Farewell -006/17

united states coast guard

TO:         ALAUX

From:     CHDIRAUX

SUBJ:     Farewell -006/17

 

From: Captain Tom Boross, Chief Director of Auxiliary (CG-BSX)

To:   All Auxiliarists

 

  1. “What team do you want to be on?” That’s the question that I frequently posed to student athletes over the years as a volunteer head coach for Little League, AAU baseball and Armed Services YMCA football teams in order to draw the dramatic contrast between smart, winning teams and less successful ones.  I posed that mentoring question to the young players as a way to help them develop their game situational awareness because often times the smart play was the play they had visualized or anticipated before it actually happened.  Winning teams generally know what to do with the ball before the play even happens. 

 

  1. “What team do you want to be on?” became the same question I would frequently pose to HU-25 aircrews while cruising up at altitude or when counseling our junior enlisted personnel on the merits of saving some of their hard earned pay by investing in the Federal Thrift Savings Pan. The “team “ I was encouraging my Coast Guard charges to join was the “smart money team” because as every successful investor knows what is more important over the long haul is not how much money you earn but how much money you keep.

 

  1. “What team do you want to be on?” Today, please allow me one final laud. This Coast Guard Captain wants to call you all out, all 26,000+ active Auxiliarists who, at some point in time in the past, when you either wondered to yourself or someone else asked: “What team do you want to be on?” you answered that question by joining the United States Coast Guard Auxiliary!  As I yield the Auxiliary Chief Director duties today, which will soon be assumed by Captain Scott Johnson on Monday, April 17, I wanted to acknowledge my profound gratitude and appreciation to each and every one of you who chose to answer the call to serve by joining the “Title 14, Chapters 23/25, Section 822-831” Auxiliary team! 

 

  1. “What team do you want to be on?” The Auxiliary team, which routinely strikes awe in the hearts and minds of active duty Coast Guard personnel everywhere by demonstrated acts of selfless, servant leadership and dedicated mission performance. For the past four years each of you helped orchestrate the four safest years on record for recreational boating safety on waters subject to the jurisdiction of the United States Coast Guard, while also keeping one another safe, without losing a single Auxiliarist in the line of duty.  We can all take pride in that safety record, and forever be inspired by the incredible act of heroism in September 2015 demonstrated by AUX AIR crew Jack Rosenberg and Erik Pearson, who crash landed their failed-engine airplane by swerving at the last seconds in order to miss landing on top of a New Jersey school field populated by numerous soccer players.  What a pair of Auxiliary stars on a team filled with stars indeed!

 

  1. “What team do you want to be on?” After 28+ years of military service, it’s now time for this Captain to answer that question anew. For the past four years, I’ve been blessed and honored to work with some of the most accomplished people and brightest minds our nation produces. We’ve drawn up play after play to strategize meeting the timeless continuum challenge of optimizing constrained resources and getting the public to boat safer. I’ve learned how the Auxiliary enterprise anticipates & plans for the next local storm or national incident, while tirelessly working to ensure that every resource allocation, no matter how large or small, could be considered the gold standard for what the smart money team should do. It’s been my highest honor to represent the Auxiliary’s 26,000+ members’ equity here at Coast Guard Headquarters, and I thank each of you for your unparalleled recreational boating safety contributions, mission support and inspirational example.   What other team could there possibly be?

  2. The purpose of this list is to keep Auxiliarists as well as all other interested parties abreast of current developments, policies, manuals, etc. All information contained herein and linked is OFFICIAL policy and Information.

  3. Internet Release and Distribution is Authorized