NAV EX Florence Edition NavEx 3rd Qtr 2018 - FINALa | Page 16

Interviews with Active Duty
SUBJECT: Lieutenant Junior Grade Samantha Corcoran
patrols and other things. They definitely are very
helpful to us, just being able to get out on the water.
NAVEX: In what ways does the Auxiliary provide value
to the Coast Guard during a hurricane response?
USCG Aux photo by Robert A. Fabich
NAVEX: What roles do the Auxiliary fill in a response
to a hurricane event that provides value to the Coast
Guard?
LTJG Corcoran: When there’s different emergency
operations going on at Sector, it’s really useful for us
to be able to utilize the Auxiliary for their small boats
and for helping us assess the port and the surrounding
area afterwards since we want to assess the damage
that was done from the natural disaster. It’s really
useful to be able to utilize them in search and rescue
missions so that they can augment all the different
rescues we need to be doing with active duty and
other agencies. We just want to get as many people
out on the water as possible and be able to show the
community we are out here and ready to help. I have
also seen different Auxiliarists being qualified at our
active duty Coast Guard stations, too, and that helps
with augmenting our schedules so that we can get
more active duty out on the water and be able to
supplement our watch schedules.
NAVEX: How does the relationship between the
active duty Coast Guard and the Auxiliary work to
maximize support during a hurricane response?
LTJG Corcoran: The Auxiliary here is great. There is a
huge presence at Sector Charleston. During different
response operations they are very involved and very
ready to help. They are always out doing different
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LTJG Corcoran: One of the things that I didn’t
realize that the Auxiliary could provide is different
communications platforms for us. So, when we
were talking before the hurricane about, “What if
our radio towers go down and we need to be able
to still communicate with people who need help out
on the water?” we found out that the Auxiliarists
could provide different services for us - go setup
out by the water somewhere, set up their own little
radio antennas, and be able to help augment areas
that we can’t hear due to a tower going down. That
was really surprising to me. Also, another thing that
I really didn’t know was that the Auxiliary has really
helped us out with many different missions. When
I was on the cutter they came on and helped cook
for everyone because we were really low on culinary
specialists at the time. They came on board and
provided support for receptions and helped give
tours and whatnot. We were doing Fleet Week New
York at the time. Basically, they are a very versatile
group of people who just seem to be helpful with any
mission we are doing.
NAVEX: What skills do the Auxiliary supply to
augment the Coast Guard’s ability to carry out its
mission during times of crisis?
LTJG Corcoran: I actually find the Auxiliary Public
Affairs Specialists to be really valuable to us because
there are so few active duty Public Affairs Specialists
in the Coast Guard. A lot of the collateral duty Public
Affairs people, we have other stuff we have to be
doing during an emergency or a crisis. So, to have
Auxiliarists who can just come out, deploy, and help
take video, pictures, and take interviews, that is really
valuable to us so that we can focus on other parts of
the mission and know that public affairs and reaching
out to the community is still getting done.
NAVIGATO