United States Coast Guard Auxiliary 7th District Breeze - USCGAUX ...

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4 U. S. Coast Guard Auxiliary District 7 Breeze From the Bridge Commodore Donald Frasch Immediate Past District Commodore Deputy Naonal Commodore–Recreaonal Boang Safety I’d like to spend a few minutes updating you on some of the significant accomplishments that came out of N-Train this year. Although St. Louis in January isn’t exactly what I’d consider a prime venue for any event, it was sunny and 40 degrees on Monday morning. That inspired my fellow Deputy National Commodore from the Pacific area, COMO Marie Scholle, to take advantage of the perceived “heat wave” by sitting outside, soaking up the warm noon sun in a short sleeve top and light slacks. Of course, COMO Scholle is from Fairbanks, Alaska, where it was -35 degrees when she left for St. Louis. The teasing was endless! Regardless of the weather, the Recreational Boating Safety Board can look back on a couple of significant accomplishments. First, the National Board voted to approve a new Program Visitor Ribbon (PV) for our members who participate in that program. The present ribbon for a PV member consists of a Vessel Examiner (VE) ribbon with a gold star attached. The original belief was that one must first be a VE to become qualified as a PV, which is simply not the case. In fact, a PV must understand all of our Recreational Boating Safety (RBS) programs and activities to effectively guide Marine Dealers in delivering the right boating safety messages to the boating public. Creating a new “identity” for the PV program should encourage more members to participate in this critical part of our overall RBS effort. How about you Secondly, the Board voted to separate State Liaison and Legislative Liaison officers into two distinct groups. The Legislative Liaison people will focus completely on what is happening in State Legislatures related to boating safety and will pass that information both up through their Parallel Staffing Chain and directly to the District Commodores and State Liaison officers. The Parallel Staffing chain will now work through the Department of the Chief Counsel and his team. Selection for the legislative position will be made by the Chief Counsel, the District Commodore and the Director of Auxiliary. A strong legal background, with the ability to understand fully the legislative process and language will be a requirement for the position. This action should insure that the Auxiliary knows the direction of boating safety legislation being considered by all states and that this information gets to the appropriate Active Duty leadership. State Liaison Officers (SLO) will now focus on the Boating Law Administrators (BLA) of each state. When anyone asks me what is the expectation for the State Liaison Officer position, I respond that the SLOs best friend should be their state’s BLA. The BLA is the one responsible for implementing a state’s boating safety laws and programs. These administrators are clearly vital to the success of our RBS activities. We can not afford to have anything other than a dedicated and focused partnership effort with the BLAs if we intend to save lives. An additional benefit of this new direction is to improve our partnerships with each Coast Guard District’s “Boating Safety Specialists” (BSS). Each CG District has only one BSS, who is also responsible for working with the District’s BLAs. We can help these BSSs in their efforts. As a case in point, District Eight includes twenty five (25) states in its Area of Responsibility (AOR) — an area in the center of the county that extends from the Gulf of Mexico to the Canadian border. Although vacant for several months, the BSS position was just filled this week, and our SLOs will significantly help the new BSS as he develops his working relationships with the BLAs. In this case, we can “bring the Coast Guard” to the BLAs. By developing effective relationships with the Coast Guard and the states and working together as a team, we should be able to have the best possible Recreational Boating Safety activities. From even this one example, I hope you can see the importance of what we are doing and the advantage of even seemingly minor changes. We absolutely must look for every way possible to achieve Mission Excellence in our primary mission – better Recreational Boating Safety. Would you like to help Semper Paratus Ω
Volume LVIII Issue 1 Spring 2012 5 Around District 7 FORT MYERS, Fla.─89 year old Dorothy Kurtz, one of the first women enlisted in the Coast Guard SPARs during WWII, swaps stories with 97 year old Marty Rowe, a Coast Guard Temporary Reservist, who served on bulk carrier ships in the Great Lakes during the same war. Kurtz and Rowe are among the early interviewees for a project, Oral History Interviews, being conducted by the Coast Guard Auxiliary Naonal History Department under the leadership of Dr. Richard Stephenson. Their videotaped stories will become part of the vast history of Coast Guardsmen who served their country during the past 70 years. Photograph: Constance O. Irvin, District Staff Officer-Public Affairs, D7 TAMPA, Fla.— The Bonny Sea is ed off at th e dock in front of Sector St. Pe tersbu rg’s Preve n on Department in Tampa on Jan. 28 during the Gaspara illa Pir ate Invasion. On the Bonny Sea are Raymond Paysour, coxswain, Harryr Kam beris an d Dick Petrucci, trainees; and crewm em be rs William Beckee and Braxton Ezell, l, all from Flo olla 81, and Tom Johnson and Fred Kermode from Flo lla 85. Next to the Bonnie Sea is Miss Marla fro rom Fl ollala 72, the Auxiliary Patrol Command ves esse se l for the event with coxswain Rick Short and cre rewm embe rs Nathaniel Hall from Flollala 72, and Cli liffor d Ma r n and Tim Teahan from Flolla 79. A Coa oast Gua uard Resp onse Boat is ed off besi de the hem. Pho to by Fred Kermode. Backg kgro roun d im age by Geo rge Papabeis, Flolla 74
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