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As stated on our home page, the Auxiliary plays many roles in public education and safety. We conduct routine safety patrols, help out with Search and Rescue evolutions, and tow distressed vessels. We also teach classes to each other and the public, all to promote and ensure safety on the water.

An activity we participate in throughout the year (and quite often, at that) is our Airdrop Support missions. During these, we go out into the Gulf of Mexico on one of our facilities. Planes (HU-25 Falcons and HC-144s) come out to our position from Air Station Mobile and drop simulated care packages into the water (using us as a target) which we then retrieve and return to the Coast Guard for reuse.

Left: Curt Marsh and Joe Weems converse during some between-drop downtime.

Below: Hauling in our freshly dropped bounty! Left to right: Doug Wells, Joe Weems, Barry Cottrell, Curt Marsh.

A big 'thank you' to member David Keith for these photos! 

This activity is more for the active duty guys than for us. During these missions, they are training and recertifying their people so that if a distressed vessel needs a package dropped, they'll be ready. We really enjoy doing these missions as they are a lot of fun all around. We have a video of one of these drops on our YouTube channel, and more pictures on our Facebook page!