NAV EX 3rd QTR. 2017 NavEx 3rd Qtr 2017 - FINAL Draft | Page 3

Sector Houston/Galveston, staffed with between 15-
30 Auxiliary members at a time.
Their members served a vital role in the Joint
Information Center (JIC) and in other positions in
the operations, planning, resources, logistics, and
communication departments. Twenty one Auxiliary
members provided a convoy to transport government
vehicles from San Antonio and Dallas to Houston
while Auxiliary Food Services members fed countless
hungry Coast Guardsmen filtering through galleys.
Operationally, Auxiliary members have blended
into air and surface operations often acting as air
controllers, observers for search and rescue cases,
flying logistical missions, and performing damage/
pollution assessments in the intercoastal waterway
and aids to navigation verification.
To continue in assisting the Coast Guard’s efforts for
aiding southeastern Texas, the Incident Management
Auxiliary Coordination Cell (IMACC) had been
stood up at the Coast Guard District Eight building
by Joseph Gleason, Deputy Director for Incident
Management and Preparedness (Dir-Qd) at the
peak of Hurricane Harvey’s wake. The composition
of the IMACC consisted of several national and local
leaders including deputy national commodores Alex
Malewski and Linda Merryman, district commodores
Bob Tippet and Thomas “Dave” McCandless, and
district staff officers Cheryl Eubanks and Morrie
Bishop.
Several other core members of the team cycled in
and out throughout the event and all participated in a
cohesive and collaborative manner to get Auxiliarists
to where they needed to be. With an inclusive effort,
this powerhouse of leadership and knowledge were
able to link active duty with Auxiliary counterparts
to ensure that the mission was met with knowledge,
prowess, and ability.
According to Commodore Dave McCandless, “If
you didn’t look at collar devices, you wouldn’t be
able to tell who is Auxiliary and who is active duty”.
The seamless integration between active duty and
the Auxiliary force multiplier demonstrated the
cornerstone of the successful mission support and
longevity of available resources.
Headquartered in the heart of New Orleans, the IMACC
served as a one-stop shop for requesting Auxiliary
support services ranging from administrative duties
OR express
Michael Heid, USCG Aux
LEFT: COMO Malewski, DNACO-O and COMO Merryman,
DNACO-ITP discuss response planning in the wake of Hurricane
Harvey. ABOVE: Auxiliarists work their assigned areas during the
response to Hurricane Harvey.
to operation specialists. During the inaugural roll-out,
the IMACC contributed to finding qualified Auxiliarists
to fill requests from active duty counterparts based
on the ICS (Incident Command System) requirements
and researching skills bank and qualification
databases.
“If we wonder why we train, why we take the ICS
(Incident Command System) courses, why we take
the mandated courses, this [event] should be enough
to convince our members of why we should be
ready,” wrote Commodore Randy Ventress, District
Commodore for Eighth Eastern Region. Based
on qualifications and appropriate fit for position,
members were assigned to duty, given orders,
and were deployed to their respective missions.
Throughout the process, at least 100 Auxiliarists
were successfully deployed in support of the Coast
Guard mission.
As the phase of the event moved from “response”
to “recovery”, nationally, Auxiliary members were at
the ready and had volunteered for the call in various
areas including; wor king in the ICP, performing air
operations, operations ashore, operations afloat,
public affairs, food services, general administration,
and interpreting.
Looking to the future, the Coast Guard will continue
to remain vigilant on preparing for the worst, yet
hoping for the best. With a collaborative approach
between the active duty and the Auxiliary, more lives
will continue to be saved, rescues continue to be
sharper, and responses continue to be quicker.
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