OUR MISSION

Coast Guard Auxiliary District Nine, Eastern Region, Division Three, located in western New York state, has an area of responsibility (AOR) encompassing eastern Lake Erie from the Pennsylvania border to Niagara Falls, and Lake Ontario from Niagara Falls halfway to Rochester. This AOR includes Niagara and Buffalo Rivers, the terminus of the Erie Canal, and several minor bodies of water. Division Three personnel routinely facilitate public safety classes, perform courtesy vessel safety checks (VSCs), visit marine dealers, perform safety patrols afloat and ashore, augment active duty personnel where needed, and other missions as directed by the Commandant of the U.S. Coast Guard.

ABOUT THE COAST GUARD

The Coast Guard is an armed maritime service with military, law enforcement, marine environmental protection, preventative safety and search-and-rescue (SAR) missions. In an average day, the Coast Guard conducts 109 SAR cases, saves 10 lives, assists 192 people in distress, protects $2.8 million in property, conducts 396 small boat patrols and 164 aircraft flights, boards 144 vessels and seizes 169 pounds of marijuana and 306 pounds of cocaine worth $9.6 million, interdict 14 illegal immigrants, process 238 merchant mariner licenses and documents, board 100 large vessels for port safety checks, responds to 20 oil or hazardous chemical spills totalling 2,800 gallons, services 135 buoys and other aids to navigation, safely conducts 2,509 vessels in and out of major ports, and its icebreakers assist 197,000 tons of shipping. Yet, interestingly enough, the Coast Guard maintains the same personnel levels as it did in 1967 and is smaller the New York City police department.

Formed as the Revenue Cutter Service in 1790 by Alexander Hamilton to collect taxes and deter piracy, the Coast Guard is the oldest armed, uniformed service in continual operation since 1790. (The Army, Navy and Marines were disbanded after the War for Independence and only later formed again; the Air Force was created in 1947.) In 1915, the federal lighthouse and lifesaving services were merged with the Revenue Cutter Service and renamed the Coast Guard. The Coast Guard was nominally under the administration of the Department of the Treasury (except during times of war, when it was under the Navy Department) until the 1960s, when it was transferred to the authority of the Department of Transportation. In March, 2003, the Coast Guard will be transferred to the Department of Homeland Security.

ABOUT THE COAST GUARD AUXILIARY

Formed in 1939 as the Coast Guard Reserve, the Coast Guard Auxiliary was given its present name after the outbreak of World War II necessitated the formation of a military reserve. The Auxiliary is comprised of some 36,000 uniformed, civilian volunteers — veterans, professionals and spirited citizens — who serve side-by-side with active and reserve duty personnel, assisting the Coast Guard in every mission area except direct military action and law enforcement, as directed by the Commandant of the Coast Guard. In an average day, Auxiliarists save one life, assist 56 people in distress, save $719,000 in property, educate 936 people about boating safety, perform 615 VSCs, conduct 19 SAR missions, complete 100 safety patrols afloat, and participate in 120 operational support missions for the Coast Guard. Dubbed “America’s Volunteer Lifesavers,” they comprise about one-third of the Coast Guard's total manpower.