Auxiliarist saves lives while working with his Hospital in Haiti
By Aux. Wayne Spivak
Public Affairs Officer
First Coast Guard District Southern Region
United States Coast Guard Auxiliary
Photos: All photos courtesy of NUMC. Click for Hi-Res
Bellmore, NY – Auxiliarist Ron Tomo of the Point Lookout, New York Flotilla is a unique individual. By day, Tomo serves as Chief Information Officer for the Nassau University Medical Center (NUMC), a level-I Trauma Center located in East Meadow, New York; by night he is a Ham Radio Operator, a member of MARS and an Auxiliarist.
He just recently returned from a week-long stay in Haiti where a trauma team from NUMC worked at a field hospital treating over 300 patients per day. Tomo, a radio communications expert, set up an Army volunteer radio station and a VHF radio network. These
systems allow medical groups to communicate, using the Army radio system to send e-mail and voice communications back to the States.
From January 30th to February 6th, Tomo and the 5 member team from NUMC including two Emergency Room Trauma Specialists (including the NUMC ER Medical Director), and a Telemetry and Emergency Nurse who was Haitian and spoke both Creole and French. The field hospital located in Bojeaux Parc provided a wide range of medical care including basic surgery, and emergency medical care. When Tomo was not handling communications, he provided an extra hand during medical procedures; holding lights, getting supplies and moving patients.
Tomo has served as the Deputy New York State Director for the United States Army Military Affiliate Radio System (MARS), a United States Department of Defense sponsored program. MARS is a civilian auxiliary consisting primarily of licensed amateur radio operators who are interested in assisting the military with communications. MARS has a long history of providing worldwide auxiliary emergency communications during times of need.
Tomo stated, “This has been a life changing experience for me. I was able to take over 40 years of training, practice and experiences and put them to the uses envisioned when the Federal Communications Commission and its predecessors created the Amateur Radio bands.”
Tomo used his communication skills to arrange Medevacs of high risk patients to other medical units with the ability and medical equipment to provide life saving skills that his unit did not have.
In the Auxiliary, Tomo serves as 
the communications officer at the Division level. His past offices have included Flotilla Commander and Division Chief for Retention for the Auxiliary Human Resources Department. In addition, Tomo is credited with teaching multiple Coast Guard Auxiliary communications courses and adding material so Auxiliary members taking the course can successfully pass the FCC Ham Radio Technician Licensing exam, given at the conclusion of his courses.
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.
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