Distinguishing Authority

I participated in a vessel safety check conducted by the Coast Guard Auxiliary. The men who conducted the inspection were very professional. I was surprised by their uniforms, which appeared to be the same as those that are worn by active-duty Coast Guard personnel. I had always assumed that the Auxiliary was a civilian organization comprised of local boating volunteers. Is this right? What is their legal authority?

The Coast Guard Auxiliary operates under the direct authority of the Coast Guard Commandant, but its members are civilian volunteers, and as such, the organization is not a reserve branch of the service. They occupy a unique position in the public service community, subject to both civilian and military authority at the same time.

The Auxiliary is administered under Title 14, Part II of the United States Code, which grants the organization ’such rights, privileges, powers and duties as may be granted to them by the Commandant.’ The practical application of this is to allow the Coast Guard to delegate an extremely wide range of Coast Guard duties to the Auxiliary, so long as that duty does not involve the carrying or use of a weapon.

Members of the Auxiliary, when assigned to specific duties, are vested with the same power and authority as members of the regular Coast Guard assigned to similar duties. (US Code of Federal Regulations, Title 33, section 5.31).

A Coast Guard ’Auxiliarist’ who is acting within the scope of his or her assigned duties enjoys many of the same benefits that are extended to active-duty Coast Guard personnel, including immunity from personal liability for negligence. The Auxiliary takes great care to avoid that type of incident, but if it were to occur, the Auxiliary member would be shielded from liability and the boat owner would need to consider a lawsuit against the federal government.

Members of the Coast Guard Auxiliary do wear the same uniform as regular Coast Guard officers, but they wear a modified insignia and do not use the corresponding military titles associated with ranks in the regular Coast Guard.

The Auxiliary was formed prior to World War II, and after the war their role was scaled back to the civilian duties that most boaters are familiar with, such as courtesy safety inspections.

Since 9/11, the role of the Coast Guard has changed, and the support function of the Auxiliary has expanded accordingly. The primary mission of the Auxiliary is still centered on the promotion of boater safety and education, but they also work on projects ranging from the processing of merchant mariner documents to Hurricane Katrina recovery operations.