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Welcome aboard the United States Coast Guard Auxiliary.  You are joining men and women from all walks of civilian life who come together to support the missions of the U.S. Coast Guard.  The Auxiliary traditionally finds its primary activities in public education, vessel and facility examinations, and operations, with a fourth element of fellowship serving as the glue holding the Auxiliary together.  Another way to say this is that we are here to help the USCG any way we can.  Sometimes when you are on a USCG station you'll see a motto "Small Service - Big Job."  Over 30,000 Auxiliarists nationwide step up to help get this big job done. 

The Auxiliary does not do military or law enforcement tasks, and there are a few other USCG jobs that the Auxiliary doesn't do (none of us are jumping out of helicopters), but beyond this there is a wide variety of things we can do to help.  You can challenge yourself with new tasks and be supported with extensive training opportunities and knowledgeable teammates.  You can serve on Auxiliary vessels, stand a radio watch, teach a class, write an article - the list is endless.  Whatever you can do the Auxiliary can probably use, and if you would like to try something new, that also is OK.  You can serve the Coast Guard and your country and have a great time doing it.  We'll talk more about some of the Auxiliary jobs later.

In the sections below we will take a quick look at the Coast Guard stations in the San Francisco Bay Area and some of their boats and helicopters (called helos).  We'll also look at divisions and flotillas.  Flotillas are the basic organizational units in the Auxiliary and are where you'll have much of your initial contacts.  A division is the next organizational level up and usually contains five or more flotillas.

We'll also take a look at some of the jobs Auxiliarists are doing right now.  Each flotilla has a number of flotilla staff officers (FSOs) who can help you explore the many opportunities.

The Auxiliary is a volunteer organization that stands beside a uniformed service.  We'll look at how the Auxiliary and active duty Coast Guard have complementary organizations. The Auxiliary wears Coast Guard uniforms with Auxiliary insignia and we'll talk about getting your uniform.  Our insignia is silver while active duty and reserve Coast Guard have gold insignia, and you'll sometimes hear people refer to "gold side" and "silver side," meaning active duty and Auxiliary.

We'll also take a look at where you can find more information and get training.  Standing beside a uniformed service means that we spend a lot of time training to learn new things and to improve on the things we are doing.  Sometimes you may find that you're almost overwhelmed with information.  We'll help to organize some of this, and you'll find that every Auxiliarist in your flotilla will be willing to help you find your way to the most rewarding activities for you.  If you've just signed up, it will take about four months to process your security clearance.  There have been several recent changes in what you can do while waiting for the security clearance and here is the current information.  You can attend meetings and participate in training, and you'll find more than enough things to do while you're waiting