Fort Knox News

The Coast Guard 9th District honored 75 years of service from the Coast Guard Auxiliary in a ceremony at the Coast Guard Cleveland moorings today. What began as fishermen and private boaters reporting sightings of U-boats in American Coastal waters has evolved into the Coast Guard Auxiliary. The Auxiliary was established in 1939 to facilitate the operations of the Coast Guard. Starting out as the Coast Guard Reserve, it was split into a military reserve branch and auxiliary operation in February 1941. During WWII the volunteers provided search and rescue support, patrol and picket duties, port security, and limited aviation patrols. The 30,521 members of the modern day Auxiliary use 3,415 operational vessels, 236 aircraft, and 2,459 communication stations to patrol U.S.

The Riverine Range at Fort Knox became the mounted automatic weapons training facility for the Coast Guard 9th District in preference to an earlier site in the Great Lakes, and it has become crucial to the mission readiness of  mounted automatic weapons carriage training requirements. A chill breeze blew through the Kentucky hills as the last rays of sunlight cast their golden rays over the Fort Knox small arms range and faded into darkness. The landscape stood silent other than the occasional coyote sniffing through the underbrush or the hoot of an owl on a far away ridge.