Sea Service Organizations 
Prepare Coasties of the Future

By CDR Dale Rausch, Commandant (G-WTR-2)

This is the second of a series of articles that describe and highlight sea service-oriented youth groups throughout the nation.  It is important, especially during the current campaign to grow the Coast Guard, Coast Guard Reserve, and Auxiliary, that we look to these organizations as potential sources of future Coast Guard members.  Many of these organizations have a long history of Coast Guard affiliation, if not total sponsorship, and many active duty, Reserve and Auxiliary members fill key leadership positions.  In the last issue, we gave you an overview of Sea Scouts.  This month, we will take another brief look at other Coast Guard sponsored Sea Scout Ships (SSS) around the nation.  In future issues, we will feature the Naval League Cadets, the U.S. Naval Sea Cadets, and the nation’s only Coast Guard Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps (JROTC) program at Mast Academy in Miami. 

Sea Scouts: Part II

Much of the training conducted aboard Sea Scout Ship (SSS) 16 is provided by Coast Guard personnel at LANTAREA, Station Little Creek, Integrated Support Command Portsmouth, and aboard the various vessels homeported there.

The majority of Coast Guard training opportunities offered to SSS 16 have been procured through the hard work of CDR Skipper Duck, USCGR, and LCDR Joe DiRenzo III, USCG, of the LANTAREA Operations staff, working in close coordination with ISC Portsmouth’s Executive Officer CDR Dan Riehm. 

Strong advocates of Sea Scouting, both Duck and DiRenzo have worked relentlessly with ISC Portsmouth, Group Hampton Roads, Station Portsmouth, and the crews of local cutters to identify sources of training that greatly contribute to the high morale and interest among unit members.  Because of their work, local Coast Guard commands are more attuned to the training needs of the Sea Scouts and have been quite willing to help out.

Over the past few years, the crew of SSS 16 has overnighted aboard Coast Guard Cutters Harriet Lane, Legare and most recently, Northland.  While aboard Northland, unit members and Sea Scouts from throughout the middle Atlantic region, as far away as North Carolina and Lancaster Pa., have participated in hands-on shipboard fire fighting and damage control exercises with full gear.  Ship members also assisted with a burial at sea aboard CGC Albacore, and toured the small boat stations at Little Creek and Portsmouth.  They were also instructed in general shipboard safety and first aid, and participated in man overboard exercises.

For the past three years, ISC Portsmouth has hosted the Sea Scout Winter Training Weekend, a much anticipated annual event.  The high point of annual unit training, it is conducted over a long weekend each January.  While ISC Portsmouth provides the classrooms, berthing, messing and recreational facilities, both active and Reserve Coast Guard personnel from local shore commands and homeported cutters, join local members of the Marine Corps and Navy to provide the hands-on and formal instruction.  This is a multi-track curriculum for youth and adults covering everything from basic and marlinspike seamanship to close order drill.  Leadership training is also provided to both adult leaders and unit officers.  This past year, extensive training was held onboard Northland, utilizing the Wardroom as a classroom for the youth leadership daylong seminar, and multiple damage control and fire fighting stations for hands-on training..

Sea Scouts learn everything from basic and marlinspike seamanship to close order drill.  Photo courtesy Skipper James McCord

Volunteer instructors representing many local Coast Guard shore units and cutters ensure the Sea Scouts are offered the opportunity to see what the Coast Guard is all about.  Two years ago, the crew of Legare put the scouts into full fire fighting equipment and oxygen breathing apparatus (OBAs), charged the ship’s fire hoses, and offered attending Sea Scouts a taste of what it’s like to fight a fire aboard ship.  This year, Sea Scouts from West Virginia Maryland, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Pennsylvania were invited and participated in this event.  As a result, the Scouts developed a much better understanding of Coast Guard missions and careers.  In fact, four of the Sea Scouts stated their intention to talk with Coast Guard recruiters about career options!

The Greater Antilles Section (GANTSEC) in San Juan, Puerto Rico has sponsored SSS 41 for the past 10 years.  Coast Guard personnel from the various GENSEC units regularly provide training for the members of SSS 41.  This includes a biannual trip aboard a Coast Guard vessel to Mona Island, a natural wildlife preserve about 42 miles east of Puerto Rico, where members camp for several days.  The local Coast Guard Auxiliary flotilla also provides hands-on training to the scouts of SSS 41.

Sea Scout members participate in hands-on shipboard firefighting and damage control exercises.  Photo courtesy Skipper James McCord

 The annual Safety at Sea weekend hosted by Station Yerba Buena in San Francisco Bay has been a joint Coast Guard-Sea Scout project since 1993, and has proven to be one of the most successful Sea Scouting events on the West Coast.  The weekend provides extensive hands-on vessel safety training.  Scouts are trained by Coast Guard personnel in shipboard fire fighting, man overboard response and recovery, damage control techniques, cold water survival, pyrotechnic use, and the use of portable pumps to dewater small craft.  Boat US magazine ran a feature article on the 2001 event.  Until 2001, Coast Guard Island in Alameda hosted the annual Ancient Mariners Regatta, which in the past has attracted as many as 1,500 Sea Scouts.  The site of the regatta was moved as a result of increased security on the Island following the events of 9/11. 

SSS 609 in Kinston, N.Y. has been associated with the Coast Guard since the ship was organized in 1994.  Three of the adult leaders are auxiliarists.  Members of SSS 609 meets at Coast Guard ANT Saugerties, about 10 miles south of Kinston on the Hudson River.  ANT Saugerties personnel provide high quality training that is well received by the scouts.  This keeps morale and interest high.  Each year, ship members embark on the CGC Sturgeon Bay for an icebreaking trip up the Hudson.  They also take an annual summer cruise on their own boat, the SSS 609, and visit Coast Guard Stations such as Manasquan, Atlantic City, and Cape May if they go south, or the Coast Guard Academy at New London if they go east.  Members of SSS 609 wear a modified version of the Coast Guard uniform.

The official Web site for Sea Scouts is: http://www.seascout.org/ 

 Previous   |   Top   |   Next