Auxiliarist
First and Foremost-COMO Ken Jacobs Honored as
of the Year
OMMODORE KEN JACOBS, a member from our First District Southern, Flotilla 77,
was honored by the Commandant of the Coast Guard, Admiral Paul Zukunft as
national “Auxiliarist of the Year” recognizing COMO Jacob’s significant
achievement and leadership with the Coast Guard Academy’s Diversity initiative. COMO Jacobs has served as a Coast Guard Academy Admissions Partner and Diversity Outreach Officer for the past eleven years.
As Admiral Zukunft stated in the September 2016 USCG blog on Diversity, “Diversity is essential to our mission. Diversity adds value. It enables diversity of thought which directly contributes to our capability for innovation, new approaches and fresh perspectives. It reflects the demographics of the society we serve.”
COMO Jacobs has served for 19 years in the Auxiliary after active duty service in the U.S. Navy, he saw the Coast Guard Auxiliary as a “way of giving back.”
“The opportunities to serve the Coast Guard and Coast Guard Auxiliary are greater now than they ever have been. Auxiliary volunteers can serve in any Coast Guard mission with the exception of law enforcement.” Jacobs said. COMO Jacobs service in the Auxiliary has ranged across a number of positions, but his role since 2008 as Diversity Outreach Officer representing the Coast Guard Academy has been a major commitment for him. “I’ve been on the road across America, speaking to high school assemblies, at educator summit meetings, meeting with school counselors, students, parents to pass the word about the incredible career opportunities available through the Academy and the opportunities to serve our country.” By ‘on the road’ Jacobs said he was home for just 32 days in 2013. Jacobs reflected, “Through the Academy’s Outreach Program, I’ve had the incredible experience of meeting great people across this nation from Tribal Elders with Native American communities in America’s West to high school guidance counselors in major urban cities on the East Coast.” COMO Jacobs has established relationships between these high school counselors and the Admissions Team at the Academy. He has had the deep satisfaction of seeing high school students he has helped recruit go to the Academy, graduate after four years and then serve as Commissioned Officers in the Coast Guard.
Admiral Zunkunft presented the distinguished award “Auxiliarist of the Year” to COMO Jacobs at NACON this year recognizing his “dedication and devotion to duty are in keeping with the highest traditions of the Coast Guard and Coast Guard Auxiliary.”
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