34 OVER THE BOW - Spring 2016
uring 2016, Division
14 District 1SR will
celebrate 50 years of dedicated service to the United States Coast Guard and the boating public in the Port of New York/New Jersey.
The story of Division 14 or, more accurately, its roots go all the way back to the intrepid Charles Kramer, Sr.,
and his
shipmates in
the
Temporary
Reserve
during the
dark days of
World War II.
Decades later, the members of Flotilla 14-02 were indeed privileged to read Mr. Kramer’s Temporary Reserve Manual and view photos from the period, courtesy of his son, Charles Kramer, Jr. Like his father, Charlie Kramer, as many of us knew him, took the helm of Division 14, as one of its early Division Captains (as DCDRs were then titled).
Charles Kramer, Sr., the first Division Captain of Division 14, certainly started a trend, as the sons of members started to join. In the early 1970s, Auxiliary membership was opened to women, and by the 1980s, whole families started to join Division 14, many of which are active today.
Many members of Division 14 were truly honored, along with other 3NR (Third Northern) District members in December 1986, when the Coast Guard awarded us the Coast Guard Unit Commendation, for what I believe was the first time in the District’s history, for our operational contributions during OpSail ’86.
The 1986 mission was the jewel in the operational support crown, which by way of this recognition, truly seeded our position within Team Coast Guard. The Auxiliary District, of which Division 14 was a proud contributor, was seen as truly coming of age, as it supplied 300 Auxiliarists and their facilities to the Lower Bay and anchorage at then Group Sandy Hook, and 800 personnel and their facilities to the Upper Bay and then Group New York. It was the start of a new relationship with our parent service, the United States Coast Guard.
The 1990s saw the relationship with the Coast Guard grow and mature, as Division 14 members joined their District shipmates as they participated in New York Fleet Week festivities year after year. We gladly welcomed active duty crews and conducted public tours of such renowned Bear class cutters as the USCGC Campbell, USCGC Spencer, and USCGC Seneca, the Island class cutter USCGC Staten Island, the proud buoy tender, USCGC Katherine Walker and others.
Division 14 was proud to answer the call of duty again for its third OpSail in 1992, staged to honor the 500th Anniversary of Christopher Columbus’s journey to the New World. Again, along with other participating divisions, our members received the Coast Guard Unit Commendation, and for the first time, the Coast Guard Special Operations Service Ribbon.
Division 14
GOLDEN
ANNIVERSARY
Ben Pride ADSO-PB
D