.
“While our core mission of training recruits could continue to operate in their absence, our community relations program would certainly be impacted. The entirety of our tour program, for example, is reliant upon their help and support. They help us in creating a valuable first impression for the more than 40,000 people who visit our unit annually.”
At 187 members, Cape May’s auxiliary is one of the largest in the nation, Carey said. Nationwide, there are about 27,000 members in 825 local units. Many summer residents are part of the Auxiliary locally, and at their home, he said.
“We have 13 missions on base,” Carey noted, explaining they do everything from stocking shelves at the base’s store, to training recruits, patrolling the harbor and helping in search-and-rescue efforts.
Celebrating its 75th anniversary in 2018, Carey said the Cape May unit had recorded more than 13,200 volunteer hours the past year.
Across the region, 2,600 Auxiliary members from New Jersey, Delaware and Pennsylvania have provided 300,000 volunteer hours communicating from 200 radio facilities, using 200 of their own small boats and 15 of their own aircraft to augment 29 Coast Guard units.
Anyone 17 years and older who clears a background check and can perform the duties may join the Auxiliary, according to Carey. “Our oldest member is 89,” he noted.
A day of training is required within the first 90 days of joining for initial qualification. More specific training is extra.
As members, tasks can vary. For example, Auxiliary member Don Dopson volunteers as a lifeguard at the pool four mornings a week; member John Burns and his team augment the in-port-officer-of-the-day who are in charge of the cutters; members Walt Niwinski and Tony Kupstafs teach seamanship to recruits about seven hours per week.
Kupstas also does about 40 tours to graduate families and the community a year.
Flotilla 86 Commander Louis Hahn teaches boat crew principles to recruits four hours each week.
“The local auxiliary is an integral part of the training center’s mission success,” said Capt. Owen Gibbons, commanding officer of Training Center Cape May. “Their members assist our training center in many ways, ranging from instructing our recruits in seamanship to acting as tour guides for the thousands of people that visit our training center annually.
“Their time and efforts not only benefit the training center but the entire service’s overall ability to save lives through education. The work they do here in southern New Jersey truly showcases how the Coast Guard Auxiliary is the best volunteer group in the nation.”
Another contribution is the Auxiliary’s preparation of two meals for families of the recruits when they arrive for graduation.
According to Nelson Brown, who coordinates this effort, his team includes a couple who are 81 and 84-years-old.
“Families come from all over the country for this joyous occasion,” Brown added about the event that takes place about 50 times a year.
For the Dec. 8 graduation, 125 people were served pasta, meatballs and salad within an hour the night before their recruit family members graduated.
That same group grew to 225 in the morning to enjoy a breakfast of pancakes, eggs, bacon, sausage, hash browns, fruit, orange juice, coffee and hot water for tea or hot chocolate.
“We’ve been preparing the meals like this for about three years,” Brown explained, noting in the past families were left to their own devices to find a restaurant open nearby.
“For dinner Thursday night, we prepare all the food, but it’s pre-made. For breakfast on Friday morning, it’s different. We are there around 6 a.m. to start cooking so we are ready to serve by 8:30.”
To feed typical recruit-family crowds breakfast, Brown said about 10 volunteers are serving and cooking about 24 quarts of liquid eggs, making 200 pancakes, baking 700-800 strips of bacon and pouring 180 seven-ounce glasses of orange juice.
The group also handles special events for the commanding officer.
Brown has been involved with the Auxiliary for about eight years, enjoying the opportunity to help, share in the stories and meet people from all over, while providing a service he knows the Coast Guard staff appreciates.
“Volunteering for the Auxiliary has been more than I expected,” added Carey. “It’s a chance to help our Coast Guard while serving our nation. While I’ve been volunteering since I was a kid, this is a real chance to give back that I enjoy, as well as being appreciated.”
To contact Karen Knight, email kknight@cmcherald.com.