Past Flotilla Commanders:

1985-1986-Herb Golenpaul             2004-Mary Kirkwood
1987-1988-Ed Hanley                      2005-Skip Erickson
1989-1990-Lex Byers                      2006-John Holt
1991-1992-Bob Masuda                  2007- 2008 - Dudley Smolen
1993-Dan Tinney                            2009- Richard Celia
1994-Nadine Came                                           
1995-Tom Sutton
1996-John Queiser
1997-Tom Moore
1998-Dixon Kuhn
1999-Len Hulse
2000-Elizabeth Miller
2001-Larry Schmelzer
2002-Carol Paz
2003-Nick Tarlson

Some of the more memorable activities of the Flotilla are:

Our operational facilities acted as ferries for persons requiring transportation from Oakland and Alameda to Yerba Buena Island and San Francisco after the 1989 Loma Prieta Earthquake.

During and after the big fire in the Berkeley Hills, several members stood communications watch at the Disaster Control Headquarters in Oakland while some other members rode with Police and Fire Department personnel reporting the addresses of specific homes that were destroyed.

Flotilla 14 operational facilities usually patrol in Station Golden Gate and Station San Francisco Areas of Responsibility. We have for the past two years trailered smaller facilities to Lake Sonoma and patrolled there under orders from Group Humboldt Bay.

Flotilla 14 has eight operational facilities at this time, 6 power and 2 sail of varying sizes.  We have seven coxswains and 17 qualified crewmen, as well as one aircraft observer. Two of our members have 100 ton master licenses. We have three mobile radio facilities. The Flotilla has 10 qualified instructors, nine vessel examiners, 1 marine dealer visitors, four ATON Verifiers, and six AUXOP qualified members.

In 2001 two of our members, Eugene Orloff and Jerry Franceschi, celebrated 50 years in the Auxiliary Unfortunately, Eugene passed away in 2003.  Jerry is still a member with 57 years.  For the past year our present Flotilla Commander has stood an 8 hour watch every Friday at the Pacific Strike Team.

Flotilla 14 operational facilities have performed escort duty for the Coast Guard barque "Eagle", "Tall Ships" visits to San Francisco, hazardous cargo ships, and huge cranes, built in Shanghai, used for container ship loading and unloading in the Port of Oakland.  Flotilla 14 has supplied facilities for Opening Day and Fleet Week for the past 15 years.

Probably the strangest operations one of our operational facilities participated in was the carrying Secret Service personnel on board while escorting a visit to San Francisco and Sausalito of the President of Costa Rica.

Flotilla 14 has furnished vessels and crews for the training of Coast Guard Boarding Officers and for qualifying of Coast Guard Coxswains. Six of our members participated in the "Sea Marshall" program as communication watchstanders. Two other members participated in the OOD Program at Coast Guard Air Station San Francisco.

In 1986 Flotilla 14 was the first flotilla in the nation to set up a permanent safety booth at a Department of Motor Vehicles office. Until 1994 the booth was manned every Friday for 6 hours. Since that time visits are made every Tuesday, to fill in safety pamphlets and answer questions.

Flotilla 14 teaches two Boating Skills and Seamanship classes and one Advanced Coastal Navigation class each year. We have also given Safe Boating classes to some non-recreational boat operators such as:

 • The men that man the boats at the Richmond Oil Refinery in case of a gas or oil spill.
 • The men and women at the Marin Mammal Facility in Sausalito who retrieve injured mammals and who must take this course prior to participating.
 • Marin Municipal Water District have some 14 boats that are used to check all the lakes and reservoirs in the district for quality of water and possible algae infection, All the personnel who man these boats have been given a safe boating class by Flotilla 14. These special classes are held approximately every two years as trained people leave and new people arrive.

While most members are happy providing grass roots support at the flotilla level, many members have held staff positions at Division, District and National level. We have had 8 members elected as Division Captains, two as District Rear Commodores and one as District Commodore.

As an interesting aside, 4 members of our Flotilla are qualified nurses, one a Coxswain and the other 3 crew members. Our membership includes several ex-military members from the Army, Navy, Marines, Air Force and Coast Guard who saw active duty in World War 2, the Korean War, and Vietnam.

E-mail your revisions, corrections and updates to WebManager