page_title: United States Coast Guard Auxiliary
section_title: Auxiliary insignia, titles, and military etiquette
hierarchical_section_title: United States Coast Guard Auxiliary / Uniforms and insignia / Auxiliary insignia, titles, and military etiquette
caption_attribution_description: English: United States Coast Guard Auxiliary Insginia
context_page_description: The United States Coast Guard Auxiliary is the volunteer uniformed auxiliary service of the United States Coast Guard. Congress established the unit on June 23, 1939, as the United States Coast Guard Reserve. On February 19, 1941, the organization was re-designated as the United States Coast Guard Auxiliary. The Auxiliary exists to support all USCG missions on the water or in the air, except for roles that require "direct" law enforcement or military engagement. As of 2018, there were approximately 24,000 members of the U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary.
  Collectively the Auxiliary contributes over 4.5 million hours of service each year and completed nearly 500,000 missions in service to support the Coast Guard. Every year Auxiliarists help to save approximately 500 lives, assist 15,000 distressed boaters, conduct over 150,000 safety examinations of recreational vessels, and provide boater safety instruction to over 500,000 students. In total the Coast Guard Auxiliary saves taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars each year.
context_section_description: Auxiliarists wear military rank-style insignia that signify their leadership position (e.g., a Flotilla Commander wears insignia similar to a USCG lieutenant) but do not hold substantive military ranks and are not typically addressed by their position title. All members are generally referred to as "Auxiliarist" (abbreviated "AUX") except for those members who hold (or formerly held) certain very senior leadership positions, who are addressed as "Commodore." This is unlikely to cause confusion, since "commodore" is an exceptionally rare title for active duty Coast Guardsmen. 
  Auxiliarists also do not customarily render military courtesies (such as saluting) to each other but are expected to initiate salutes and render other appropriate courtesies to military officers, observe proper flag etiquette, etc. Enlisted personnel are not required to salute Auxiliarists but occasionally do (out of either misunderstanding or genuine respect), in which case Auxiliarists are expected to return all salutes given.
  The purpose of the Auxiliary's rank-style insignia is to not to signify authority but to identify the Auxiliarist's position within the organization and recognize the responsibilities of elected and appointed leaders and staff officers. Past elected and appointed leaders are authorized to permanently wear the insignia of the highest office held if they held such office for at least half of its term. However, when an Auxiliarist no longer holds the office represented by the insignia the "Past Officer Device" must also be worn.
caption: USCG Auxiliary Insignia
exif: {}