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Seeking Sailors

ONTONAGON – The United States Coast Guard is looking to recruit local citizens to re-establish a Coast Guard auxiliary flotilla.

The Coast Guard Auxiliary is a civilian component of the Coast Guard, chartered by Congress in 1939. The auxiliary is under the control of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

The Auxiliary provides assistance to the Coast Guard in recreational boating safety and training to support in search-and-rescue missions.

While auxiliary members do not need to be a veteran of any military service, they are required to go through security clearance and go through a background check and undertake training program.

“We once had a Coast Guard auxiliary flotilla in Ontonagon, but we lost so many members. There is a minimum requirement to have at least five members for a Flotilla. The members from Ontonagon that we do have are a detachment of the Apostle Islands Flotilla out of Bayfield, Wisconsin,” said District 28 Commander Carl Broberg in a meeting earlier this week.

It is the Bayfield flotilla that has been providing administrative support for the Ontonagon area. Currently the closest flotilla in the Upper Peninsula is in Marquette.

Until the Ontonagon Flotilla has enough approved and accepted trained members, the area would fall under the administration of the Apostle Islands flotilla.

Ontonagon resident Bill Johnson began the effort to resurrect the Ontonagon flotilla.

“When Tom Lee got stranded out on the lake after ice-out for two days, we had no rescue,” Johnson said. “He sat out there for two days, and our Sheriff’s Department refused to go out, I had to call Michigan State Police. So I decided to start our own flotilla.”

Johnson spoke about the meeting with Broberg and Bill Gover of the Apostle Islands flotilla at Monday night’s Ontonagon Village Council meeting.

“I was impressed with the meeting. There seems to be an interest from the community,” Gover said afterward.

Those interested in bringing a flotilla to Ontonagon must go through an application process to the Coast Guard Auxiliary. Once the application has been formally submitted, Gover said it will take up to two months to accept the application.

“This does not mean they have been approved for membership. It simply means that the application has been accepted. The Coast Guard then goes through background checks, which may take 3-4 months,” Gover said.

Once the application has been submitted, potential new members can go through the necessary training.

“This way some of the basic training can be done while the application and the members are going through security background checks,” Gover said.

Gover said he is optimistic Ontonagon could get a flotilla, adding it is going to come down to those in Ontonagon to “make it happen.”

Johnson echoed Gover’s optimism. He said he has an approved boat that the Ontonagon flotilla would be able to use.

“I’m shooting for Ontonagon to have a Coast Guard flotilla by the mid-spring of 2017,” Johnson said.

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