Updates

Hurricane Rita dramatically impacts Coast Guard Personnel

Date: Sept 21, 2005 Contact: Aux. Wayne Spivak Chief - External Communications Public Affairs Department United States Coast Guard Auxiliary http://www.auxpa.org 516-353-9155 Media@auxpa.org With the second major Hurricane in the Gulf of Mexico in less than three weeks, the Coast Guard family is bracing for another killer storm. The Coast Guard Family still has not heard from many of its members, be they Active Duty, Reserve, Civilian or Auxiliary. The Auxiliary still has many unaccounted personnel in its Baton Rouge - New Orleans - Waveland area. Many Coast Guard members who lived in the wake of Katrina have lost their homes, their neighbors, their livelihoods, and their memories, yet they turned around and reported for duty. Now with Hurricane Rita scheduled to make landfall sometime Saturday, Auxiliarists and other Coast Guard Family members are again faced with what looks like another insurmountable disaster. Both the Coast Guard and the Auxiliary will respond, again, as they have done ever since their beginnings. As America's Volunteer Lifesavers, members of the USCG Auxiliary donate to the Coast Guard and the American public the most precious commodity there is to give, second to their lives, and that is their time. As Vice Admiral Thomas Barrett, former Vice Commandant of the Coast Guard said, "Time in non-renewable". What makes Auxiliarists unique is that when they respond to a disaster such as these Hurricanes, they must negotiate with their employers since members of the Coast Guard Auxiliary are not covered by the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act (USERRA) as are National Guardsman and members of the Reserves. National Commodore Gene Seibert, in a letter to all Auxiliarists after Hurricane Katrina stated "Our Auxiliarists as well as the active duty, reserve and Coast Guard civilian employees within the area are dramatically impacted by their own personal devastation to their own homes and personal property. They are displaced and are in critical need of our assistance to help them sustain themselves and their families then begin the rebuilding of their lives." This will be true of Rita as well. To aid those members of the Coast Guard Auxiliary as well as other Coast Guard members, the USCG Auxiliary has setup Operation Life Ring (www.operationlifering.org). The United States Coast Guard Auxiliary is composed of uniformed, non-military volunteer's who assist the Coast Guard in all of its varied missions, except for military and direct law enforcement. These men and women can be found on the nation's waterways, in the air, in rooms and on the dock, performing Maritime Domain Awareness patrols, safety patrols, vessel safety checks and public education. The United States Coast Guard Auxiliary was founded in 1939 by an Act of Congress as the U.S. Coast Guard Reserve and re-designated as the Auxiliary in 1941. Its 30,000 members donate millions of hours annually in support of Coast Guard missions. For more information on the United States Coast Guard Auxiliary, visit us at www.cgaux.org.