NAVIGATOR COVID-19 AUXILIARY ADVISORY | MAY 2020

EXPRESS

IN THE FIGHT AGAINST COVID-19

NAVIGATOR

EXPRESS

EDITORIAL STAFF Roger Bazeley Editor

Andrew Niquette Layout & Design Editor

TABLE OF

CONTENTS Navigator Express Masthead ....................2 From The Commandant ............................3 The Auxiliarist's Guide ........................... 4 Hawaii Auxiliary COVID-19 Response .........6

ASSISTANT EDITORS Michael Stroud Curtis Pratt

A Little Known Skill ............................... 8 An Auxiliarist's Call To Action ..................10

Brady McNulty

From Hawaii To American Samoa ...............11

Michael Sealfon

7 Tips To Remain Active ...........................12

CONTRIBUTORS Commadant Karl Schultz District 14 Public Affairs District 13 Public Affairs Sherry Spillman Coast Guard Public Affairs Andrew Niquette 1st District N Public Affairs

NATIONAL PA LEADERSHIP Thea Narkiewicz Director of Public Affairs

Thomas Ceniglio

Distribution For Navigator Express:

• All members of the U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary • Coast Guard Auxiliary Association members Note: please add [email protected] to your address book. Messages sent from that email address are official messages of the U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary.

For more information about the U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary, visit:

www.cgaux.org

Deputy Director - Publications

Steven White Deputy Director - Support

Sean Peoples Division Chief - Publications

DISCLAIMER

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“The appearance of any product or service advertisement on the site to which any link is directed does not constitute, and shall not be construed as, an endorsement of that product or service by the United States Coast Guard or Coast Guard Auxiliary.”

FROM THE COMMANDANT During times of uncertainty throughout history, the Coast Guard has consistently risen to the challenge of protecting the American people and our way of life. As our Nation and the global community confront the Coronavirus Disease 19 (COVID-19), our Coast Guard continues to perform critical missions that protect our national interests, promote economic prosperity, and ensure public safety. While this virus may be new, the Coast Guard’s skilled and practiced response to all threats is not. THIS IS WHAT WE DO. We surge our resources, we focus our efforts, we take care of each other, we adjust as conditions require, and above all we remain calm. Emergency management expertise and a disciplined approach to contingencies are part of our organizational DNA and will successfully navigate us through the uncertain days ahead. While we don’t know how long the effects of COVID-19 will endure, I assure you that we will continue to maintain situational awareness and plan for potential impacts. The American public counts on us to remain “Always Ready” to defend our nation, safeguard our citizens, and facilitate our economy – just as we’ve done for nearly 230 years. This is why we serve!

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THE AUXILAR

to staying happy, h

By Andrew Niquette | USCG COVID-19 Workforce With the unfolding events across the world in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, pe

times of stress and uncertainty, taking positive and proactive steps to keep a happy m

MI

Balance your social media consumption. Social media has become a standard in the way we keep up with our

YDOB

friends and family, but in these times, it is also filled with repeated news - good and bad. Keeping your phone out of your bedroom or giving yourself time away from the screen can help you to balance the negativity with the benefits social media brings.

COVID-19 PREVENTION TIPS Wash your hands regularly with soap and water, or clean them with alcohol-based hand

MISSION

rub. Maintain a 6-foot distance between you and people coughing or sneezing. Avoid touching your face. Cover your mouth and nose when coughing or sneezing.

COVID-19 is certainly affecting the daily lives of a vast majority of us, from virtual classrooms, dine-in resteraunt closures, and even strict quarantines. Keeping up-to-date with the latest public health measures and being a part of the solution to reduce exposure are now essential to slowing the spread of the virus. As we protect ourselves with social distancing practices, healthy eating is important to maintain a proactive immune system. Here are some tips on staying healthy during the pandemic.

Minimize trips to

Make eating at

Stick with a daily

the supermarket.

home happy.

routine.

Eating at home has become

Have a set sleep schedule

a new routine for many.

and wake up times. Eat

Make mealtime fun by

meals at regular times to

getting the family involved,

promote healthy body

trying some new recipes,

functions. A daily routine

Plan your meals ahead and make a shopping list to limit the amount of time spent in the store. Prioritize nutrition - whole grains, vegetables, and fruits. Meats should be limited to keep dietary fats in moderation.

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and reconnecting with the

will not only keep you

family. Tell jokes, talk about

healthy, but will help your

summer, and keep the

body's immune system as

conversation fun.

well.

RIST'S GUIDE

healthy, and active!

e Guidance: https://www.uscg.mil/coronavirus/

ople are being confined to their homes for weeks, possibly even months. Even in these

mind will ensure that we keep ourselves mission ready as a part of Team Coast Guard.

ND AUXILIARY

TIRIPS

TRAINING

PUBLIC AFFAIRS VESSEL EXAMS LEADERSHIP INSTRUCTOR

Get caught up on training. During this stand down time, this serves as a perfect opportunity to catch up on e-learning and working towards your certifications. From public affairs to leadership development, there are many topics to choose from! Some of these courses may even count as major prerequisite for a certification, such as the Instructor Development Course. Head over to the Training Directorate website to learn more about these opportunities.

AUXILIARY TRAINING TIP 101

N READY

While most operational missions are currently on hold, take advantage of this time to complete online training! Visit the Training Directorate website for more information at: tdept.wow.uscgaux.info

Even during these unprecedented times, it is vital to stay up-to-date with your Auxiliary involvement and training. Many resources are available on the national website at www.cgaux.org to get the latest Auxiliary information, in addition to learning how to stay involved. Your Auxiliary leadership can also point you in the right direction. There are several ways to stay active, even from the comfort of your home! Some ideas include: Volunteer to mentor new members. Many Americans are learning about our role as members

of Team Coast Guard and are joining the Auxiliary as a result. Mentoring these new members builds a strong foundation for activity and involvement that will keep us mission ready.

DIGITAL MEETING

Utilize teleconferences to communicate with other members. Keeping in contact with other

members keeps us all mission ready. Certain telecommunication platforms are authorized by the Chief Director of Auxiliary (CHDIRAUX) for conducting meetings.

M A N U A L

U.S. COAST GUARD AUXAIR

Keep updated with Auxiliary guidelines and procedures. Need to refresh your knowledge on

certification maintenance requirements or proper uniform wear? Take this time to brush up on the Auxiliary manual and guidelines. You'll be certain to learn new and exciting information!

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NAVIGATOR EXPRESS

HAWAII AUXILIARY

COVID-19 RESPONSE By USCG District 14 Public Affairs

ONOLULU — A Coast Guard Auxiliary aircrew delivered response supplies from Maui to Lanai on March 28th, 2020. “This is another example of federal-state partnerships,” said John Manganaro, U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary District Staff Officer - Aviation. “Thank you to pilots Bob Emami and Barry Redmayne for handling this essential mission task. We coupled the delivery with one of our regular patrols.” The pilots transported COVID-19 supplies, including temperature, reading thermometers, and hand sanitation equipment, from the Maui Airport Fire Station to personnel at Lanai Airport for use by airport staff on Saturday, March 28.

H

“We evaluate flights using the current risk assessment model with particular attention to the health and well-being of pilot and aircrew,” said Manganaro. “We’ve taken steps to minimize risk, and if for any reason our teams feel there’s unacceptable exposure risk to COVID-19, we’ll cancel the flight. Our pilots need to maintain their competencies and stay in practice.” Auxiliary Flotilla 140-01-10 has a robust air corps with 25 qualified pilots and 22 trainees. Roughly 16 are very active. The team averages 15 flights in support of routine patrols, first light search and rescue, pollution response, past transports of injured or recovered animals and birds, and specialty flights like this delivery. Their efforts are a significant force multiplier for the local Coast Guard air station. 6

Manganaro has been with the program for five years, while Emami has been flying for the Auxiliary for 13 years and Redmayne for ten. Redmayne noted, “Plenty of sunshine at Maui and Lanai despite numerous scattered and broken cloud layers observed over Honolulu” in his post-flight report. Their story was also aired and covered by KITV Channel 4 ABC News, April 8th, 2:52 PM HST. Lanai, known as the Pineapple Isle, is one of the islands comprising the U.S. State of Hawaii in the Pacific Ocean. It lies nine miles off Maui reachable by air, boat, or personal watercraft only. It is part of Maui County and home to just over 3,000 people. The Coast Guard frequently provides necessary humanitarian transport for people and goods. TOP LEFT: A Coast Guard Auxiliary aircrew (left) stands with Brian Kamimoto (right), assistant airport superintendent Maui District at the Maui Airport Fire Station, March 28, 2020. The pilots transported COVID-19 supplies, including temperature reading thermometers and hand sanitation equipment. (U.S. Coast Guard photo by Berry Redmayne/Released) TOP RIGHT: Bob Emami and Barry Redmayne, Coast Guard Auxiliary Air pilots, take a moment for a photo while delivering response supplies from Maui to Lanai, March 30, 2020. (U.S. Coast Guard photo by Berry Redmayne/Released) TOP BOTTOM: The Auxiliary facility preparing to land. (U.S. Coast Guard photo by Berry Redmayne/Released)

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Petty Officer 2nd Class Chad Morris

The Coast Guard's Respon By USCG District

ORTH BEND, OR — Coast Guard aviation survival technicians, better known as rescue swimmers, undergo some of the most intense training available in any military branch. They are highly conditioned rescue and survival experts drilled to operate in a variety of adverse maritime environments. Rescue swimmers achieve proficiency in advanced skills such as helicopter rescue, operational fitness, survival and emergency medicine. However, the ability to sew is probably the least known skill of every rescue swimmer in the Coast Guard. “The North Bend AST shop makes and repairs a lot of aviation equipment as part of our regular duties,” said Chief Petty Officer Roderick Ansley, chief of the rescue swimmer shop at Coast Guard Sector North Bend, Oregon. “We sew and repair air-frame upholstery, gear bags, equipment, flight suit patches. Stuff gets beat-up pretty good in our line of work. We can repair it all.”

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As the world continues to grapple with the complexities of a global pandemic, Americans are treating the emergency response as a war against an invisible enemy. This new war effort has seen a flurry of volunteers trying to tackle the desperate need for medical supplies and personal protective equipment like gloves, gowns, face shields and masks. The Bay Area Hospital in Coos Bay, Oregon, sent out a request for assistance in procuring and manufacturing PPE. They even developed a blueprint for surgical-grade masks. They could disseminate the pattern and even supply the medical grade materials. But, they needed people who could sew. The Sector North Bend shop has 13 active-duty swimmers, operating in a round-the-clock rotation at both Sector North Bend and at the Air Facility in Newport. Between an augmented schedule of regular duties and training, the swimmers can spend down time fabricating masks. “We broke up the work into teams,” said Petty Officer 2nd Class Chad Morris, an aviation survival technician at Sector North Bend. “If we aren’t flying or doing maintenance, we’re cutting materials, assembling layers, stitching seams, adding elastic. We do as much as we can and then the other team picks it up there.” 8

Petty Officer 3rd Class Trevor Liburn

Petty Officer 3rd Class Trevor Liburn

nse: A Little Known Skill 13 Public Affairs

The North Bend rescue swimmer shop is stepping up to assist their local community first responders the best way they know how. “This community has always supported the Coast Guard,” said Ansley. “During the partial government shutdown last year, when we saw a lapse in pay, they came out in droves to help us. They were here when we needed them most, and now we have another opportunity to give back.” Morris has been a rescue swimmer in North Bend for about five years and was recently accepted to the Coast Guard’s Officer Candidate School. “I’ve always wanted to be a pilot, and the opportunity to go to OCS and then flight school will be a dream come true,” said Morris. “But now, with everything going on, things are getting put on hold and I’m worried that my plans will get pushed back.” Morris intends to marry his fiancé in a wedding ceremony scheduled for June, which would have given them time for a honeymoon before the 17-week OCS course starts in July. At this time, it’s not clear if those plans will be delayed, or even canceled. “Everything is up in the air right now and we just don’t know what the future holds,” said Morris. “But we focus on what’s right in front of us, and that means pitching in and helping our neighbors any way we can.” Social distancing has proven to be an effective solution at slowing the spread of COVID-19 and helping to buy time for medical care facilities with limited supplies. That time has also proven critically important to securing the tools necessary to waging war on the virus. “To be a Coast Guardsman means to be a humble servant of the people,” said Ansley. “But I don’t want people to think that we’re the only ones working on this. Many other community members have been leading the charge. We’re like everybody else, holding our breath, figuring out ways to help out, while we wait for this whole thing to blow over.” Ansley encourages others who have the means or skills to assist in the manufacturing of medical supplies for healthcare workers, visit their local hospital’s website and find ways to help. Pull up the blueprints, and start sewing. If you can’t sew, find another way to help your community. In the meantime, the rescue swimmers of Sector North Bend thread the needle so others may live.

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An Auxiliarist's Call To Action During COVID-19 By Sherry Spillman, 9-8 Flotilla Commander

CHAPEL HILL, NC — Sebastian del Cid (pictured above), Vice Flotilla Commander of the Chapel Hill Flotilla, jumped in to help his wife Valerie who works with nurses in nursing homes across North Carolina. Valerie and Sebastian were seeing first-hand the shortage of masks the nurses were experiencing and decided to purchase fabric and start making masks to give to the nurses and nursing home staff to protect them and their patients from the COVID-19 pandemic. While sewing one evening, del Cid looked at his Operational Dress Uniform (ODU) shirt and his tropical uniform shirt hanging in his closet and decided to cut them up. He knew they could be turned into masks that his fellow shipmates could use due to the global mask shortage, and that the masks would be a perfect match for both the tropical uniform and the ODU uniform.  When asked why he wanted to do this, del Cid said “Devotion to duty compelled me to help my fellow shipmates be safe.” His talents don’t end at making these masks, he makes them reversible too with the tropical uniform color on one side and ODU uniform on the other side. Wow, what talent that takes! Sherry Spillman, the Flotilla Commander for the Chapel Hill Flotilla, will be donating some old ODU shirts and extra tropical shirts to the cause to make additional masks for our fellow shipmates. Thank you Sebastian for your efforts, patriotism, and especially your devotion to duty. Keep on sewing! 10

FROM HAWAII TO AMERICAN SAMOA

A U.S. Coast Guard HC-130 Hercules airplane crew brought various supplies to American Samoa, April 1, 2020. Working in concert with FEMA and the U.S. Air Force, logistics were coordinated to ensure the timely and successful delivery of supplies including medical supplies from the Strategic National Stockpile. Photos by U.S. Coast Guard Public Affairs.

By U.S. Coast Guard Public Affairs

HONOLULU — The Coast Guard and Air Force worked together with FEMA to ensure the timely delivery of a shipment of medical Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) to medical responders in the U.S. Territory of American Samoa, and the strategic Deepwater Port of Pago Pago, Wednesday. FEMA notified the Coast Guard of the need March 27, and we worked collectively for a whole of government response to expedite the timely delivery,” said Captain Craig O’Brien, chief of response, Coast Guard 14th District. The pallet of supplies arrived safely to the main airport in Tafuna on the island of Tutuila aboard a Coast Guard HC-130 Hercules airplane from Air Station Barbers Point, Oahu, Wednesday after earlier movement from the Strategic National Stockpile by the Air Force aboard a C-17 Globemaster airplane to Hickam Air Field, also on Oahu. The services continue to support the CDC, state, and local health officials for matters involving the pandemic and remains ready to respond to emergency needs throughout the region. Similar deliveries may take place soon to assist other regional partners. “Military aircraft are a workhorse throughout the world, and in the Coast Guard, we frequently use our HC-130 Hercules planes to deliver necessary supplies and equipment. This is especially true in the Pacific, where we seek to overcome vast distances and challenging timelines,” said Cmdr. James Morrow, a Hercules pilot and operations officer at Air Station Barbers Point. American Samoa is a collection of five islands in the South Pacific, approximately 2,600 miles southwest of Honolulu. The Coast Guard maintains some authority in the area and assists local agencies in enforcing federal regulations with an emphasis on maritime commerce and environmental ocean stewardship. 11

STAYING

MISSION

READY

7 WAYS TO REMAIN ACTIVE DURING THE COVID-19 STAND-DOWN By 1st District Northern Public Affairs Infographic By Andrew Niquette

TAKE

SEA

SCOUT

YOUTH

PROTECTION

TRAINING

During the stand down, free member training is available for anyone wanting to be prepared to carry out the Coast Guard’s recreational boating safety mission with the Sea Scouts. This training is mandatory for any Auxiliarist who work with Sea Scouts “regularly,” defined as having contact with a Sea Scout at least once a year. It is also required for certain elected and staff officers of Auxiliary flotillas and divisions that charter Sea Scout Ships. Detailed information about the Youth Protection Course can be found at scouting.org/ training/youth-protection.

PREPARE

FOR

THE

AUXDATAII

RELEASE

There are things that you yourself can do now to get ready for the AUXDATAII release. Also, you will be able to make use of a variety of training tools in late April and May. AUXDATA, as we knew it, was closed effective April 5, and AUXINFO was updated for the last time on April 6. However, it is still possible for members to document activity and make sure that it gets recorded. AUXDATAII will have the functions of AUXDATA, AUXINFO, and the AOM all in one place. Check your email frequently for announcements about training, plus look for posts about training.

USE

TELECONFERENCES

TO

KEEP

IN

TOUCH

There are a number of teleconferencing platforms that are available for use. They include Skype, FaceTime and Houseparty. Some are free of charge while others offer limited free time before requiring a monthly fee. When the stand down is over, Auxiliary units will need to develop written electronic meeting plans and standing rules for telephonic/electronic meetings if they have not done so already. Units interested in teleconferencing or other uses of technology are encouraged to work with their local communication services officer.

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PASS

THE

VESSEL

EXAMINER

(VE)

EXAM

The Auxiliary’s most important mission is saving lives. Conducting as many Vessel Safety Checks as possible is one way that that mission is accomplished. The process of becoming a qualified Vessel Examiner is something that you can begin now during the stand down. You can take and pass the online classroom VE exam anytime that you want. The Vessel Examiner course is located on the Coast Guard Auxiliary Online Classroom, at classroom2.cgaux.org/moodle/.

BUILD

A

BOAT!

It’s often said that we learn from the ground up. But what better way is there to learn seamanship than from the keel up? David Racicot, IPFC, Boothbay Harbor Flotilla 25, is building a lightweight, 20 pound canoe. The wood frame will be covered with Kevlar roving and Dacron skin. Racicot says that building paddle craft himself enhances his credibility with local paddlers and has made conducting paddle craft Vessel Safety Checks much easier.

REVIEW

UNIFORM

WEAR

No one knows exactly when the current stand down will end. When it does, Auxiliarists once again will be in uniform at Coast Guard stations, as well as public events and activities. Therefore, this is a great time to refresh our memories about proper uniform wear and possibly even learn a few new things while doing so. A useful place to begin reviewing uniform wear is “2019 Coast Guard Auxiliary Uniforms.” It can be found on the web at cgaux.org/members/USCGAUX_ Uniform_Presentation-01082019.pdf.

TAKE

COVID-19

AWARENESS

TRAINING

The National Training (T) Directorate has just created a distance learning course about COVID-19, providing factual information and insight into coping with daily activities. It consists of 16 mini video lessons on a wide variety of topics, plus web links to government resources. To access the course, go to classroom2.cgaux.org/moodle/, then click on “T-Training,” then “Auxiliary Core and Basic Qualification Training Portal.”

Information contribution provided from District 1 Northern's publication Nor'easter - Wes Baden

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AMERICA'S VOLUNTEER GUARDIANS ARE YOU READY TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE IN YOUR COMMUNITY?

NAVIGATOR EXPRESS