Coast Guard to rename training center wing after Arnold Palmer

News Release

U.S. Coast Guard 11th District Pacific Southwest Contact: 11th District Public Affairs Office: (510) 437-3325 After Hours: (510) 772-8865 11th District online newsroom

Coast Guard to rename training center wing after Arnold Palmer

PETALUMA, Calif. — The Coast Guard announced plans to rename a training wing after Arnold Palmer at Coast Guard Training Center Petaluma, Tuesday.

Training Center Petaluma plans to officiate the renaming of the Yeoman and Storekeeper “A” School wing of the Juliet Nichols Building in a ceremony later this year.  

Palmer served with distinction as a yeoman in the Coast Guard from 1951 to 1953 and worked for the 9th Coast Guard District commander in Cleveland, Ohio.

Palmer reportedly joined the Coast Guard after his college roommate was tragically killed in an automobile accident as a way to get away from how distraught he was over the loss of his friend.

“My dad said that the U.S. Coast Guard ‘made [him] a better person for the world,’” said Amy Palmer Saunders, Chair of the Arnold & Winnie Palmer Foundation. “He would be touched to know that others will be given the same opportunity to learn and grow in a space named for him, and my family and I are grateful to the Pennsylvania delegation, to members of the Coast Guard and to others who made this possible.”

Located just west of the city of Petaluma, Training Center Petaluma is the Coast Guard’s largest West Coast training center. The graduates are the latest chiefs, medics, storekeepers, yeoman, information system technicians, electronics technicians and operations specialists. Training Center Petaluma is also the home to the Coast Guard Leadership Development Center’s Chief Petty Officer Academy.

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