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The History of the U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary
at Rochester, N.Y.
The Rochester area Flotilla 42 has a rich history dating back to World War Two, making it one of the oldest active
flotillas in the nation.
OVERVIEW
1934 - A west coast yachtsman proposed to the Coast Guard an idea of a Coast Guard Reserve to establish
a relationship between the Coast Guard and the boating community.
June 23, 1939 - U.S. Congress legislated the establishment of the Coast Guard Reserve as a volunteer Civilian
organization comprised of U.S. citizens. It was this year that the first members of the future Rochester Coast Guard
Auxiliary started as volunteer Coast Guard Reservists.
February 19, 1941 - Coast Guard Reserve was restructured with the start of WWII. The civilian portion was
called the Coast Guard Auxiliary and a new Coast Guard Reserve functioned as a military unit. The Reserve consisted
of Regulars who had to meet certain requirements and Temporary Reservists (TRs) who could not meet requirements.
The ‘temporary’ designation referred to the member as the member was not on full time duty. Members of the Auxiliary
could offer to become TRs and many of our Rochester original members enrolled. These TRs offered their boats for war
time patrol in the local area as well as performing shore patrol. The Coast Guard requisitioned guns for these vessels.
1942 - First Coast Guard Auxiliary uniforms (khakis) were authorized.
April 13, 1943 - The Rochester Coast Guard Auxiliary Flotilla 3-01 was established headed by J. Webb L. Sheehy
and Harold Field who were both TRs. The Auxiliary trained members to become TRs. (scan style="font-size: 10px;"This training was a for runner
of our current member & Public Education training.)
1945 - The Temporary Reserves were demobilized at wars end and all TRs were “honorably disenrolled” and
awarded the Victory Medal.
1947 - When the Sodus Flotilla disbanded, 7 members transferred to Rochester Flotilla 3-01.
1947 - 1950 - J. Webb L. Sheehy held the office of Vice Commodore of Area O (a part of District 9) which covered
Lake Ontario west to Dunkirk and south to Ithaca. In 1951 he was elected as District Commodore.
January 1948 - The Public Education and Vessel Examination programs were established.
May 1950 - Flotilla 3-01 acquired its’ current building from the estate of Lorraine Gussen.
1950 - Flotilla 3-1 had an Auxiliary aircraft piloted by Lawrence C. Gleason VFC.
1952 - The Auxiliary District 9 reorganized its Divisions and Flotillas changing Flotilla 3-1 to 2-4.
1955 - J.Webb L. Sheehy was elected as the 3rd National Commodore of the Coast Guard Auxiliary.
1960s - Al Bowers and Jack Palmer had Auxiliary aircraft facilities
November 1974 - District 9 reorganized changing Flotilla 2-4 to 4-2. All members of the old 2-4 were assigned
new ID numbers and became charter members of 4-2.
1975 - The Auxiliary switched from the original khaki uniforms to blues. National said the khakis could be
worn until they wore out. Well, these khakis seemed to not wear out fast enough so National directed all to change to blues.
1975 - The 42 elections could not produce a Flotilla Commander so we were granted a waiver for Richard
Tanner to run for a third consecutive term. We had to do a little arm twisting with Richard but he conceded for 1
more term.
1970s - 1980s - Annual weekend SAR training cruises to various lake ports were a tradition. One team would
be charged with establishing coordinates where they would set out early in the morning to set the markers. Four to five
teams with boats and crew, each assigned to a marker, would set out to locate and collect the markers.
1990s - The Auxiliary has constantly improved processes to make our efforts more productive with better
training and technology such as Boat Crew, Coxswain and GPS training.
March 2001 - Auxiliarists from 42 and 48 manned Station Rochester for a few days when the Station duty
crew was dispatched to Buffalo to help in the search for 4 Coast Guardsmen missing on routine patrol.
November 2002 - A train wreck near our Base caused a fire that narrowly missed our building requiring the
Flotilla to have meetings and PE classes at Holy Cross church until February 2003.
January 2006 - The Auxiliary Career Counselor (CC) program was terminated and replaced by the new Academy
Admissions Partner Program (AAPP). This was done to adapt Coast Guard Academy recruiting to meet today’s competitive
college recruiting challenges. Flotilla 42 remains active in the new program. A new CG support program began rolling out
known as Aux/Chef subsequently changed to Aux/FS (food services) with a few Flotilla 42 members getting qualified.
2010 - 2012 - Major building repair in replacing sills, new front and sign to building.
January 2013 - New core training requirements were introduced by national to put all Auxiliary members on the
some footing as Coast Guard personnel.
April 2013 - The Flotilla historical archives for the period 1939 - 1st quarter 2013 were all scanned, reproduced on
CDs and distributed to members.
NOTE: This page will be updated as more information becomes available.
Last Update: by Len McFadden, Flotilla 42 Historian, 29 September 2018
Reference
by Michael Scott and Chilloa Young (Unit Historians)
December 3, 1988
If you wish to get a copy of this document you can download it by clinking on the link below.