Flotilla 25-4 What's New!

Auxiliarist Babor presented with recognition for attaining Basically Qualified (BQ) status by FC Hernandez.

Auxiliarist Ludwig presenting to members of the East Hartford Flotilla.

Members Present to Flotilla and Receive Recognition

Roger Rosella was recognized and presented with the "Oar", which is inscribed with the following message:

"This award represents your loyalty and meritorious service to the USCG Auxiliary Division 014-25.  New London, CT.  We wish you the best in your future endeavors!"

The Sustained Auxiliary Service Award was presented to Mr. Daniel M. Herring on 13JUN2023 for Superior Performance of Duty from 27JUL2021 to 01JAN2023 - Service in Excess of 1,368 Cumulative Hours.

On 07FEB2022, Flotilla 25-04 received the DHS Outstanding Unit Award.

On Saturday, December 18th, Dave Obedzinski participated in a public affairs mission to serve as a section leader and wreath bearer at the Wreaths Across America Day in New Britain. Traditionally more than 1,200 wreaths are placed on the graves of veterans in Fairview Cemetery each December during Wreaths Across America Day - a nationwide memorial activity traditionally held at 1,600 sites. Dave supervised the placement of wreaths by volunteers in two of the veteran sections in the cemetery and because of inclement weather the ceremony following the placement of the wreaths took place indoors at the VFW Chapter 8 in New Britain. The guest speakers included the Honorable Erin E. Stewart, Mayor of New Britain and other local dignitaries. Dave was honored to participate in the ceremony in his Coast Guard Auxiliary uniform and present, with honors, one of the ceremonial wreaths that day.

On Saturday, December 19th Dave Obedzinski participated in a public affairs mission to serve as a wreath bearer at the Wreaths Across America Day New Britain Ceremony. Traditionally more than 1,400 wreaths are placed on the graves of veterans in Fairview Cemetery each December during Wreaths Across America Day - a nationwide memorial activity traditionally held at 1,600 sites; however, this year because of COVID pandemic precautions, the New Britain committee decided to conduct a ceremony only with wreaths laid for each service as well as for POW/MIA to be the symbolic wreaths for all veterans this year thus eliminating the crowds of volunteers that would normally gather to assist. The guest speaker was the Honorable Erin E. Stewart, Mayor of New Britain and the ceremony was limited to the planning committee, those participating in the ceremony, and a few local dignitaries. Dave was honored to participate in the ceremony in his Coast Guard Auxiliary uniform and present, with honors, one of the wreaths that day.

Photo credit to Paul Salina.

Coast Guard Auxiliarist Mikhail Nolan of the East Hartford, CT Flotilla (014-25-04) and his significant other, Amanda Mckelvey, have been aiding the effort to combat the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic.

Mckelvey is a contractor for New England Sameday, LLC, a Connecticut based private courier service. New England Sameday, LLC provides services to the Mayo Clinic, hospitals, laboratories, and other healthcare facilities throughout New England.

Having found himself unemployed as a result of the COVID-19 outbreak, Nolan volunteers his time and assists Mckelvey with her increased duties resulting from the pandemic.

Nolan and Mckelvey travel to various facilities throughout Connecticut, retrieve blood samples and store them with dry ice, and deliver them to a third-party for shipment to out-of-state laboratories for testing.

East Hartford Flotilla member Mikhail Nolan outside the New England Sameday, LLC warehouse in Wethersfield on Monday, April 27, 2020, preparing to head to Lawrence & Memorial Hospital in New London, CT.

For the past 15 years, Coast Guard Auxiliary members from District 1 South have taken an important role in helping the service prepare its newest officer candidates for active duty assignments.  Please click the link below to read the full story.

/Uploads_wowII/014-25-04/AUX_OCS_Briefing.pdf 

Giving the briefing to the larger OCS class of officer candidates in an auditorium at the U.S. Coast Guard Academy

AUX Instructor Sean Peoples, Officer Candidate Sophia Rubino, and AUX Instructor David Obedzinski following the briefing made to OCS 1-20 Class in October 2019. Rubino is an Auxiliarist and Air Observer from San Diego where she has been active in the Auxiliary for five years prior to enlisting. She will attend flight school following her commissioning. 

AUX Instructor David Obedzinski stands among the officer candidates of OCS Class 1-20 in October 2019 following their receiving the Auxiliary briefing at the U.S. Coast Guard Academy. 

Please click on the link below to read the full story of East Hartford Flotilla's Boating Safety Class conducted 25JAN2020.

/Uploads_wowII/014-25-04/East_Hartford_Flotilla_Hosted_Boating_Safety_Class.pdf 

On Tuesday evening, January 14, 2020, Chief Petty Officer Sebastian Derda of the U.S. Coast Guard’s Hartford, CT Recruiting Station gave a brief presentation to the East Hartford Auxiliary Flotilla. The topic of the Chief’s presentation was a recent Coast Guard initiative to engage Auxiliarists in assisting local Coast Guard recruiting offices. Chief Derda outlined a training protocol that would allow Auxiliarists to assist in recruiting efforts to augment the staff at local recruiting stations and transport candidates for initial testing. The attached link is to Chief Derda’s BIO.

/Uploads_wowII/014-25-04/CPO_S._Derda.pdf 

At our East Hartford Flotilla meeting on Tues., 12NOV19, CAPT. Timothy Keeney, USN (Retired), was our special guest speaker. Captain Keeney was part of the Apollo 17 Navy SEAL splash-down recovery team. Captain Keeney gave a remarkable slide presentation of the SEAL team's training and recovery efforts of the last manned mission to the moon. Pictured below, left to right, is Captain Keeney at his retirement from the Navy, the SEAL recovery team pictured with the Apollo 17 astronauts and Keeney standing outside the Apollo 17 capsule on December 19, 1972. In the background is the USS Ticonderoga approx. 10 miles from American Samoa in the Pacific. The presentation was well attended and well received by the Auxiliary members in attendance. A more complete description of Keeney's presentation is attached.

Upon retiring from the U.S. Navy, Captain Keeney went on to distinguished service in federal and state government including a term in office at NOAA and as a Probate Court Judge in North Central CT. Currently, Keeney is an attorney at the Hartford based law firm of Brown Paindiris & Scott, LLP in the Glastonbury office and very recently, he won election to serve as a Selectman for the Town of Somers, CT. A more complete Bio appears below.

Judge of Probate, N. Central Connecticut (Enfield, Somers, Stafford, Union), 2011 - 2018
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Deputy Assistant Secretary/Oceans & Atmosphere, 2002 - 2009
Marine Conservation Community, Deputy Assistant Secretary O&A, 2002 - 2009
Northeast Utilities Corporation, Director Environmental Services, 1998 - 2002
Rhode Island Dept of Environmental Management, Director, 1995 - 1997
Connecticut Dept of Environmental Protection, Commissioner, 1991 - 1995
Gov. Lowell P. Weicker Jr., Appropriations Committee Clerk, 1979 - 1982
U.S. Senate, Senate Appropriates Committee, 1979 - 1982

Please open the attached link to read the complete article.

/Uploads_wowII/014-25-04/Retired_U.S._Navy_pilot__Dean_J._Wojcik.pdf 

TRAVERSE CITY AIR STATION, Mich. – Vice Flotilla Commander Sean M. Peoples attended the AUX12 Public Affairs C-School held at the Traverse City, Michigan Air Station from July 29th to Aug 1st in preparation for his PA3 classification.  Peoples is front row, third from left in the class photo.

Manchester, CT resident Carey Harmon, (third from left), was formally sworn in recently as a member of the East Hartford, CT Flotilla of the U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary, a part of Division 25. Harmon is a retired Millwright with the Metropolitan District Commission trash to energy plant. 

The area of responsibility for Division 25 is from the Connecticut River, east to Rhode Island and from the Massachusetts border to Long Island Sound including Orient Point, N.Y. Division 25 also staffs the Coast Guard sub-station on Fishers Island, N.Y. every other weekend from Memorial Day to Labor Day.

The United States Coast Guard Auxiliary has served as the civilian, uniformed volunteer component of the United States Coast Guard for 80 years. The 26,000 volunteer members of the U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary donate millions of hours in support of Coast Guard missions, such as search and rescue, public education and maritime domain awareness.

The primary mission of the Auxiliary is recreational boating safety. To that end, the Auxiliary offers public education courses, conducts vessel safety checks and augments the mission of active-duty personnel at Station New London. Please visit www.cgaux.org.

Members of Flotilla 25-04 pose for a photo opp in the Officer's Club at the Coast Guard Academy during Division 25's Change of Watch. 

CURRENT EVENTS:

Day 4 of the Bounty Hearings and USCG Rescue; Topics include experience and caulking...

"Hull repair – for obvious reasons – has been of primary interest to the investigators since the hearings began. Besides the plank replacements done by the Boothbay Shipyard in the late 2012 yard period, investigators were paying a lot of attention to the caulking – the method used to seal between planks. Caulking is not a simple (or easy) process on wood boats. It involves literally beating strands of cotton and then oakum (an oiled hemp material) into the seams between planks using large irons and wooden hammers of varying size. In the days before synthetic materials, the final step was to cover the seams (and the entire hull below the waterline) with hot tar"

For more information go here;  http://gcaptain.com/illusion-experience-bounty-hearings/

SAFETY: Cold Water's 1-10-1 Rule

For more information go here Coast Guard Auxiliary Live