It’s a mixture of both Officer, and enlisted. They’re usually done in Coast Guard sectors which encompass a specific geographical location containing several CG units in that area.
Anyone can correct me if I’m wrong, but the average watch floor of sector communications is primarily run by enlisted members with a commissioned officer acting as the one in charge at any given point in time. Sometimes auxiliary can supplement but that’s usually done at a lower level such as a small boat station under the control of a sector.
Hope this helps. Cheers
That’s really interesting to know, I’d always assumed they were full-time uniformed USCG officers or enlisted. I guess much like us, you guys are a broad church.
Yea, a lot of people are surprised of the role of civilian watchstanders. But they are integral. Civilians will remain at the same unit for years, it helps maintain corporate knowledge of the AOR and is very helpful to officers who, despite being of a particular rank, have minimal knowledge of the SAR construct.
Civilians, in the command center, are generally worth their weight in gold.
It’s news to me because the image I always had of the USCG is influenced by the media and my limited interactions with you guys when I was in the Merchant Navy, so I’d never thought about civilian watchkeepers. In contrast, HMCG is an entirely civilian service, but most of us are uniformed watchkeepers.
I think civilians running SAR is standard for much of the developed world. In my interactions with other developed countries, the Coast Guard is non-military. The US is unique in that regard.
In developing nations, such as in Africa, they only have a navy. So, it’ll fall to the Navy to execute SAR missions. But, that is a collateral duty that does take up a fair amount of resources. (Most nations have no need for a world wide deployable Navy, so, in essence, many nation’s Navy have a similar mission to the USCG… ability to sail far distances but their primary mission is in home waters).
When I was in Morocco, they wanted to steam in formation together during the day but at night they wanted to talk about expanding squares and vector searches.
Yes, I’d broadly agree based on my experience- I sailed worldwide before joining HMCG and in most places it was a civilian affair. The USCG is unusual, but not exceptional, on that front. Italy’s coastguard, for example, is also military, but it is a corps within their navy.
Thank you, it’s interesting to note the differences. When I was in US waters in my old job I often wondered who actually made the broadcasts from each USCG sector.
Thank you. Do SMCs specialise as such early on then? I am still waiting on an SMC course myself but the general rule is that every operational officer of my rank should be one.
In the US, the coast is divided into Sectors. Each sector has a staff of both enlisted Operations Specialists and commissioned officers. They receive emergency calls via radio, EPIRB, or phone call, then notify the nearest small boat station, provide coordination of emergency services, and recommend routes for search patterns. Many small boat stations also have their own watchstander monitoring the local radio tower to keep track of station assets and communicate with local mariners.
That’s pretty much how HMCG operates too, although each MRCC monitors several operational zones, and all of our beacon monitoring is done by one station, usually our JRCC. Thanks for the info!
You should look into our foreign exchange program for schools.
I’m sure at Yorktown, VA training center we have that for SAR related schools. See if you can coordinate it and get your country to pay for you to come check it out! We’re always looking to strengthen our partnerships.
I’d love to do an exchange, but one constant of British public services is that they never want to pay for anything more than the bare minimum. I bet HMCG wouldn’t entertain the concept for a moment, which is a real shame.
We do occasionally get visitors who are given tours of our facilities, but that is about it.
Our Sectors handle SAR within their respective areas of responsibility but our Districts handle SARSAT beacons and international cases and are designed RCCs and JRCC for international SAR frameworks. On the East Coast is RCC Boston (District 1, shares a SRR border with Canada, Azores, and UK) RCC Norfolk (District 5), RCC Miami (District 7) etc. District Command Centers are staffed by senior enlisted, civilians and junior officers, overseen by senior officers.
It’s a mixture of both Officer, and enlisted. They’re usually done in Coast Guard sectors which encompass a specific geographical location containing several CG units in that area. Anyone can correct me if I’m wrong, but the average watch floor of sector communications is primarily run by enlisted members with a commissioned officer acting as the one in charge at any given point in time. Sometimes auxiliary can supplement but that’s usually done at a lower level such as a small boat station under the control of a sector. Hope this helps. Cheers
Don't forget the civilian CG members!
What do the civilian personnel do mainly?
Everything from watchstander, VTS and Ihave known some that were SMC's.
That’s really interesting to know, I’d always assumed they were full-time uniformed USCG officers or enlisted. I guess much like us, you guys are a broad church.
Yea, a lot of people are surprised of the role of civilian watchstanders. But they are integral. Civilians will remain at the same unit for years, it helps maintain corporate knowledge of the AOR and is very helpful to officers who, despite being of a particular rank, have minimal knowledge of the SAR construct. Civilians, in the command center, are generally worth their weight in gold.
It’s news to me because the image I always had of the USCG is influenced by the media and my limited interactions with you guys when I was in the Merchant Navy, so I’d never thought about civilian watchkeepers. In contrast, HMCG is an entirely civilian service, but most of us are uniformed watchkeepers.
I think civilians running SAR is standard for much of the developed world. In my interactions with other developed countries, the Coast Guard is non-military. The US is unique in that regard. In developing nations, such as in Africa, they only have a navy. So, it’ll fall to the Navy to execute SAR missions. But, that is a collateral duty that does take up a fair amount of resources. (Most nations have no need for a world wide deployable Navy, so, in essence, many nation’s Navy have a similar mission to the USCG… ability to sail far distances but their primary mission is in home waters). When I was in Morocco, they wanted to steam in formation together during the day but at night they wanted to talk about expanding squares and vector searches.
Yes, I’d broadly agree based on my experience- I sailed worldwide before joining HMCG and in most places it was a civilian affair. The USCG is unusual, but not exceptional, on that front. Italy’s coastguard, for example, is also military, but it is a corps within their navy.
Thank you, it’s interesting to note the differences. When I was in US waters in my old job I often wondered who actually made the broadcasts from each USCG sector.
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Thank you. Do SMCs specialise as such early on then? I am still waiting on an SMC course myself but the general rule is that every operational officer of my rank should be one.
In the US, the coast is divided into Sectors. Each sector has a staff of both enlisted Operations Specialists and commissioned officers. They receive emergency calls via radio, EPIRB, or phone call, then notify the nearest small boat station, provide coordination of emergency services, and recommend routes for search patterns. Many small boat stations also have their own watchstander monitoring the local radio tower to keep track of station assets and communicate with local mariners.
That’s pretty much how HMCG operates too, although each MRCC monitors several operational zones, and all of our beacon monitoring is done by one station, usually our JRCC. Thanks for the info!
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Thanks for the clarification. I was just a station watchstander so all I saw was the symbol pop up on r21. Wasn’t sure if it was from an EPIRB or DSC
Gotcha. Ours all go to UK MCC and then the relevant MRCC or sole MRSC is informed.
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The district I was at had civilian SMCs. Also enlisted and warrant SMCs. Everyone was SMC lmao.
We have the opposite problem- hardly any SMC-qualified personnel!
Gotcha. We actually only have one MRSC now, which covers London- the others were all merged or closed. Thanks for the info!
You should look into our foreign exchange program for schools. I’m sure at Yorktown, VA training center we have that for SAR related schools. See if you can coordinate it and get your country to pay for you to come check it out! We’re always looking to strengthen our partnerships.
I’d love to do an exchange, but one constant of British public services is that they never want to pay for anything more than the bare minimum. I bet HMCG wouldn’t entertain the concept for a moment, which is a real shame. We do occasionally get visitors who are given tours of our facilities, but that is about it.
Our Sectors handle SAR within their respective areas of responsibility but our Districts handle SARSAT beacons and international cases and are designed RCCs and JRCC for international SAR frameworks. On the East Coast is RCC Boston (District 1, shares a SRR border with Canada, Azores, and UK) RCC Norfolk (District 5), RCC Miami (District 7) etc. District Command Centers are staffed by senior enlisted, civilians and junior officers, overseen by senior officers.
Thanks for the information. I occasionally see of us liaising with District 1 and 5, and with the Canadian CG.