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United States Coast Guard Auxiliary

uniformed auxiliary service of the United States Coast Guard

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General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionJul 14, 2026
Entity authorityQ7889621 ↗
Source-derived summary

The United States Coast Guard Auxiliary (USCGAUX, CGAux, or USCG Aux) is the uniformed, auxiliary service component of the United States Coast Guard. Congress established the unit on 23 June 1939, as the United States Coast Guard Reserve. On February 19, 1941, the entity was renamed the United States Coast Guard Auxiliary. The Auxiliary's purpose is to bolster all USCG undertakings both at sea and in the sky, with the exception of tasks necessitating direct law enforcement. As of 2026, the U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary boasted around 18,000 members.

The Auxiliary collectively dedicates over 4.5 million service hours annually and has accomplished close to 500,000 missions in aid of the Coast Guard. Annually, members of the Auxiliary are instrumental in saving around 500 lives, aiding 15,000 mariners in distress, performing over 150,000 recreational vessel safety checks, and imparting boating safety knowledge to over half a million learners. Collectively, the Coast Guard Auxiliary's efforts save taxpayers several hundred million dollars every year.

History

The advent of the single-operator motorboat, followed by the introduction of the outboard engine in the early 20th century, led to a surge in recreational boating on U.S. federal waters. By the time 1939 rolled around, over 300,000 personal watercraft were in use.

Editorial summary

“United States Coast Guard Auxiliary” enters the record as uniformed auxiliary service of the United States Coast Guard. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what United, States and Coast can confirm, complicate or overturn.

Editorial reviewA practical starting point whose main value is the path it opens into stronger specialist and primary sources. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1939, 1941, 2026—that can be checked directly. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. Its strongest next move is a source search built around United, States and Coast.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

“United States Coast Guard Auxiliary” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, United, States and Coast provides the most credible route into that argument.

Evidence profile

Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 14, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q7889621. VIAF identifies the subject as 131869110. The Library of Congress control number is n80009767. 2 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1939, 1941 and 2026.

Critical limits

A concise general-reference account can conceal disagreements about scope, terminology or the weight assigned to individual sources. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

Best used for
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The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “United States Coast Guard Auxiliary”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow United States Coast Guard Auxiliary primary sources, United States Coast Guard Auxiliary archive and United research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “United States Coast Guard Auxiliary”?
  2. Which cited source is closest to the event, object or claim?
  3. Which institution is responsible for the underlying evidence?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “United States Coast Guard Auxiliary” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.