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Last Updated:
Sunday, November 20, 2005 10:39 AM
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News Release
| Honorary Auxiliarist takes ill after serving in Louisiana |
Date:
Contact: Aux. Wayne Spivak |
After seeing the devastation of Hurricane Katrina, Capt. Scott Shields, of West Windsor, New Jersey, the former Director of Marine Safety for the New York City Urban Parks Search and Rescue Team and his partner went racing to assist.
Capt. Shields and his partner are both honorary Auxiliarists, and his partner is also an honorary member of the Coast Guard.
Capt. Shields is the President of the BEAR Search and Rescue Foundation (http://www.bearsearchandrescue.org), dedicated to equiping, training and transporting SAR teams and now responding to disasters.
So, in keeping with the Foundations principles, and his own, Capt. Shields contacted Louisiana Governor Blanco and was authorized to deploy multiple teams to Southern Louisiana.
For two weeks, Shields and his partner worked side by side with the 82nd Airborne, going from house to house, locating victims, and ultimately bringing 4,106 to safety and rescuing 847.
It was grueling work, but work that he and his partner train for, and feel must be done.
It's several weeks later and Capt. Shields still looks tired. But his partner, is sick with diarrhea and vomiting among other ailments. Shields partner doesn't talk much, but Shields says tentatively he'll be fine.
By the way, Shields partner's name is Theodore, and he's a 3 1/2 year-old Golden Retriever, the son of Bear, this country's most decorated dog.
"Many of the team members who deployed with the BEAR Search and Rescue Foundation are also members of the Auxiliary," said Shields, "they deployed as private citizens to work with the BEAR Foundation."
"Many of these same Auxiliarists, who responded with the BEAR Foundation, work in Sector New York and attended a seminar on 'Responding to the 500 Year Flood', held in the first week of June," said Shields.
"What's interesting is half the participants and agencies who attend that seminar, given by the BEAR Foundation, also ended up working in the Hurricane Region,"
Auxiliarists, even Honorary Auxiliarists, are a diverse group of Americans. Every day, whether teaching a boating safety class, cooking meals for a Coast Guard Station or saving lives and property at sea, these men, women and even a dog, earn the title America's Volunteer Lifesavers.
The United States Coast Guard Auxiliary is composed of uniformed, non-military volunteer's who assist the Coast Guard in all of its varied missions, except for military and direct law enforcement. These men and women can be found on the nation's waterways, in the air, in classrooms and on the dock, performing Maritime Domain Awareness patrols, safety patrols, vessel safety checks and public education. The United States Coast Guard Auxiliary was founded in 1939 by an Act of Congress as the U.S. Coast Guard Reserve and re-designated as the Auxiliary in 1941. Its 30,000 members donate millions of hours annually in support of Coast Guard missions. For more information on the United States Coast Guard Auxiliary, visit us at www.cgaux.org. ### |
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