While the Coast Guard Auxiliary is tasked with support of nearly all United States Coast Guard Missions, one area in which it has the ability to have an even greater impact than its parent organization is in boating safety.
The Coast Guard’s Division of Boating Safety recently developed a Strategic Plan that identified a measurable goal—the reduction of boating injuries and fatalities from boating accidents—that relies heavily upon the hands-on training made available by the Public Education Department of the Coast Guard Auxiliary. In addition to providing easy access to boating safety education programs to the public, the Public Education Department simultaneously works to keep the Auxiliary’s flotilla instructors and public education staff officers up-to-date in safety principles and strategies by providing them with the requisite materials, resources, and training.
Currently, the Coast Guard Auxiliary offers nearly twenty courses covering a broad array of subjects related to boating safety and maritime skills. While some courses are crafted to meet specific types of boaters—Sailing Skills and Seamanship is for sailors with wind-powered vessels, for examples, while Boating Skills and Seamanship is for power boaters—the vast majority of classes cover general and foundational boating knowledge and skills: safety, weather, communications, navigation and GPS, marlinspike (lines and knots), emergency procedures, and basic seamanship.
The Auxiliary Public Education Service Award was established to recognize those Auxiliarists who have logged a significant number of hours providing instruction, either to the general public (PE, or Public Education) or in Member Training (MT). To qualify for the decoration, an Auxiliarist must have completed at least thirty credits as instructor in PE or MT (one hour equals one credit), sixty credits as an instructor’s aide (an aide hour equals a half-credit), or a combination of the two. For example, an Auxiliarist who serves as instructor for ten hours and as an instructor’s aide for forty hours will have a total thirty credits (10 + (40 x .5) = 30).