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United States Coast Guard Reserve
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The United States Coast Guard Reserve is the reserve component of the United States Coast Guard. It is organized, trained, administered, and supplied under the direction of the Commandant of the Coast Guard through the Director of Reserve and Training.
History
The United States Coast Guard Reserve was originally established on 23 June 1939 as a civilian reserve.
Discussion
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Encyclopedia
The United States Coast Guard Reserve is the reserve component of the United States Coast Guard. It is organized, trained, administered, and supplied under the direction of the Commandant of the Coast Guard through the Director of Reserve and Training.
Mission
The mission of the Coast Guard Reserve is to provide highly trained and well qualified personnel available for active duty in time of war and national emergency, and for augmentation of regular Coast Guard forces during a serious natural or man-made disaster, accident, or catastrophe.
History
The United States Coast Guard Reserve was originally established on 23 June 1939 as a civilian reserve. This civilian reserve was renamed the United States Coast Guard Auxiliary on the passage of the Coast Guard Reserve and Auxiliary Act of 19 February 1941 and the military reserve commenced operations at that time.
World War II
Persons joining the Coast Guard after 1 February 1942 were signed on as Regular Reservists and were obligated to serve for "the duration plus six" months. These Reservists served in every type of job that the Coast Guard had been tasked. Other volunteers and Coast Guard Auxiliary members formed what was termed the Temporary Reserve and they generally served without pay, receiving only reimbursement for fuel expenses on their privately owned boats to perform coastal patrols and port security.
The Women's Reserve was authorized by act of Congress on 23 November, 1942 and soon became known as SPARS; derived from the Coast Guard's Motto: Semper Paratus, Always Ready. SPARS served in administrative, maintenance and training functions in the United States. Lieutenant Commander (later Captain) Dorothy C. Stratton was selected to head the SPAR Program and is credited with naming the group.
Because all of the personnel inducted in the Coast Guard after the start of the war were Reservists, only 8% of the 214,000 Coast Guardsmen that served during World War II were non-reservists. An additional 125,000 Temporary Reservists also contributed to the war effort. At the end of the war most Reservists were released to inactive duty or discharged. The SPARS were disbanded in July 1947.
Cold War Period
Due to increased tensions during the Korean War period, the SPARS were re-established in 1949 and Congress authorized funding of the first Coast Guard Reserve Units. The first units were known as ORTUPS (Organized Reserve Training Unit, Port Security) and consisted of reserve officers and enlisted training in port security operations. Meetings were generally held once a week for 4 hours on a week night. Four hours paid the reservist the equivalent of one days pay for active duty Coast Guardsmen. There were 35 ORTUPS Units and 8300 Reservists serving by July 1951.
During the Vietnam War period and shortly thereafter, the Coast Guard considered abandoning the Reserve program, but the force was instead reoriented into force augmentation. The Coast Guard Reserve reached it's peak strength of 17,815 in 1969, during the Vietnam War.
Post Vietnam Events
In 1973 the Reserve exercised its first involuntary recall in support of flood operations in the Midwest. The next involuntary recall was in support of the Mariel Boat Lift exodus from Cuba in 1980. Reserve Units were increasingly used to augment regular Coast Guard operations during 1980's but the mission of the Reserves was still training for mobilization. Port Security Units were formed during this time period and are made up of a small active duty element that handles the daily unit administration duties and a hundred or more reservists to complete the unit roster. Most of the enlisted reservists are in the Port Securityman (PS) (later Port Security Specialist) and are trained in port security operations and weapons qualifications. PS is a Reserve only rate. Other rates assigned to the PSU's include Boatswains Mate (BM), Machinery Technician (MK), Gunners Mate (GM), Yeoman (YN), Storekeeper (SK), and Corpsman (HS).
In 1990, the first PSU was called up to active duty to support Operation Desert Shield and Operation Desert Storm. Various PSU's have taken turns rotating in and out of Southwest Asia since that time.
1994 saw the restructuring of the Reserve Program with the advent of the "Team Coast Guard" concept. This led to the disestablishment of most Reserve Units and the assignment of the Reservists to active duty commands. The mission was now augmentation of those commands and Reservists worked very closely with their active duty counterparts as well as the Coast Guard Auxiliary and Coast Guard civilians. PSU's are the only reserve units now existing, as all other reservists are assigned to active duty commands.
Since 11 September 2001, over 8,500 reservists have been activated and 400 reservists are currently on active duty.
=Organization=
The reserves normally train two days a month and may perform up to 15 days of Active Duty for Training a year. The Coast Guard Reserve has about 8,000 men and women in service, most of them integrated directly with Coast Guard units.
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