Introducing Bill Bowen
District Chief of Staff
First District Southern Region
Semper Paratus.
Respectfully,
Bill Bowen
Bill Bowen
District Chief of Staff,
First District Southern Region
District Chief of Staff's Message
OVER THE BOW Winter 2017
Bill Bowen comes from many generations of watermen and the love of the sea and its lore is in his blood. He was born and raised in eastern Virginia in a fishing village on the Chesapeake Bay. He sailed from a young age during the summer with his father on a bay freighter hauling corn, soy beans, wheat, gravel and slag up and down the Bay.
At the age of eighteen, he became an Ordinary Seaman in the U. S. Maritime Service and continued to work on the water. It was in the middle of the Vietnam conflict that, six months after high school in January 1968, he enlisted in the U. S. Coast Guard and attended basic training in Cape May, NJ. His assignments from there were the USCGC BOUTWELL, Boston, MA, Quartermaster/Signalman School, U. S. Naval Training Center, Newport, RI, USCGC DECISIVE, Portsmouth, NH, and USCGC WHITE PINE in Baltimore, MD and then Mobile, AL.
From there he served as Operations Officer, Boat Crew/Coxswain Training Officer, Law Enforcement Liaison and Training Officer and Small Arms Range Coach at Coast Guard Group Eastern Shore on Chincoteague Island, VA.
Upon promotion to Chief Petty Officer, Bill was assigned to the USCGC ALERT in Cape May, NJ as Chief Quartermaster, Deck Watch Officer, Boarding Officer, Law Enforcement Training Officer and Command Enlisted Advisor.
Bill continued his career in the Coast Guard but focused on law enforcement by joining the Coast Guard Investigative Service as a Coast Guard Special Agent. He was stationed in Miami and then as Senior Special Agent at the Coast Guard Academy where he completed his service upon retirement on 1 August 1994 as a Senior Chief Petty Officer and Special Agent.
Upon retirement, Bill joined the Connecticut Judicial system as an investigator with the Office of the Public Defender and served for twenty years, retiring on 1 February, 2014.
Bill is married to his wife Peggy and they have two sons, one a 1993 graduate of the Coast Guard Academy, the other from UCONN, and six grandchildren. Bill joined and has been an active member of the Auxiliary since March, 2005.
Aut Viam Inveniam Aut Faciam.
Translation: "I Shall Either Find a Way or Make One." Innovators find a way, and if there is one, they make it better.
Semper Paratus.
Respectfully,
Bill Bowen
Bill Bowen
District Chief of Staff,
First District Southern Region
Finis Origine Pendet.
Translation: "The End Depends on the Beginning." Your career in the Auxiliary and any of the training courses, offices you may hold or schools you may attend all relate to this phrase. The end result, your accomplishments depend on how you approach the beginning.