U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary and a potential war with the CCP

With a potential war with China on the horizon, America’s military is undergoing a process of rebuilding, retasking, and recruiting. Much of that focus rests on the Army and Navy, but the United States must also assess the need for mass mobilization and volunteer forces such as the U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary, which can help rebuild our homeland security and prepare for conflict.

In any potential conflict with China, Coast Guard Captain Craig Allen Jr. wrote in 2024, “The [Coast Guard’s] Reserve and Auxiliary would be critical, but total personnel end strength might conceivably have to scale up at a pace not seen since World War II.”

The Auxiliary is a 32,000-strong unsung volunteer element of the Coast Guard. Any eligible adult over the age of 17 can join, allowing it to recruit from a broad spectrum of talents and capabilities. Not tasked with carrying out the Guard’s military or law-enforcement duties, the Auxiliary still acts as a cost-effective and increasingly important force-multiplier.

The Auxiliary was formed in 1939, on the eve of America’s entry into World War II. During that conflict, around 50,000, most of whom were unable to join the regular armed services, joined the ranks of the Auxiliary. They guarded the shores from enemy infiltration, rescued hundreds of torpedoed seamen, and took on disaster response when other government bodies could not.

In the early days of the war, as scores of merchant ships were lost to German U-boats off the East Coast, the Coast Guard established its Auxiliary-based Coastal Picket Force. Popularly known as the “Cosair Fleet” 6 or the “Hooligan’s Navy,” sailing yachts, former smuggling vessels, fishing boats, and other personal watercraft were some of the few naval assets the U.S. could marshal in the face of the Axis onslaught. Actor Humphrey Bogart joined the Auxiliary and used his private yacht to patrol the waters off Los Angeles for Japanese submarines.

Today’s volunteer Auxiliary continues to provide services and mission support in key areas—providing translators and interpreters, cybersecurity, rescue, disaster response, and safety education, all areas of future growth and need for the Coast Guard. In a future conflict with China, the Coast Guard and other naval assets would be shifted to deal with the threat, leaving the Auxiliary to take on many of the Coast Guard’s domestic duties.

Unfortunately, under the Biden administration, the Coast Guard suffered severely. Funding requests were repeatedly denied, and the Guard was essentially relegated to a secondary status within its larger Department of Homeland Security parent organization more focused on landbound border security. Paired with bad leadership, the Guard also suffered abysmal recruitment resulting in the shuttering of bases and sidelining of cutters.

As the Government Accountability Office noted recently, the Guard “has lost more enlisted service members than it has recruited…operating below the workforce level it thinks necessary to meet mission needs.” For a force that would be a required component in any potential mass mobilization, their numbers and position appeared quite grim.

The advent of the Trump administration, however, brought new hope for the Coast Guard. Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem released the Guard’s “Force Design 2028.” The program comprehensively seeks to “Design the future Coast Guard force to win” by expanding and assessing core needs that particularly focus on recruitment. Filling those gaps in a cost-effective manner can still fall on the shoulders of the Auxiliary if appropriate and needed measures are taken.

The Auxiliary costs less than $20 million annually and saves taxpayers around $240 million a year, with Auxiliary flotillas raising their own funds. However, until 2023, the Auxiliary was also party to receiving Direct Grants to Units, which were paid for out of the Coast Guard’s coffers to Auxiliary flotillas. Return of these grants could inexpensively help targeted recruitment for individuals holding specializations or identified skills. In turn, the Auxiliary could use these new volunteers to add further capabilities to bolster and sharpen their role as a force multiplier.

The U.S. military is currently pressed to find enough translators and interpreters who specialize in East Asian languages. In any potential conflict, those with skills particularly Mandarin Chinese, would be paramount. The Auxiliary has an Interpreter Corps, with some serving on Coast Guard vessels and on the southern border. With more targeted recruitment, the Auxiliary could also leverage other volunteer organizations to meet increasing demands.

Informal Language Banks, with volunteer translators and interpreters are available in many American Red Cross chapters across the country. These volunteers, many trained and experienced in working in disaster zones, act as translators for government documents. The Red Cross already cooperates with the Auxiliary on health and safety training. Thus, the Auxiliary could further leverage these skills via targeted localized recruitment and cross-organizational cooperation.

Another major portion of Force Design 2028 was to strengthen the Coast Guard’s cyber capabilities. As noted by Coast Guard Lieutenant Commander Dan Bell in the Naval Institute’s Proceedings Magazine, cyber-volunteers with the Auxiliary “could prove a significant boon to the service as it struggles with recruitment and retention.” Bell also notes that with many in tech seeking six-figure jobs, it’s hard for the Coast Guard to compete. Appealing to those civic-minded volunteers would save money and create a new opportunity for recruiting outside of the normal paradigms of direct recruitment into the Coast Guard. For those with cyber and technology skills, particularly those of younger generations, the Auxiliary would provide valuable volunteer opportunities as they continue their studies and enter the workforce.

Hi-tech and languages are not the only place the Auxiliary should focus, in fact, lessons from World War II’s “Corsair Fleet” should also be utilized. Alaskan fishermen are increasingly becoming America’s first picket in the face of Chinese expansionism. Using their ostensibly civilian distant water fishing fleet, China has depleted the world’s fish stocks, harming the environment, and destroying economic wellbeing. Using this fleet, the Chinese have repeatedly tested U.S. resolve in the U.S. Exclusive Economic Zone in Alaska. Fishermen who also volunteer in the Auxiliary could further advance meeting “presence with presence,” by providing early warning to the Coast Guard.

During 2010’s Deep Water Horizon oil rig explosion and spill, Auxiliarists were there to provide extensive support.19 In a war with China, with assets moved to the Pacific, resources to deal with such crises would increasingly fall on the Auxiliary. In one 2023 war game, Chinese cyber-attacks cause, “explosions…on four [oil] platforms, miles apart, each resembling the…Deepwater Horizon event…Initial estimates of the required response effort far exceed those for any previous oil spill.” Thus, recruitment among those with a background in critical offshore infrastructure would further bolster the Auxiliary’s capabilities.

In a coming war, a need for maritime militias, potentially under the auspices of National Guard apparatuses, would be a required component to combat China. However, only Alaska, California, New York, Ohio and South Carolina can currently call upon such units. In World War II, Auxiliarists could join or be enrolled in the Coast Guard’s now disbanded Temporary Reserve. In a contemporary conflict, the Auxiliary could be called upon once more to fill the ranks of state-run maritime militias.

Small investments can create big payoffs. While the Coast Guard is regaining its footing, tapping into America’s innate volunteer mindset to serve their country provides substantial cost-effective benefits. For the Auxiliary, allocation of targeted funding along with recruitment focused on talent, skill, and placement will assist in readying the United States for a potentially major struggle. As the U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary marks its 86th birthday this year, it deserves a second look. The need for its service has never been greater.

Phillip Smyth is a Policy Analyst in the Allison Center for National Security at The Heritage Foundation.