Semper Paratus – “Always Ready” the official Coast Guard motto.  The Coast Guard notes the first use was by the New Orleans Bee newspaper published in the 1830. 

MIAMI -  Now 180 years later, does that motto equally apply to the U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary as well?  (The Auxiliary is the uniformed civilian component of the Coast Guard, providing assistance in nearly every operational mission)  That question was once again answered clearly in the affirmative following the massive devastating 7.0 magnitude earthquake centered near Port-au-Prince, Haiti on Tuesday, January 12, 2010.

After the earthquake, the Coast Guard staff implemented an Incident Command System (ICS) operation to address the Haitian crisis – now officially named Operation Unifed Response.  Coast Guard leadership recognized early on that they would need additional public affairs officer (PAO) manpower from both the active duty and Auxiliary to support the public affairs Joint Information Center (JIC) they planned to open at D7 headquarters in Miami.

On Thursday, January 14, 2010, Tom Nunes, Deputy Directory of Public Affairs for the Auxiliary quickly contacted Chrisotpher Todd, his new Division Chief, Publications based in Miami Beach.  Nunes alerted Todd to the impending need for Auxiliary support for the JIC.  Todd then contacted LCDR Matt Moorlag of the D7 Public Affairs office who he knew would be serving as the lead Public Information Officer (PIO) under the ICS model.  Within four hours, Todd was on-scene and meeting with Moorlag to coordinate Auxiliary support.

As luck would have it, Bill Hanlon, Assistant District Staff Officer – Public Affairs (East) D7 had previously planned a South Florida regional workshop of Auxiliary Public Affairs staff officers for later that day in Miami.  Todd went to the meeting and briefed the PAO’s on the situation as well as the need for additional support from the Auxiliary.

While operations at the JIC ramped up, LR Suzanne Kever, the JIC Manager on loan from D8 in New Orleans, and her staff quickly identify a need for Spanish and French/Creole speaking personnel.  An additional request for Auxiliary personnel with these language skills and/or media relations training was made to Todd, who in turned contacted Hanlon to help sound the call.

Semper Paratus was put to the test.  Auxiliary members from Division 6 (Miami) and Division 3 (Fort Lauderdale) with the desired capabilities were identified and contacted.  The very next morning, Friday, January 15, the first wave of members responded to the JIC and immediately started providing valuable assistance while serving along side active duty personnel.

These initial responders included Todd and Bill Swank, Flotilla 6-11 Public Affairs Officer (FSO-PA) who took the morning shift and Felipe Pazos, Flotilla 6-11 Commander who joined the team in the early afternoon with Spanish speaking capabilities.  Pazos was quickly dispatched to a local Spanish-language television station to conduct an on-camera interview on behalf of the Coast Guard.  Hanlon and Theresa Gonzalez, FSO-PA-Espanol 6-11 comprised the afternoon shift and worked late into the night.

In addition, the active duty looked to the Auxiliary to take over management of the various social media sites related to the event, including; Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, and YouTube.  Todd liasioned with Ryan Bank, Branch Chief, New Media for the Auxiliary who is based out of Chicago.  Bank quickly took over this task using automated software programs which had been specially designed with the needed capabilities.

With the bulk of the active duty PAO’s expected to be forward deployed to the Haiti AOR over the next several days,  Todd worked with LT Kever to develop a schedule for Auxiliary coverage of the JIC.  A scheduled was developed to provide Auxiliary support over the next week, with the possibility of additional coverage if needs accelerated..

To provide the influx of Auxiliary support with a helpful set of guidelines and expectations of the duty they were to perform, Hanlon created a customized JIC Handbook for Auxiliary Personnel specifically for Operation Unifed Response – the official name that had been given to the massive U.S. response effort.

Following review by the JIC Manager, the Auxiliary Handbook was electronically disseminated to all Auxiliary personnel reporting for JIC duty.  “The procedures provided in the handbook have increased efficiency by shortening the learning-curve for newly assigned Auxiliary members reporting to the JIC,” according to LT Kerver, “the professional demeanor and skill sets displayed by the Auxiliary have been outstanding and invaluable to JIC operations.” 

Names and Flotilla of all District 7 Auxiliary personnel to date staffing the JIC: Christopher Todd, (6-11); Bill Hanlon, (31); Bill Swank, (6-11); Felipe Pazos, (6-11);Theresa Gonzalez, (6-11); Nubia Carbonneu, (31); George Navarini, (61)

 

~GJA 01-18-10