Coast Guard
Auxiliary District Five, Northern Region,
Division One, located in northern Delaware,
has an area of responsibility (AOR)
encompassing the Delaware River from Marcus
Hook, PA, to Indian River, DE.
This AOR includes parts of the Delaware River
and Bay, the eastern portion of the
Chesapeake-Delaware Canal, and several minor
bodies of water.
Division One personnel routinely facilitate
public safety classes, perform courtesy
vessel safety checks (VSCs), visit marine
dealers, perform safety patrols afloat and
ashore, augment active duty personnel where
needed, and other missions as directed by the
Commandant of the U.S. Coast Guard.
ABOUT
THE COAST GUARD
The Coast Guard
is an armed maritime service with military,
law enforcement, marine environmental
protection, preventative safety and
search-and-rescue (SAR) missions. In an
average day, the Coast Guard conducts 109 SAR
cases, saves 10 lives, assists 192 people in
distress, protects $2.8 million in property,
conducts 396 small boat patrols and 164
aircraft flights, boards 144 vessels and
seizes 169 pounds of marijuana and 306 pounds
of cocaine worth $9.6 million, interdicts 14
illegal immigrants, processes 238 merchant
mariner licenses and documents, boards 100
large vessels for port safety checks,
responds to 20 oil or hazardous chemical
spills totalling 2,800 gallons, services 135
buoys and other aids to navigation, safely
conducts 2,509 vessels in and out of major
ports, and its icebreakers assist 197,000
tons of shipping. Yet, interestingly enough,
the Coast Guard maintains the same personnel
levels as it did in 1967 and is smaller the
New York City police department.
Formed as the
Revenue Cutter Service in 1790 by Alexander
Hamilton to collect taxes and deter piracy,
the Coast Guard is the oldest armed,
uniformed service in continual operation
since 1790. (The Army, Navy and Marines were
disbanded after the War for Independence and
only later formed again; the Air Force was
created in 1947.) In 1915, the federal
lighthouse and lifesaving services were
merged with the Revenue Cutter Service and
renamed the Coast Guard. The Coast Guard
was nominally under the administration of the
Department of the Treasury (except during
times of war, when it was under the Navy
Department) until the 1960s, when it was
transferred to the authority of the
Department of Transportation. In March, 2003,
the Coast Guard was transferred to the
Department of Homeland Security.
ABOUT
THE COAST GUARD AUXILIARY
Formed
in 1939 as the Coast Guard Reserve, the Coast
Guard Auxiliary was given its present name
after the outbreak of World War II
necessitated the formation of a military
reserve. The Auxiliary is comprised of some
36,000 uniformed, civilian volunteers —
veterans, professionals and spirited citizens
— who serve side-by-side with active and
reserve duty personnel, assisting the Coast
Guard in every mission area except direct
military action and law enforcement, as
directed by the Commandant of the Coast
Guard. In an average day, Auxiliarists save
one life, assist 56 people in distress, save
$719,000 in property, educate 936 people
about boating safety, perform 615 VSCs,
conduct 19 SAR missions, complete 100 safety
patrols afloat, and participate in 120
operational support missions for the Coast
Guard. Dubbed “America’s Volunteer
Lifesavers,” they comprise about
one-third of the Coast Guard's total
manpower.
