Reservist

ISS2 2015

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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To the Editor: Regarding The View from the Bridge in Volume LXII, Issue 1, 2015, as a former CO of a 9th District Port Security Unit, I find Rear Adm. Hinrichs' reference to the first versions of PSUs as "notional" to be inaccurate. The first PSUs were far from notional as defined by Merriam-Webster: notional: 1: theoretical, speculative; 2: existing in the mind only: imaginary. The pre-1990 PSUs existed as delineated organizations; were populated by purposefully assigned personnel with defined duties and responsibilities; trained as individuals, teams and whole units; and, were deployed as individuals and teams to joint and combined exercises in-country and overseas. Assigned personnel attended specialized training such as Combat Skills at Quantico, Fuel Transfer Training at Maine Maritime, Point and Perimeter Security Training from the Air Force at O'Hare International Airport, and when a large-group training course for fuel transfer was unavailable and unaffordable, one was written and conducted. PSUs were different back then with port firefighting coordination duties and explosive loading and fuel transfer safety billets, along with ashore and shore-side security responsibilities. But these PSUs did exist and were functional when called. It took a war in the Gulf to cause PSUs to transition to the beginnings of what they have currently become. These first PSUs were as real as real could be back then. Cmdr. Kenneth T. "Kenn" White, USCGR (ret.) To the Editor: Nice job on Reservist Issue 1, 2015. I especially like the write up about the Reserve CPOA Class 36. It is my hope the Chiefs out there who have not gone to the Academy will see the article and recognize the value added. MCPO Bill Phillips, USCGR (ret.) Second Master Chief of the Reserve Force Social beings. The word social comes from the Latin socius meaning "friend." So I am guessing someone, way smarter than me, connected the dots and this is why we now have Facebook "friends." This brings me to the subject of the Coast Guard Reserve's new social media roll-out; the launching of the U.S. Coast Guard Reserve Facebook page on February 19th. The Coast Guard has had a social media presence via Facebook and other venues for quite some time. Still we felt it both timely and appropriate to establish a Coast Guard Reserve unique presence as we look ahead to 2015, which will mark the 75th anniversary of the Reserve Component's founding. Not only have we come a long way from the days of walking beach patrols and oar- powered surf boats, we have entered the ever accelerating digital age and all the communication challenges and opportunities it presents. The early feedback has been positive. But we have had some readers of the magazine wonder if this might lead to the demise of the Reservist magazine or, at the very least, the end of printed copies of the publication. The answer to this is, "no." Those responsible for the management of Reserve resources – the money -- understand the unique challenges of communicating with reservists and the significant role that printed copies of the magazine play in that critical effort. That said, over time readers may observe subtle changes in the magazine's content. Facebook and our planned website updates will provide us with the ability to recognize and report on the Reserve- specific happenings in a much timelier manner. This will then afford us the opportunity to focus the pages of the magazine on more in-depth stories and information of interest to our readers. We encourage you to join us on this journey and provide us with feedback on how we are doing and what we might do better to improve our communications. We hope you will "Like" what we are up to and will continue to be our "friend." As always, thanks for reading. Anima est Bonus! Jeff Smith Volume LXII � Issue 1 • 2015 U nderwa y Director of Reserve embarks on his Reserve Familiarization tour ReseRvist Magazine FRoM ouR ReadeRs ReseRvist Magazine FRoM the editoR 2 RESERVIST � Issue 2 • 2015

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