ONE TWO — THREE U.S. COAST GUARD AUXILIARY District 7 Lake Murray Flotilla 12-3 Chartered 1947

Columbia, South Carolina Meetings: Last Monday of each month on Flotilla Island at 1900. Next meeting: 29 June 2009

Information contained in this newsletter is for official US Coast Guard and Coast Guard Auxiliary use only, under the Privacy Act of 1974. The Auxiliary is guided by the current equal opportunity policies of the Commandant of the Coast Guard. No person shall be subject to

discrimination in the Auxiliary or its programs because of race, color, religion, sex, age, national origin, or disability. Editor: COMO Jay Dahlgren, 803-536-6538

Flotilla Meritorious Achievement Medal 1997

Hope everyone had a great Memorial Day, and thanks to all of you who partici-pated in the safe boating week activities. We are now in the heart of boating season and our presence on the lake is important in educating and keeping the boating public safe. Let’s take advantage of Unit One by scheduling patrols at every opportunity, and remember the two members with the most Marine Dealer Visits and VSCs

will be selected to conduct public tours aboard the Eagle in June. We also have several other events planned for June. On 11 June there will be a launching ceremony for the Spirit of Lake Murray. Although we are not formally involved I would like to have a safety patrol planned to support the ceremony if you would like to coxswain or crew let me know. The Clemson 4H Club will visit the Island on 15 June at 0900. Don Davis has taken the lead on this and he can use your support please contact Don if you can help. A special tour for Auxiliary Members of the Eagle is planned for 26 June between 0900 and 1000. This would be a great chance to tour the Eagle and meet the crew. One final note, if you are up for requal as either Crew or Coxswain be sure to contact Jerry and let him know when you can attend a refresher course to sharpen your skills and make both you and the flotilla proud. Let’s have a great summer. Ω 12

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“The mind is like a TV set - when it goes blank, it’s a good idea to turn off the sound.”

Flotilla Commander Richard G. Miner

JUNE 2009 Volume II Issue 6

Sprit of Lake Murray Ceremony

Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat

See FSO-OP Unit 1 article Page 4

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June 2009

Clemson 4-11 Club

@ Flot. Isl. 0900—1000 EAGLE tour USCG AUX.

Chas. Harbor

TALL SHIPS 26—29 June

Chas. Harbor TALL SHIPS 26—29 June

Chas. Harbor

ONE TWO — THREE

Ideally, each member will take and pass the Administrative Procedures Course (APC). It is available to all members. This course is a requirement

prior to being considered for elective office. Frankly, we need members to step up and serve as Flotilla Com-manders and Flotilla Vice Commanders. We also need members serving in Division, District, and National offices. That aside, I found this to be an invaluable course to just get to know the inner workings of the Auxiliary. With knowledge comes comfort, and as one becomes comfortable with a job, they are more confident doing the job, more successful at it, and ultimately can find a way to make the job enjoyable. Please contact me if you have an interest in taking this course. See the websites below for more information: http://www.cgaux.org/training/LeadershipTrainingCourses.html -- “Administrative Procedures Course“ (APC) Passing the APC, prior to nomination for an elected office, is one of the requirements to hold that position in the flotilla. The updated Instructor and Student Guides are now available (Revised 3-01-07).” http://ntc.cgaux.org/ -- National Testing Center Ω

The mission of the Education Department of the US Coast Guard Auxiliary is twofold: to provide exceptional boating safety education to the American public with the aim of reducing loss of life, personal injury and prop-erty damage to recreational boaters; and to deliver the highest possible quality training, resources and timely

materials in support of our flotilla instructors and public education staff officers at every level who are furnishing such boating safety education. That said, in order to accomplish this mission on a flotilla level, it is each one of our responsibility to beat the bushes and get recreational boaters enrolled. If we were to contact the local boat dealers and learn of the new purchases, a follow-up on our part could result in more stu-dents at our PE classes. Leaving brochures pertaining to our classes for the dealers to hand out is also useful. We currently are not even scratching the surface of the boaters utilizing the Lake Murray waters. Ω

JUNE 2009 Page 2

The Aids to Navigation (AN) Staff Officers changed to Navigation Systems (NS) at all levels. This name change keeps the program name consistent with the Coast Guard and better reflects the many activities available to members. ICS 210 or ICS 300 is required for both the MS Training Ribbon and Trident

Device. This is in compliance with ALAUX 08/18 which required ICS 210 or ICS 300 for those ‘qualifying in the Trident program.” The on-line form will be updated to reflect this change. Ω

“If you only look at what is, you might never attain what could be.”

Life Jacket Lessons Four hundred fifty students, ready for summer fun, learned about life jackets and other water safety at Newberry Elementary School on May 21. "Water is Wonderful . . . as long as we learn to be safe!" Through songs, relays, and question-

answer time, students reviewed important safety habits. Since it gets hot here in South Carolina in the sum-mertime, one of the best ways to stay cool is to get wet. We're ready! Ω Please see photos on page 5!

AMLOC/AUXLAMS - HELP WANTED Looking for experienced Instructors.

This is a great opportunity for you to share your Leadership expertise and experiences with your

fellow Auxiliarists. • You must have a minimum of at least 2 years experience as Auxiliary IT, with a minimum of 25 hours of documented time in AUXDATA. • Be vetted by District Commodore and DSO/MT. • Have completed the Leadership courses of CGLAMS or AUXLAMS and AMLOC. • Willing to complete the 5 day TEAM LEADER/FACILITATOR course at NACON, in August 2009, as part of requirements. • Must be able to travel. • Be able to pass inspection for correctness, neatness of the Tropical Blue uniform. • Must have served a minimum of one term as a Flotilla Commander, (AUXLAMS), or past Division Commander, (AMLOC) preferred. Contact Ken Renner DVC-TL ( kenren2468@ameritech.net) for more information. Ω

Marine Safety & Environmental Protection

Billy Lindsay

Member Training Jerry Ruschkofski

Public Education Al McCallister

Program Visitor/ Vessel Examiner Burnette Sheffield

Flotilla Vice Commander VFC Marty Delk

PREVENTION

Some time ago I mentioned that all of us have a number of contacts that we should be able to talk up the Coast Guard Aux. with and some of these contacts will probably be interested. A few of those interested will wish to learn more about our organization and

will come to a meeting. Once we get a friend or contact to the meeting this is where all attending members can make a real difference by coming up and introducing themselves to the guest and talking to him or her and learning something about this person and letting them know that we are so glad to have them and hope that they will see fit to join and work with us in this most worthwhile organization. Our flotilla has lost a number of members recently and if we are to remain afloat, we all need to do a much better job of working toward bringing some of our friends and contacts in as members. We have expenses, jobs and things that the Coast guard ask us to do and often we do not have enough qualified people to perform at a specific date and time. I would ask each member to get serious and work toward recruiting some quality new members. It takes a while to get these people qualified to help out so we are already behind schedule in getting our members increased. Ω

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ONE TWO — THREE JUNE 2009 Page 3 LOGISTICS

10 of the Most Irritating Phrases in English At the end of the day; Fairly unique; I personally; At this moment in time; With all due respect; Absolutely; It’s a

nightmare; Shouldn’t of; 24-7; It’s not rocket science. E-WRITING: Hide your recipient lists. Not only is reading through the list a nuisance, but it’s also a confi-dentially issue. Even if recipients see only first names or initials listed in the3 addresses, they can often make assumptions about similar groups and “borrow” the e-mail addresses for their own purposes. When hitting the Reply button, be sure you don’t carelessly hit “reply to all.” Reply selectively. Copy selectively. Ω

As the boating season begins, the number of members on the water, either on patrol or on their per-sonal time, will increase. As is normally the case, you will run into newsworthy items: unsafe boating, inclement weather, boaters without (or hopefully WITH) life jackets, etc. Add a digital camera to your

underway equipment, and forward any photos to me, along with a brief write-up. We have several sources, both public and Auxiliary, that could publish them. The first publication that comes to mind is “One Two – Three.” Ω

You will notice a great change in our activity reports this month. I had to pull out all of De-tachment 1 Lake Marion’s part of the reports, for those who don’t know, on June 1, 2009 they became Flotilla 12-1. They had quite a few members contributing to our activity re-

ports each month. The most important one that comes to mind is the 22 members we lost. Flotilla 12-3 now has only 34 members. No need to tell everyone that we need to start on a recruiting drive for more members. It won’t be long before 12-1 is larger than 12-3. Second thing you will notice is our figures took a nose dive in some subjects. When you lose 22 members and their accomplishments for five months, you can’t help but start to look sick. This is something we can’t help for this year, so don’t worry about it, just go on doing the good job we always do. The last item for this report is that the year is almost half over and we still have a lot of people that have not com-pleted their ACM, plus we have 7 Coxswains and 3 crew people that need the 3 year QE re-qual. So you can see we have a full plate for the rest of the year. Ω

Communications Services Ladd Harrelson

Information Systems Don Davis

Public Affairs Marty Delk, VFC

PuBlications COMO Jay Dahlgren

Personnel Services Russ Jernigan

Explaining Radio Safety to the recreational boater. Possibly one of the best ways to ensure your safety when on the water is to have appropriate communications equipment onboard with the ability to communicate easily with other vessels and shore stations when the need arises. It could be argued that anyone who operates a boat almost any-

where should be required to have a radio onboard and know how to use it. Sound and whistle signals are okay for negotiating agreement on passing or crossing situations with other vessels; however, using a radio for this pur-pose is a safer way and has become common practice. And when you need to make that emergency call for help; a radio call is much more intrusive and more likely to get attention than a signal flare, which requires someone to just happen to be looking in your direction. A handheld VHF radio can be had for a little as $99, so there’s really no excuse for not having one onboard. Ω

ONE TWO — THREE JUNE 2009 Page 4

Explaining Gasoline Engine Safety to the recreational boater. Gasoline fumes are heavier than air and will concentrate in spaces that are enclosed on the bottom and sides (which, by the way, is a good descrip-tion of a boat’s bilge and engine room). This isn’t an issue with automobiles since the engine compartment is open

on the bottom and any fumes simply descend downward and then dissipate. Since gasoline fumes are explosive in certain concentrations, this pre-sents a potentially dangerous situation for the boater. Ignition systems and any other electrical gear for marine use that creates, or has the potential to create sparks, must be enclosed to prevent sparks and gasoline fumes from coming into contact with one another. In addition, spark arrestors are required by law to be installed on engine air intakes of gasoline powered inboard and stern drive engines. Regulations also require both natural ventilation and exhaust blowers for enclosed engine and fuel tank compartments. Once refueling is complete and before any engine startup, the engine room exhaust fans are run for at least two minutes (preferably five). Before starting up, sniff for fumes in the engine room or compartment. Gasoline fume detectors are available for less than $200 and give extra protection and peace of mind. Ω (Please see my Unit 1 article below.)

12-3 COAST GUARD AUXILIARY UNITS

CGA UNIT 4 CGA UNIT 3 CGA UNIT 5

CGA UNIT 7

CGA UNIT 1 CGA UNIT 2

CGA UNIT 6 CGA UNIT 8

CGA UNIT 9

CoMmunications George Crouch

OPerations Kenny Uschelbec

RESPONSE/OPERATIONS

Unit 1 is available for use by all coxswains/crew during the entire month of June. She is crying for freedom from the dock and wants to patrol the waters of Lake Murray. Please use her; I am tired of hearing that she never gets asked out. She is well built, easy to be with and has a personality of any young, energetic 21ft beauty. She has a mean beam, a great stern, a bow to kill for and is an in-expensive date. Kenny U.

ONE TWO — THREE JUNE 2009 Page 5

INQUIRING MINDS WANT TO KNOW: What is the speed of darkness?

Etceteras

The D7 Material Center Is NOW back to providing your uniform And Operational Materials Members may now visit the store in person on Mondays & Fridays or Shop the new website via the Seventh District website at http://cgaux7.org.

Please see the entire announcement under "Newsworthy Items" on the D7 Website http://cgaux7.org/. Ω

MAterials Tom Callan

What is so different about the 8th of July this year? At five minutes and six seconds after 4 am on the 8th of July this year, the time and date will

be 04:05:06 07/08/09. This will never happen again in our lifetime. Thanks to Jim Smith

Article from Romanian Newspaper. We rarely get a chance to see another country's editorial about the USA ~An Ode to America ~ Why are Americans so united? They would not resemble one another even if you painted them all one color! They speak all the languages of the world and form an astonishing mixture of civilizations and religious beliefs. On 9/11, the American tragedy turned three hundred million people into a hand put on the heart. Nobody rushed to accuse the White House, the Army, or the Secret Service that they are only a bunch of losers. Nobody rushed to empty their bank accounts. Nobody rushed out onto the streets nearby to gape about Instead the Americans volunteered to donate blood and to give a helping hand. After the first moments of panic, they raised their flag over the smoking ruins, putting on T-shirts, caps and ties in the colors of the national flag. They placed flags on buildings and cars as if in every place and on every car a government official or the president was passing. On every occa-sion, they started singing: 'God Bless America!' I watched the live broadcast and rerun after rerun for hours listening to the story of the guy who went down one hundred floors with a woman in a wheelchair without knowing who she was, or of the Californian hockey player, who gave his life fighting with the terrorists and prevented the plane from hitting a target that could have killed other hundreds or thousands of people. How on earth were they able to respond united as one human being? Imperceptibly, with every word and musical note, the memory of some turned into a modern myth of tragic heroes. And with every phone call, millions and millions of dollars were put into collection aimed at rewarding not a man or a family, but a spirit, which no money can buy. What on earth can unite the Americans in such way? Their land? Their history? Their economic Power? Money? I tried for hours to find an answer, humming songs and murmuring phrases with the risk of sounding commonplace, I thought things over; I reached but only one conclusion... Only freedom can work such miracles. Cornel Nistorescu Thanks to Don Davis

Who is this vacationing person in the great state of Colorado?

Our thanks and appreciation to Burnette Sheffield for spending the day teaching 450 children about life jackets and water safety at Newberry Elementary.

I don’t believe I can spot an unsmiling face.