Coast Guard Auxilary Offers Mokena Vietnam Vet Another Chance To Serve

MOKENA, IL — Terry Paggi realizes that most people don’t consider Illinois to be a hotbed of Coast Guard activity, especially given the fact that a vast majority of its residents don’t live near a major body of water unless they happen to live near Lake Michigan.

Yet for Paggi, a 66-year-old Mokena resident who served in the Marine Corps in Vietnam, overseeing a group of volunteers that assists the Coast Guard on a regional basis has offered the recent retiree a chance at a new chapter of his public service career.

Paggi serves as the Division 37 Commander of the U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary Unit, which includes 829 members that serve a region stretching between Cleveland and upstate New York. The Coast Guard Auxiliary is made up entirely of volunteers who bring both a variety of military and civilian experiences to the unit. Representing the Chicago Rivers Division (9th Western District), District 37 operates two flotillas, one of which is based out of the Bolingbrook Fire Department and the other which is stationed out of Willowbrook.

Similar flotillas within the district are operated out of Green Bay and Grand Haven, Mich., but serve a similar mission of helping the U.S. Coast Guard in a variety of ways. While many of the volunteers who range in age from their 20s and retirees like Paggi have previous military service experience, the opportunity for area residents to serve their country without any time commitment provides a unique opportunity.

In total, more than 21,000 people serve in the Coast Guard Auxiliary in 793 units which combine to provide more than 3.8 million hours each year of service to its parent military operation. Paggi says the group can get involved in anything the U.S. Coast Guard does except for combat missions and law enforcement, which offers members of the group plenty of ways to get involved.

But for Paggi, much of his service to the Coast Guard Auxilary is making potential members aware of an opportunity that many never even knew existed.

“I’ve always had this public service connection,” Paggi, who worked in law enforcement at the local, state, and federal levels after leaving active military service, told Patch.

“We get trained in really anything you want, and you’re really only limited by how much you want to do.”

The Coast Guard Auxiliary, which was founded in 1939, once required members to own their own boat. What started during wartime to provide additional patrols and port security along the coastline for the U.S. Coast Guard has expanded into a variety of other services, which, Paggi says, has allowed volunteers to get involved in different ways, including in the search for swimmers and boaters who disappear in the lake — which this summer, happened with great regularity as drownings in Great Lakes increased exponentially over previous years.

The group’s primary mission is to run recreational boating safety courses for residents who use waterways that fall under the Coast Guard’s jurisdiction. But the organization also offers opportunities to work in public affairs or on crews on cutters that work the Great Lakes, providing members the chance to use their talents in new ways.

While the unit does not adhere to the Uniform Code of Military Justice, it is part of the Department of Homeland Security. Volunteers must go through a background check before they can join the volunteer organization that is uniformed has certification levels and, in many ways, operates like any other military operation.

Two-thirds of the Coast Guard doesn’t have previous military experience, which can lead to a bit of a learning curve, especially for those who end up volunteering on a ship that follows Coast Guard protocols and guidelines. However, volunteers are trained in ways of the Coast Guard to bring members up to speed which provides them with a working knowledge of what is expected.

Most of the local members of the Coast Guard Auxiliary — the majority of which are in their 50s ­­— have families and full-time jobs, which come first. But for residents looking for something unique to do in their spare time or as a way for retirees to fill time once used by work during their careers, the organization can fill a void, Paggi said.

“It’s really quite awesome,” said Paggi, who also served in the Army National Guard before joining the Coast Guard Auxiliary.

He added: “It’s exposing people to (the Coast Guard) because not many people knew we even exist …But what makes it great is that you can become as involved as you want. But we’re having fun while doing this and I think (people) pick up on that.”