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Biography – District 1 Southern Region, District Commodore Michael A. West

Michael A. West is the District Commodore for the United States Coast Guard Auxiliary, District 1 Southern Region. Joining the Auxiliary in September 2005. West has held many elected and appointed leadership positions in the Flotilla, Division and District levels, recently completing his term as District Chief of Staff, District Captain, and before served in the appointed position of the DSO-FN Officer for D1SR. West fills numerous roles as an Auxiliarist including among others: Instructor, Telecommunications Operator, Boat Crew, Program Visitor, Vessel Examiner, Aux Chef, AIDS to Navigation Verifier, Coast Guard Academy Partner and former Upstate New York Coordinator for the Academy Partners Program. 

West is a lifelong native of upstate New York and is 63 years of age. West has been married for 33 years to Cynthia West. They have a son, Zachary West, Air Force Major with the JAG Corp, who recently returned from deployment in Iraq. Zachary and his wife Susan, a former Air Force JAG Captain, have a one year old son, Benjamin Lincoln West. West loves to talk about his home flotilla and Division 014-15-09, which stretches from the Canadian border to Poughkeepsie, New York, and encompasses half the state of Vermont and a large portion of Northern New York with the AOR covering Lake Champlain, Lake George, the Mohawk and Hudson Rivers and hundreds of Adirondack and Catskill Mountain lakes and streams. 

West is a 1982 graduate of Oklahoma City University Law School, returning to his roots in upstate New York where he has practiced law for 38 years as a partner in his family’s law firm, having been elected to the position of District Attorney, and for the past 26 years as Schoharie County Attorney.