Who We Are

Flotilla 12-6 is based in Mt. Pleasant, SC. with a Detachment located at Santee Cooper Locks. We are associated with U.S. Coast Guard Station in Charleston, SC.  Regular monthly meetings are held the third Thursday of each month at 7:00 p.m. at the Sea School facility, 624-B Marina Drive, Daniel Island, SC  
 

Members elect the two top officers in the Flotilla. They are the Flotilla Commander and the Vice Flotilla Commander. These two, and the  Staff Officers appointed by them, administer the Flotilla activities.

Gary Graham,  Flotilla Commander
Al Crothers, Vice Flotilla Commander

For more information, contact Flotilla Commander Gary Graham at (843) 971.6280 or via email edrie@comcast.net .

Mt. Pleasant, SC, Flotilla 12-6, was founded on November 15, 1992 and celebrated its 15th anniversary.    

The Coast Guard Auxiliary generally follows the geographic organization of the U.S. Coast Guard  and is organized as shown in the table below. While this table shows the hierarchical structure, Auxiliarists always enter and remain members of a Flotilla.
 

U.S. Coast Guard	Parent Organization
National Board	Headquarters Unit
District	Geographic Grouping of Divisions
Division	Geographic Grouping of Flotillas
Flotilla (Click Here to See Who Does What)	Local Working Unit

The Coast Guard Reserve was founded by a 1939 act of Congress. It became an integral part of the United States Coast Guard and its rich and varied heritage of: the Revenue Service, the Life Saving Service and the Lighthouse Service. In 1941, the military Coast Guard Reserve was created by Congress and the civilian, volunteer group was renamed the Coast Guard Auxiliary.

Joining the Auxiliary is an opportunity for people to serve their country. Auxiliarists have saved many lives and prevented countless accidents. With more than 32,000 members, the Auxiliary is almost as large as its parent organization - the Coast Guard. The  Auxiliary is part of Team Coast Guard, offering the best training available, along with many other benefits. Auxiliarists are congressionally authorized, unpaid volunteers who assist with many Coast Guard missions. Some of these missions, such as Search and rescue involve an element of danger.

In 1996, Congress passed the first major revision to the original statute which authorized the Auxiliary. The revisions were made when it became apparent that existing statutes were antiquated and changes were required to permit the Auxiliary to meet the needs of the service. These changes expanded the Auxiliary's missions. The Coast Guard now uses Auxiliary Resources in any mission with the exception of combat and direct law enforcement activities. The law also clarified the status of Auxiliarists and ensured that while on duty (under orders) they are considered federal employees. As a result, whenever an Auxiliarist is performing an authorized mission under orders, he/she is protected as any other federal employee from civil liability as well as for medical, disability and death benefit compensation.

Today, Auxiliary men and women are full-fledged partners of Team Coast Guard. These volunteers can be found at nearly every unit in the service doing much of the same work as active-duty members. The seamless integration into Coast Guard activities still allows the Auxiliary to lead in areas where it is most knowledgeable, such as boater education. With  the Coast Guard's small size, opportunities for the Auxiliary have grown. It is estimated that the Auxiliary provides millions of dollars in service to America.  Auxiliarists are in operations centers, administrative offices, on the water and in the air. They do all this for many reasons: for altruism, for the excitement, for the fun and for the camaraderie offered by an organization such as the Coast Guard.

Perhaps most impressive - Auxiliarists do these jobs willingly, enthusiastically and for FREE!

Happy Birthday to the Modern Coast Guard

Commentary: On January 20, 1915 Congress passed a bill to merge the U.S.

Lifesaving Service and U.S. Revenue Cutter Service to form the modern U.S. Coast Guard. On January 28, 1915, President Woodrow Wilson signed the bill into law. Below is the related New York Times article on this event. Not sure if the modern Coast Guard birthday is January 20th or 28th. Note the reference to the Coast Guard as "sea police." Worth the time to read.

NY TIMES

January 31, 1915

REVENUE CUTTERS NOW COAST GUARDS

Our Famous Force of Little Ships Merged with the Life-Saving Service.

IN NAVY IN TIME OF WAR

New Law Puts This Highly Trained Body of Sea Police in the Military Establishment

With the flashing of wireless messages from every Government station along the Atlantic and Pacific Coasts yesterday the United States Revenue Cutter Service ceased to exist as a unit, and men and vessels became a part of the United States Coast Guard Service. The rank of the officers remains unchanged, and their vessels continue the same duties, although they are now known as coast guard cutters. All this put into effect the provisions of the law recently passed by Congress and signed by President Wilson on Thurs-day, whereby the Revenue Cutter Service and the Life Saving Service were merged into one organization.

By this law the service becomes a part of the regular military establishment of the United States, and in time of war it passes under the direct control of the Navy Department. All life-saving stations will be controlled by the coast guard, and all life-saving crews will be made up of regularly enlisted men detailed from the new organization. Heretofore the Life-Saving Service has been carried on the civil lists.

The Revenue Cutter Service has played an important part In the affairs of this country, both in times of peace as well as in war. On the walls of the office of the Chief of the service in the Treasury Building in Washington hangs the faded commission that Washington gave to Col. Hopley Yeaton of the New Hampshire, the first officer commissioned in the revenue branch of the service. It is also the first commission granted by the first President to any sea officer. Capt. Yeaton had been a Lieutenant on the frigates Raleigh and Dean of the Continental Navy, and most of the first officers and men of the service were drawn from this hardy fighting stock.

The disbandment of the Continental Navy made expedient the formation of the Revenue Cutter Service, far after freedom was won, our fathers disbanded the navy and there were neither ships to sail against an 'enemy nor men to sail them. The Revenue Cutter Service was organized by an act of the first Congress and was approved by President Washington on Aug. 4, 1790. In November of the following year the service was well organized, and ten ships were ready for duty. For six years after that date the Revenue Cutter Service was the only armed sea force of the new republic.

Little Ships Never Idle.

It was soon named the "busy" service, and the name has stuck, for the thousands of men and officers and the ships of the service found their sphere of activity along every mile of our coast line and possessions from California to Alaska. From Maine to Panama, and from the Philippines to Porto Rico.

Its duties were manifold, and ranged all the way from furnishing joy rides upon special occasions to braving storm-tossed seas in succor of the shipwrecked. To it was assigned the duty of protecting the customs, and it had the right to search all merchant vessels arriving in American waters; it was expected to suppress piracy, search for wrecked or missing ships, to enforce the neutrality laws by preventing armed expeditions against friendly powers, to put down mutinies upon the high seas or navigable waters, of the United States, to protect the sea fisheries of the Alaskan waters and the sponge fishers of Florida and the Gulf of Mexico, and to enforce the navigation laws and quarantine regulations.

Its cutters policed the coasts and inland waters, part of its duties being to guard the courses of international yacht races and rowing contests, and, in deed, to maintain order whenever there was danger of a "crowd" gathering near our coasts and waterways.

It was required to construct and inspect life saving stations, to drill the crews and to aid shipwrecked crews. The duties of the service also included searching for and destroying derelicts at sea and finding hidden reefs that threatened navigation. Of late years it has acted at times as an ice patrol along the steamship lanes. Generally speaking the service was supposed to keep an eye open constantly, in harbors. in ports and on the open sea to see that sailormen were not engaged in any un-lawful operations.

The service was not open to every one. Its officers were trained in the Cadet School at Arundel Cove. Md. and appointments were made strictly upon competitive educational examinations. These examinations were held through-out the country from time to time. The course of training required three years. With all their other duties time had to be found for practice at target drill.

Has a Brilliant Record.

The record of the Revenue Cutter Ser-vice Is a brilliant one. In the days when the nation was young, it was a real fighting force and its history narrates a series of victories won and brave deeds performed. In 1789 when we had trouble with France, the revenue cutter Pickering captured ten prizes in engagements with the enemy, and a sister ship, the Eagle, took five. The first capture by our maritime forces in the war at 1812 was made by the revenue cutter Jefferson. She brought in the British schooner Patriot. By the end of the war, Jefferson had to her credit a totals of fourteen English vessels. The service again performed brilliant work in cooperating with the land forces in the Seminole war. Again in the war with Mexico the cutters played their part. Five of them performed efficient service in the attack upon Alvarado and Tabasco, and in the blockading of the Mexican fleet.

In 1858 we sent a naval force to Paraguay. With that squadron went the cutter Harriet Lane and her work was so efficient that Commodore ShubrIck wrote a letter to the Secretary of the Navy commending the officers and the crew. The vessels of the Service were in many engagements of the Civil War. In the Spanish War the gallant services of the Hudson and McCulloch are still remembered.

Whenever a contagious disease threatened the Revenue Cutter Service was charged with the duty of enforcing the marine quarantine laws and cooperating with the Public Health Service and the Marine Hospital service. The health work of the Revenue Cutter Service was especially commended in 1905 when the Gulf Coast was swept by a yellow fever epidemic.

A most important branch of its work was the relief of vessels in distress. Not only has it been instrumental in the savings of billions of dollars worth of property, but also in saving the lives of thousands of persons. In one year the value of vessels and cargoes saved amounted to $33,611,665. The President designates certain cutters each year, in the stormy months from December to April, to patrol the coast and the Great Lakes in search of vessels in distress. Wireless has made the duty of patrolling an easier one, but it has not lessened the danger of the work. The "SOS" call of distress is the call to duty of the cutter picking it up.

The cutters are built to carry guns, but in the cases of those engaged in the more peaceful lines of work these guns are not mounted. The cutters carry four-inch guns in time of war, when they become a part of the fighting force of the navy. In times of peace, when engaged in stopping smuggling, or looking for pirates or sea poachers they are equipped with six 3-pound guns and Colt automatic guns.

The coast guard comes into being with a total personnel of 4,300 officers and men, combining highly educated officers and trained seamen from the revenue cutter service and the best surf men in the country from the life-savers. The training and development of the new body will devolve upon the former revenue cutter officers, and its active management will be directed by a captain-commandant, corresponding to the same office which controlled the revenue cutter service.