Flotilla 84 members from left to right, Jay Walden, Myrna Walden, Kathy Goodwin, Irene Connor taking calls. Bob Kesson, ICS Logistics Section Chief standing behind.

Coeur d'Alene, Ida. May 19, 2005. “Kootenai County Sheriff’s Department Groene Amber Alert Call Center, may I help you.” That’s what you will hear if you call the Groene Amber Alert Hot Line.

At 10:00 am on Tuesday, 17 May 2005, the Director of the Office Emergency Management was requested to activate the Kootenai County Emergency Operations Center (EOC) for the purpose of establishing the “Hot Line” call bank in support of an Amber Alert field investigative operation

The EOC is organized to function utilizing the Incident Command System (ICS) and was modified, in this case, because of special circumstances. Unified command was established and operations and logistics sections were established. Logistics included the planning and finance functions.

A bank of 10 phone lines were set up as two groups with the capability of expanding to more as needed.

The US Coast Guard Auxiliary is one of several organizations that are staffing the telephones. Members of Flotilla 81, 82, 84 and 87 are all manning the Call Center at the Kootenai County Sheriff's office in connection with the Amber Alert. The Alert was activated, after a brutal triple homicide, for 2 missing children, 9 year old Dylan and 8 year old Shasta Groene.

The following Auxiliary members have been working or are scheduled to work in the Call Center with more volunteering every day: Flotilla 84, Tom Osborn, Vern Decker, Marilyn Anders, Jay Anders, Tom Conner, Jan Tucker, and Bonnie Kesson; Flotilla 82: Joann Hall, Shirley Swingley; from Flotilla 81, Dennis Hoppman, RCO-E and Gloria Hellard; Flotilla 87, Al Kremer and Ramona Bailey.

The Auxiliarists' shifts are from 6:00 pm through midnight and 7:00 am through noon. They are answering telephones at the Emergency Operations Center (EOC), located in the basement at the Kootenai Sheriff's office. Their job is to answer phone calls, record them on a form and pass along the information to a data specialist for input into a database that is then passed along to the FBI for review and follow up.

Bonnie Kesson is also a member of the Kootenai County Sheriff’s Auxiliary and was working at the crime scene with the mobile Kitchen from 6:00 am to 10:00 pm daily for 4 days, then in the EOC on the call desk and in the logistics section.

Auxiliarist Bob Kesson also works for the Kootenai County Office of Emergency Management in Coeur d'Alene. Bob was tasked with the implementation of an emergency operations plan. Bob asked his local flotilla if they would be interested in participating and Flotilla 84 said "YES".

A call-out plan was established and was used to contact Auxiliarists for this emergency. Kootenai County Sheriff's Department and Auxiliary Flotilla 84 have an excellent working relationship that was initially formed while working together on the water. When it appeared this would be a long term effort the call was expanded to Flotillas 81, 82 and 87. They all responded “YES!”

“It makes me so proud to be a part of an organization that has the caliber of people that the Coast Guard Auxiliary has. They are here at midnight and back again at 6:45 the next morning. When we hit a rush in the call bank and get over loaded, one phone call gets additional staffing with a response time of about 15 minutes. Instead of us calling them to ask if they can stand watch on an upcoming shift, they are calling my staff to schedule more time. It will be interesting to see just how much time the Auxiliary will have on this project when it is over. My boss is impressed, BIG TIME!! BRAVO ZULU,” said Auxiliarist Kathy Goodwin.

Last weekend was the start of National Safe Boating Week and the flotillas have planned a boating safety class for the local media.

Until the Amber Alert is resolved the Auxiliary will keep working to help the Kootenai Sheriff's Office find the two missing children. As Kathy Goodwin puts it "This reminds us of 9/11, everyone is doing what they can to help out and the community is really working together".