Coast Guard Reserve

Coast Guard Reserve. The Coast Guard Reserve Act of 1939 was a response to the booming hobby of pleasure boating. The law created an organization of civilian boat owners who volunteered to assist the U.S. Coast Guard in such activities as patrolling regattas and promoting marine safety.

On 19 February 1941, Congress passed a law restructuring the Coast Guard Reserve. The existing civilian organization was renamed the Coast Guard Auxiliary. A new Coast Guard Reserve would function as a source of military manpower, like the reserves of the other armed services.

Coast Guard reservists were divided into two categories. “Regular Reservists” were paid for their services and could be assigned to any duty. A “Temporary Reservist,” or “Coast Guard TR,” was an unpaid volunteer who served part time in some designated geographic area.

During World War II, the Coast Guard itself suspended regular enlistments; virtually all of the approximately 115,000 people who joined the service during the war served as reservists. That figure includes 51,000 temporary reservists and 12,000 members of the Women's Reserve, called SPARS.

The Coast Guard Reserve and the Coast Guard Auxiliary became permanent institutions after the war. In 1994, the reserve had a strength of about 12,000 and auxiliary membership stood at about 34,000.
[See also Air Force Reserve; Navy Combat Branches.]

Bibliography

Malcolm F. Willoughby , The U.S. Coast Guard in World War II, 1957.
Robert E. Johnson , Guardians of the Sea: History of the United States Coast Guard, 1915 to the Present, 1987.

John A. Tilley