|
|
|
By the middle of 1944 the Coast Guard was making plans for its postwar operations. Where the Reserve and the Auxiliary would fit in them no one was quite sure. The 1939 legislation had made it clear that Congress wanted a peacetime civilian Coast Guard Reserve. During the last months of the war Auxiliarists in various districts held meetings to define how that organization should work. The war had changed the character of the Auxiliary. It had been conceived as an boaters organization; during the war the Coast Guard had used it as a means of recruiting and training temporary members of the Reserve. Virtually anybody who wanted to be a TR and could commit the time was welcomed. Many TRs did not own boats and, understandably, took little interest in the old Coast Guard Reserves peacetime activities. One subject of argument was the institutions name. The 1939 law had called it simply the U.S. Coast Guard Reserve. That title, however, had been usurped by the military regular reserve that had been created in 1941. When the Coast Guard got funding to retain a small military reserve after the war, the civilian institution was left with the label Coast Guard Auxiliary. That development generated some grumbling; as the minutes of one postwar planning meeting put it, the present name is too closely allied with womens organizations which are adjunct to military or church groups. But nobody came up with a better one. In December, 1945, just before ADM Waesche retired, he appointed a board of senior Coast Guard captains to determine policy with respect to members of the Coast Guard Auxiliary performing Coast Guard duties. The board stridently reaffirmed the need for a peacetime Auxiliary. Among its functions, as identified by the board, were: (a) To provide orderly and efficient means for bringing to the attention of the Coast Guard recommendations for improvement in matters of maritime safety for which the Coast Guard is responsible. (b) To provide continuous liaison between the Coast Guard and small craft interests. (c) To provide means for the prompt and efficient mobilization of volunteer resources in case of local casualties. (d) To provide nucleus for assistance in mobilization of personnel and small craft resources in case of National Emergency. (e) To encourage universal safe and courteous operation of vessels by precept and example of members of the Auxiliary and to assist in dissemination of safe marine practices. On March 19, 1946, the District Commodores and Directors of the Auxiliary held a three-day conference at Coast Guard Headquarters in Washington. This meeting of Auxiliarists and regular Coast Guard officers produced a blueprint for a streamlined Auxiliary that would function as a civilian arm of the peacetime Coast Guard. Each Auxiliarist would be required to own at least a twenty-five percent interest in a boat, airplane, or amateur radio station, or by reason of...special training or experience be deemed by the Commandant to be qualified for membership in the Auxiliary. Inactive members would be encouraged to disenroll. As a 9th District Coast Guard publication put it, a smaller number of strong flotillas is better than many weak ones. Get rid of the deadwood. Lets have a well-knit organization of active members - no matter how small. If we are strong and healthy, we will grow. By mid-1947 Auxiliary membership had shrunk to 24,273. An official publication entitled Instructions: U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary (the predecessor to the current U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary Manual) laid out the new regulations for Auxiliary membership and organization. Auxiliary boards were set up to assist the district commodores and division captains. One ever-present bone of contention concerned rank designations. On several occasions Auxiliary units had suggested that they needed a system of ranks and ratings like the Coast Guards, with corresponding uniforms and insignia. Coast Guard Headquarters had vetoed the idea, insisting that, to clearly indicate the non-military status of the Auxiliary, [its] uniform...shall be sufficiently distinctive so as not to be confused with the uniform of the Coast Guard and the Coast Guard Reserve. The Coast Guard and the Auxiliary worked out a compromise. The Auxiliary would offer two lines of advancement. In the first, labeled Navigation, the Auxiliarist could progress by passing examinations through the ratings of Navigator, Senior Navigator, and Master Navigator. The second advancement system, designated Service Specialties, offered training in five branches: Seaman (Boatswains Mate, Coxswain); Artificer - Radio; Artificer - Engine Room Force; Aviation (Pilot and Machinists Mate); and Special Branch (Yeoman, Storekeeper, and Pharmacists Mate). Auxiliarists who passed the appropriate examinations would be rated as chief, first class, second class, and third class petty officers. The uniforms of the postwar Coast Guard Auxiliary were similar to those of regular Coast Guard officers, with distinctive Auxiliary buttons and insignia. A sleeve badge similar to that of Coast Guard enlisted personnel, minus the eagle, indicated each members grade in specialty. Airplanes joined the Auxiliary informally during the Second World War. The first official mention of a Coast Guard Auxiliary pilot dates from 1943. Public Law 451, passed by the Congress in September, 1945, added owners of aircraft and radio stations to the list of those eligible for membership in the Auxiliary. Auxiliary aviators were particularly welcome in the late forties. The Coast Guard, fully aware of the value of aircraft in its search and rescue missions, had lost most of its regular aviation component to postwar cutbacks. By 1950 several Auxiliary Districts had air flotillas. Pilots from the 11th District, operating out of Vail Field in Los Angeles, flew SAR patrols over the mountains and deserts of southern California. The 14th District formed two air divisions in Hawaii, where the Coast Guards air strength consisted of two obsolescent planes. In 1947 two of what would be the four cornerstones of the modern Auxiliary were established: vessel examination and education. The Courtesy Motorboat Examination (now known as the Courtesy Marine Examination) program quickly became one of the Auxiliarys most important assignments. The Coast Guard published a booklet of safety standards and regulations, and gave the Auxiliary the authority to train its own members as inspectors. The recreational boating community accepted the concept with enthusiasm. In May, 1947 the Auxiliary issued more than a thousand CME decals in the Miami area alone. The Public Education (PE) program got under way in January, 1948, when Auxiliarists offered a series of free courses at the annual Motorboat Show in New York Citys Grand Central Palace. The boating public responded enthusiastically. June 23, 1949, the organizations tenth anniversary, was declared Coast Guard Auxiliary Day in New York. |
加入最爱