Welcome to the beautiful Florida Panhandle and our Gulf of Mexico white sand beaches, large bays, unique coastal dune lakes, tranquil bayous and meandering rivers.  In both the USA central and eastern time zones, it is an area unique in the USA and the world.

From Pensacola to the Apalachee Bay, we proudly serve our communities and Nation in Team Coast Guard in 2023.

Mike Fitzgerald                                           Dan Berry
81-1 Division Commander (DCDR)          81-1 Vice Division Commander (VCDR)

Division 1, 8th Coastal Region covers the Florida Panhandle, Southwest Georgia, and Southeast Alabama, with Flotillas in Pensacola, Destin, Panama City, and Apalachee Bay. Our Area of Responsibility (AOR) includes nearly 400 miles of shoreline on the Gulf of Mexico, the Intracoastal Waterway (ICW), and many bays, bayous and inlets.  The Florida Panhandle has rapidly growing recreational and commercial boating communities, as well as international shipping ports, which we are proud to support.

2023 is the year of new invigoration of the Panhandle Team of 130 Auxiliarists.  The Division has scheduled 4 regular meetings and 1 planning meeting in 2023, as we work to communicate and coordinate all the skills and qualifications of our Shipmates across all missions.  There is so much opportunity and all Shipmates have endless ways to engage to be active in Team Coast Guard.

Our Division meetings provide opportunities for Members of all Flotillas to interact, share best practices, train in new specialties and qualifications, and implement policy and achieve objectives from Coast Guard Auxiliary and Coast Guard Leadership.

Our Members are trained and qualified to conduct numerous missions for recreational boating safety, including boating operation and safety education, vessel examinations, marine dealer visits, boating and paddlecraft events.  We conduct water patrols to support safe boating, search and rescue, aids to navigation verification, regattas and events support. All of these activities are focused on helping the public and all mariners operate safely on the water.

Division 81-1 supports our active-duty units, including Stations, Bases, Cutters, Marine Safety Detachments and Aids to Navigation Teams. Auxiliarists are trained and qualified as Watchstanders, Culinary Service, Pollution Investigators, Container Inspectors, Examiners of Commercial "Uninspected" Vessels, Aids to Navigation Verifiers, Surface Water Missions Crew, Manned Air Missions Crew, Unmanned Air Missions Crew and much more seen and unseen.

Visit the Flotilla web pages for comments about their local activities. 

We are the "trained volunteer reserves".  Since establishment of the USCG Auxiliary by the U.S. Congress in 1939, we are over 21,000 trained volunteers proud to be an important part of Team Coast Guard.  We are Semper Paratus!

        Join us and serve our communities and Nation in Team Coast Guard.

Click our USCGAux link to learn more:    https://join.cgaux.org/

                                 Land, Sea and Air, we are Semper Paratus.