Press Release
Auxiliarist Wayne Spivak
Public Affairs Officer
United States Coast Guard Auxiliary
Cell: 516-353-9155
E-mail: WSpivak@sbanetweb.com
January 17, 2010
United States Coast Guard Auxiliary activates its Force Multiplication Aspect in
Response to the Haitian Earthquake
One in a Series on America’s Volunteer Guardians
New York - Within hours of the tragic Haitian earthquake, the United States Coast Guard Auxiliary stepped up its tempo as a force multiplier for the Coast Guard.
For the last 70 years the Coast Guard Auxiliary has assisted the Coast Guard in nearly all of its missions. In times of national or regional crisis, the Auxiliary has stepped in to assist with logistical and administrative tasks as well as with operations assisting the US Coast Guard and the public.
As in Hurricane Katrina, the Auxiliary is manning such posts in Public Affairs, Logistics, Aviation, Small Boat Crews, Communications, Chefs, Carpenters, Motor Vehicle Drivers, and all sorts of Administrative assignments. These volunteers enable their Active Duty and Reserve counterparts to focus in on the other aspects of the mission, where their training and conditioning made them the more appropriate element of Team Coast Guard.
The Haitian humanitarian response is no different. Immediately the Auxiliary Public Affairs Department and the Interpreter Corps stepped up to the plate to offer backfill and front line assistance to the Coast Guard.
Trained Public Affairs members of the Coast Guard Auxiliary have reported to Coast Guard District Seven, Miami to be part of the Joint Information Center. Other Auxiliary members have reported to their District or Regional Coast Guard Public Affairs office to assist, as their Active Duty counter-parts are temporarily transferred to other duties.
Members of the US Coast Guard Auxiliary’s International Affairs and Interpreter Corps have offered their services for up to three weeks to be part of the Coast Guard contingent on the ground in Haiti. Their skills in translating both verbally and in writing will be used to interface between our English speaking military forces and the Haitian Creole and French speaking Haitians. These same Auxiliarists have served in multiple roles in the US Africa Command training mission and Coast Guard international humanitarian and diplomatic missions throughout the world as well as providing translation services during medical evacuations of multi-national personnel off ships at sea.
This is the first in a series of press releases focused on both individual Auxiliarists and the wide-ranging missions America’s Volunteer Guardians undertake every day to help protect and serve not only the American public but the world at large.
The U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary is the uniformed volunteer component of the United States Coast Guard created by an Act of Congress in 1939. The 30,000 volunteer members (men and women), America’s Volunteer Guardians, support the Coast Guard in nearly all of the service's missions.
AuxGuidanceSkills.Info is geared to providing "Public Service Articles in the pursuit of Recreational Boating Safety" to that end, we will continue to add to our series on Help Wanted, Homeland Security, Public Education, Public Service, Vessel Safety and Environmental Issues, though the use of 'case studies', as our teaching tool of choice. In addition, our Leadership series offers those within the Coast Guard family, as well as outside, an insight into values that will improve their leadership skills.