U. S. Coast Guard Orientation for Potential Recruits

Source: U. S. Coast Guard Auxiliary Records Collection, 1939-1997 East Carolina Manuscript Collection #559

U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary Collection

Staff Person: Nanette Hardison

Description:

The U. S. Coast Guard Auxiliary is well known for providing service to the public by doing boat inspections, teaching seamanship classes, and helping the Coast Guard patrol the waterways. But what the public may not realize is that the Auxiliary serves as a source of recruits for the U. S. Coast Guard. The Auxiliary has sponsored since 1955 orientation visits to the Coast Guard Academy for high school juniors who meet the qualifications for admission to the Coast Guard–a yearly ritual that would come to be called the Academy Introduction Mission Week (AIM). The high school students who participated in these yearly orientations would go on to apply for appointments to the Coast Guard and to eventually serve as career officers. This photo, taken in 1957, shows a group of potential recruits participating in Academy Week at the U. S. Coast Guard Academy on the ship Eagle.