Reservist Magazine is the award-winning official publication of the United States Coast Guard Reserve. Quarterly issues include news and feature articles about the men and women who comprise America's premier national maritime safety and security
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Last Active Reserve Member of Port Security Unit 303 To Retire Submitted by Capt. John Olson, USCGR (ret.) Cmdr. Mary Zvara will retire on October 18, 2014 concluding a 30 year career of enlisted and commissioned service in the United States Coast Guard Reserve (CGR). She is the last actively serving member of (now decommissioned) Port Security Unit 303 that was deployed to Ad Dammam, Saudi Arabia in 1990 and 1991 during the first Gulf War - Operation Desert Shield and Desert Storm. Zvara enlisted in CGR on November 7, 1984 as a direct appointment petty officer (YN3) and was assigned to Coast Guard Reserve Unit Milwaukee where she performed administrative and clerical duties. In August, 1990 she and other members of PSU 303 trained intensely for mobilization in support of Operation Desert Shield at Camp Perry, Ohio. The Milwaukee unit was trained along with units from Buffalo and Cleveland. All were deployed between August 1990 and March 1991 to various ports on the Persian Gulf. Following Operation Desert Storm, PSU 303 was decommissioned. However, the Buffalo and Cleveland PSUs were assigned new geographic training locations and missions and were ultimately morphed into present day PSUs 309 and 301 home ported in Port Clinton, Ohio and Cape Cod, Ma., respectively. In 1992, she was advanced to YN2 following successful participation in the SWE. At the same time she completed a baccalaureate in communications. YN2 Zvara then completed the competitive examination and qualification process for appointment as a Direct Commissioned Officer and was accepted into the Reserve Officer Candidate Indoctrination (ROCI) class at Yorktown Va. Following her graduation and commissioning ceremony in July 1996, she was assigned to CG Group Milwaukee as a Response Officer in the Group operations center. Subsequently, she was promoted to Lt.j.g and Lt. while serving at then MSO Milwaukee (currently Sector Lake Michigan) in a variety of marine safety and inspection assignments along with supervision of reservists assigned to the MSO Prevention Division. Upon promotion to Lt. Cmdr. in 2007, Zvara was assigned to Sector Buffalo as Deputy Senior Reserve Officer where she was responsible for the supervision of 140 Reserve members including coordination of Reserve operations for 12 small boat stations, 1 Marine Safety Unit and 1 Marine Safety Detachment. In June 2010, she was recalled to active duty in response to the Deep Water Horizon disaster -- the U.S Coast Guard's comprehensive response to the British Petroleum oil platform fire and subsequent rupture. For this mobilization she was assigned to the Incident Command Post at Houma, La., where she served as Personnel Resource Coordinator. In that capacity, she was required to research and match reservist skill sets, knowledge and experiences with the highly variable operational demands within the response area. As a related matter she also attended to a myriad of details related to the rights, benefits and entitlements of the mobilized Reserve personnel. Upon demobilization, Zvara returned to Sector Lake Michigan to assume responsibilities as Deputy Senior Reserve Officer becoming the acting SRO for 1 year with overall responsibilities for supervision of 220 reservists. Pursuant to her selection for Cmdr. she was reassigned as SRO at Sector Sault Ste. Marie with overall responsibilities for supervision of the reservists assigned to stations in a geographic area that encompasses Lake Superior, northern Lakes Michigan and Huron, and the surrounding navigable waterways. Cmdr. Zvara will be formally retired in ceremonies to be conducted at Sector Lake Michigan where she hopes to reunite with members of PSU 303 and many other active service, retired, Reserve and Auxiliary Coast Guard colleagues. She is the recipient of 2 Coast Guard Achievement Medals, 2 Commandant's Letter of Commendation Ribbons, the Coast Guard Meritorious Unit Commendation, the Coast Guard Meritorious Team Commendation Ribbon and numerous operational awards. A proud member of a Coast Guard family, Cmdr. Zvara is married to Capt. Conrad Zvara, USCGR (ret.). Their son, Michael, USCG, (ret.) served onboard the buoy tenders CGC Sassafras (WLB-401) and CGC Basswood (WLB-388). � Shipmates in Focus Cmdr. Mary zvara with her husband, Capt. Conrad zvara, USCgR (ret.) 32 RESERVIST � Issue 3 • 2014