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U.S. COAST GUARD AUXILIARY FLOTILLA 12-8, 7TH DISTRICT CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA Vol. 30 No. 8 September 2004 NEXT MEMBERSHIP MEETING IS ON September 8 AT 1900

HFlotilla ScheduleH
Membership Meetings

FLOTILLA COMMANDER
Robert Kreiling FC

Membership Meetings
September 8 at the Base @1900 October 13 at the Base@1800 Picnic Staff Meetings September 8 at 1830 at the Base October 13 at 1830 at the Base

Thank you for the professional manner you

have handled our fuel allotment during the month of August. From the number of patrols and Group Charlestons, we can hardly tell any difference compared to previous months. If we continue, we should be able to just finish up the year with out running our of fuel. Hopefully, there will be no unexpected "call outs". That could be a problem. I realize many of you are concerned about your Annual Currency Maintenance requalification. As I have said October is the beginning of the Coast Guard's new Fiscal year. It will not only will be great boating, weatherwise, but it also means a new fuel allocation. We should not have a problem getting all interested parties signed off on currency maintenance. Hap Allen advised that the new crew class is ready for on the water training, as they have successfully been signed off on most of their land tasks. Come October, they also can look forward to training and being certified in their Underway Tasks. Getting on to the shore side of our activities, all you folks out there have obviously been doing a lot of good stuff. I am referring to all the awards and certificates that I keep getting as evidence of all your accomplishments. I did mention this at our last meeting at the Mongolian Bar -BQ, but worried about Soy Sauce stains. So I am asking you all again. PUHLEESE come to our 08 September meeting. I have so many awards for you that I can't fit them all in my attach case. Furthermore, our 13-0ctober meeting will be Master Chef Dave Beaudrot' s Annual Cajun Fish Festival and I can't give out any awards, with all the Tabasco/Texas Pete being splashed around. Looking forward to seeing all your shining faces on the eighth.

Click to See This Who is this and why is he so happy?

Page 2 HAids to Navigation HRichard Daniels FSO-ANH

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September 2004 ANNUAL FALL COOKOUT! PLEASE MAKE A NOTE OF THIS:

Tom Beauchemin, Dan Cowley, Richard Daniel, Hank Wolf and Agnes Wright launched an Offshore Patrol on 21 AUG. After pre-under ways were completed, the facility fueled we headed down the South Stono for an Offshore PATON Patrol. We struggled down river with speed problems limiting us to just 9 Kts. We should have planed and cruised at 24 knots. The entire crew went through corrective action to determine and locate the problem. Water in the hull? Engine down? Crab pot snagged? We spent a good deal of time trying different maneuvers; all to no avail. We kept Group informed of our progress.

Who: All Auxiliary members and their families and friends. Why: To have fun and fellowship - always one of our best social events of the year. When: Wednesday 13 OCT 2004, 1800

PM).
Where: CG Base picnic grounds.

(yes, 6:00

What: Frogmore Stew, Fish Chowder, Salads, Dessert, Beer, Wine, and Soft Drinks How Much: $7.00 per person. How: RSVP by September 22 to Dean Creed, 971-1541, Hdbcreed@netzero.netH or Hmailto:fso-

is@uscgauxcharleston.orgH

Vice-Flotilla Commander
Tom Schmidt - VFC

The hazy, lazy days of summer just do not apply to our Charleston during most years, and certainly not during this tempestuous 2004 Summer season. The two hurricanes and one tropical storm that have affected the Carolinas have kept our friends on the Gold Side extremely Tom Beauchemin Investigates busy, as always. Flotilla 12-8 continues to hold up its end operationally through the weekly committed patrols and standing ready when needed. We decided to return to the dock and get a diver for a closer Hap James has dutifully directed and overseen our efforts, look. Our regular commercial diver was not available so our own insuring that we have become more efficient in the use of our On professional diver, Brett Grooms, was kind enough to leave his The Water time. The increased efficiencies, while cutting into home on a Saturday and meet us dockside. OTW Training Time, were necessitated due because of the fuel He discovered the problem. The running gear was fouled greatly restrictions imposed in the closing weeks of the Coast Guards impeding the boats performance. The boat had the bottom Fiscal 2004. scraped three weeks before but the warm water was causing Speaking of Hap James; our own beloved Hap James has rapid buildup. In the end we stood the patrol down and been distinguished as Auxiliarists of the Quarter! Those of you rescheduled for another day. who participated in the Flotilla Feast at the Mongolian BBQ Grill The crew performed the emergency procedures like champs. (a fun forum in which our August Membership Meeting was held) They were outstanding and kept in good spirits. We ate aboard learned of Haps achievement recognition directly from the and discussed our ATON plans for the next patrol. gracious lips of our Division Captain, Charlie McCarty. It was a It was a total joy to experience the positive energy and wonderful blend of pleasure and pain as the verbose praise of attitudes of everyone on this patrol. While we had to stand down Hap rolled from Charlies lips while the tiny Chinese peppers and not complete our mission on 21 AUG we did indeed complete scorched ours. the bonding of friendship and fellowship on board. Isn't that what A major portion of the presentation was Charlies reading of the the Auxiliary is all about, enjoying serving the Coast Guard and eloquent nomination for this award, which was written by his the public! We have another Offshore Patrol planed 25 SEP. eminence, Bob Mathewes, who is as gifted at prose as Charlie is On another matter, our own Chief Crider has moved on up and at speaking. While Bob and Charlie gave their utmost, Hap has has now been replaced with Chief White at ANT Charleston. given more than all he has, during the quarter for which his Chief White will be at our September meeting. Please take a excellence was cited, as well as a few other quarters. HAP YOU minute at the meeting and introduce yourself to Chief White and DA MAN! bid him a hardy welcome to 12-8. If anyone would like to be part of this very worthwhile and valuable service please contact me at 745-9600.

Page 3 Operations
Allen James FSO-OP

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September 2004

So, please contact me if you know of a young man or woman who might want to pursue a career or enlistment in the Coast Guard. Thanks in advance! "

Operations completed six patrols during August. Two were special patrols assisting the Department of the Navy. We provided a patrol boat for their personnel to inspect facilities in our Area of Responsibility (AOR). Crew training is going well. All candidates are doing a fine job. When October or November comes we will be ready to submit the candidates to the QEs. For those that missed Julys Scuttlebutt, we reported on 12/8s participation in the G8 Conference held at Sea Island, Ga. Flotilla 12/8 operated as back up SAR for Group Charleston for seven days. Our boat crews and coxswains performed well during this extended period.

Jane Orenstein Fellowship September will be a quiet month on the Fellowship front, because October is a BIG month. We're planning the annual picnic for Oct. 13 at the Base with the culinary skills of Dave Beaudrot once again all set up to delight us. Our retired members will be our guests of honor. On Sat. Oct. 23 we'll board the boat for a trip to Fort Sumter (which some of us have never done in spite of living in the shadow of this historic site!) Lunch will be on the menu with details in the next issue.

Fellowship .

Robert H. Mathewes FSO-MT Congratulations are due to Hap James for passing ACXNAV A and B and to Agnes Wright for passing AUXNAV A. Agnes has decided to wait until next year to try the dreaded AUXNAV B. When he returns from the mountains, Frank Leister will tackle one or both. (Both ed.) We had a good AUXPAT class. Bobby Baker, Joe Fleming, Bob Wieland, Hap James, Hank Wolf and Agnes Wright participated along with seven members of 12-10 and Russell Binder, who intends to transfer from Division 8 to our flotilla. The exam for this class will be given on 4 Sept. On the first Monday in Oct., we will begin an AUXWEA class. We have a limited number of Student Study Guides and preference will be given to those who took AUXPAT. Dont commit to this one unless you plan to put enough effort into it to read the material and do the homework! Last and definitely least: Effective 26 August, Bob Mathewes was certified by DIRAUX as a Qualification Examiner for Seventh District.

Member Training

Frank Leister FSO-PB With the acquisition of the Adobe Acrobat upgrade this months Scuttlebutt incorporates a few new features. In the past if a reader wished to follow up with an Internet reference, that reference had to be copied and pasted into the members browser. With the new software one just has to click on the blue colored link. The reference will come up in the browser. No copying and no moving from one program to another. (This assumes you are reading the Scuttlebutt on the computer not printing out.) Clicking on the Flotilla Name on page one will bring you to the Flotilla web site so greatly enriched by FSO-CS Sikes. Clicking on the Flotilla Schedule on page one will bring you to the full Flotilla Calendar on the Web Site. These are the first steps to integrating the Scuttlebutt and the web site for greater interest and efficiency. Clicking on the bridge picture will bring you to a camera focused on the new structure. (At least it when there are no hurricanes aboutwhenever that is.) Yes that is a gimmick but I wanted to demonstrate to authors for the Scuttlebutt what some of the possibilities are. For those submitting articles you may freely embed links with the expectation your readers will have easy access to the references. Use your imagination to improve the chances that your article will first be read and second it will be interesting. The new software will permit other more attractive formatting and practical uses in the future -- after yours truly figures it out! The officer directory now lists only those email addresses devised by FSO-CS Sikes. These are not your real email addresses but pseudo ones that when used will translate to your real ones. This protects your privacy and reduces the opportunity for spaming. This took a heck of a lot of tedious work by FSO Sikes and he is congratulated for it. See the next article by FSOSikes.

Publications

Career Counseling
FSO-CC Brent Hepburn I know I've been a pretty scarce commodity recently in the Flotilla, but not because I want to stay away- just been too dang busy to get to meetings! Okay, enough with the excuses, but I am the Career Counselor for all you new (er) members who may not know me. I try to coordinate activities with the Coast Guard Academy and general recruiting for the Coast Guard. We were successful in the past few years in facilitating Academy admissions from our area in the AIM (Academy Introduction Mission) and direct application. I need to work harder in helping to get the recruiting numbers up in our area.

Page 4 Communication Services

John L. Sikes FSO-CS

Scuttlebutt

September 2004

An important message we've heard any number of times is to keep your antivirus up to date. Don't skimp on your selection of AV application, broadband users must have a firewall, check for spyware, and use common sense! For more information on any of these topics, check out prior issues of Bits & Bytes at

It's been a busy summer, what with all our on-water and other activities. On the flotilla web site, weve had a busy time as well. We've had several new postings to the What's New and History pages as well as a new page on Hurricanes due to the month's near miss. For accesses, there have only been 65 hits on What's New as of this writing, down from the last couple of months. The Hurricane page has drawn 25 interested readers, but the page on folding of the American flag remains the leader with 44 hits. This is surprising since the page does not change from month to month. Members are reminded that we have a wealth of information available on the web site. We've been asked a number of questions through e-mail messages, most of which have answers in the Members' section of the site. We don't mind receiving the questions, but members are encouraged to look around and gain from the amount of stuff that's available online. If anyone knows of anything that may need to be added to the page, please drop me a note at my address in the next paragraph. Finally, each flotilla staff officer has a unique e-mail address that is available through our web site hosting company. For example, Bob Kreiling will receive mail addressed to fc@uscgauxcharleston.org since this mail will forward to his personal e-mail address. Likewise, my address through the site is fso-cs@uscgauxcharleston.org . Other addresses are set up for all appointed officers, VFC and IPFC as well. Use of these addresses helps to maintain the privacy that each of us deserves since personal addresses are not made available to nonmembers. If any member would like a personalized email address such as this, please let me know and it will be done. We have several hundred e-mail addresses available through the site, so this is not a problem. If you haven't been on the Flotilla 12-8 web site lately, check it out at www.uscgauxcharleston.org ================================== Worms are making the rounds! With the warmer weather, we seem to be having the annual outbreak of worm infested email (with July and August especially prolific). It may be due to college kids on break having nothing better to do, or simply the phase of the moon? The most recent are the beagle worm and its many mutations, which Norton better describes at http://securityresponse.symantic.com/avcenter/venc/data /w32.beagle.ag@mm.html Mail, which appeared to be from a legitimate address looked "funny." Some purported to be from various CG staff email addresses and others from various Auxiliary staff email addresses. Of course it only mimicked the address, and was not sent by the person indicated. Most of you suspected a phony and simply deleted it. Well done! Remember to always include a complete and logical subject line in your messages, and look for one in the messages you open. Also, look for a complete and logical message in the email itself. If you don't see it, delete it.

http://www.cgaux.org/cgauxweb/infoserv/BandB.htm

Time to look around and see what is happening around you maintain situational awareness so to speak.

UP PERISCOPE!

The Galleries are full of critics. They play no ball. They fight no fights. They make no mistakes because they attempt nothing. Down in the arena are the doers. They make mistakes because they attempt many things. The person who makes no mistakes lacks boldness and the spirit of adventure. He is the one who never, never tries anything new. He is the brake on the wheel of progress. The very fact that he tries nothing, takes no chances, does nothing except criticize those who try is, perhaps, the biggest error possible in a lifetime. Submitted by IPFC Brett Grooms
===================================

Windows Update SP2

Windows SP2 update is now available. Its a major update (95.3 Meg). A High Speed Internet Connection is probably necessary. You can order the update on CD from Microsoft, Free of charge if you prefer, although they say it will take 4 5 weeks to receive it. Ive downloaded the update myself and the complete process took a little over an hour. There are many times when it looks like nothing is happening but be patient (including the restart). I havent seen any problems so far but it does suggest backing up your system prior to updating. The major concerns to the upgrade seem to come from IT managers in large corporations,

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Scuttlebutt

September 2004
Brett Grooms, DSO-CS, D7

which utilize a wide range of software programs (Microsoft and Non-Microsoft). Please make your own decision whether to upgrade or not. You can go to http://www.microsoft.com/athome/security/prote ct/default.aspx for more information and download the SP2. Please note: With the additional security measures Auxiliary websites such as the on-line training and testing that use popups and cookies should be added to the users Trusted Sites list and to the Privacy settings to allow popups.

Minutes From the Meeting of Charleston Flotilla 12August 2004

As the August meeting was a dinner event there are no minutes.

Shirley A. Wolf FSO-SR

KEY SOURCES FOR INFORMATION

Following is a list of web sites of value to us all. Please keep abreast of news and directives by checking these sources on a regular basis. >USCG Aux Info Tracking Progress http://www.cgaux.info/g_ocx/auxdata/auxinfohelp.htm USCG Aux What's New Page http://www.cgaux.org/cgauxweb/memtable.shtml > USCG Aux On-line Testing Page http://cgexams.info/testing/ > USCG Aux AuxInfo http://www.auxinfo.uscg.gov/ > USCG Aux e-Train http://www.auxetrain.org/ > USCG Aux Forms & Manuals Page http://www.cgaux.org/cgauxweb/tbforms.shtml > 7th District DirAux West http://www.dirauxwest.org/ > ChDirAux Items of Interest Page http://www.cgaux.info/g_ocx/ > DIRAUX District 7 Homepage http://www.d7oax3.net/ > DIRAUX District 7 Directives http://www.d7oax3.net/pol_dir.htm > USCG Aux D7 Member Page http://www.cgaux7.org/index_members.asp > Division 12 Website http://www.uscgaux.org/~07012/ > Flotilla Website http://www.uscgauxcharleston.org/

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September 2003

Flotilla 12-8 Officers

Click on Name to send an e-mail message

Flotilla 12-8 Elected Officers: Position

FC - Flotilla Commander VFC - Flotilla Vice Commander

Name
Robert L. Kreiling Thomas A. Schmidt

Web Page
Welcome

Flotilla 12-8 Staff Officers: Position

FSO-AN - Aids to Navigation FSO-AV - Aviation Coordinator FSO-CC - Career Counselor FSO-CM - Communications FSO-CS - Communications Services FSO-FN - Finance FSO-IS - Information Services FSO-MA - Materials FSO-MS - Marine Safety FSO-MT - Member Training FSO-OP - Operations FSO-PA - Public Affairs FSO-PB - Publications FSO-PE - Public Education FSO-PS - Personnel Services FSO-PV - Partner Visitation FSO-SR - Secretary/Records FSO-VE - Vessel Examination IPFC - Immediate Past Flotilla Commander

Name
Richard B. Daniel Terry Heinz W. Brent Hepburn Thomas A. Schmidt John L. Sikes Joseph H. Bokern, IV Dean B. Creed Henry Wolf Agnes P. Wright Robert H. Mathewes Allen James Richard R. Clarke Frank C. Leister Robert J. Lovinger Peter R. Chylko Barbara Yeatman Shirley A. Wolf Robert Orenstein Brett J. Grooms Last updated:

Web Page
Air Operations Academy Introduction Mission (AIM)

Surface Operations

Newsletters Public Courses Join The Auxiliary

Safety Checks