Commodore Roland Zwicky (right) with Harvey Shore. Photos: Supplied.
BY HARVEY SHORE
US Coast Guard Auxiliary Commodore Roland Zwicky has always supported Australia’s marine rescue volunteers. For the past two decades, he’s invited our volunteers visiting Hawaii to join his Sector Honolulu team, to share knowledge and experience.
I first met Commodore Zwicky and his team in 2008, a year after I joined Manly’s Coast Guard Flotilla and became their media officer. We got on well, and Commodore Zwicky invited me back a dozen times to go aboard US Coast Guard vessels, helicopters and C-130 transports, and share training and techniques.
In return, I wrote numerous articles about the links between our services. These were published in newspapers and the Australian Coast Guard magazine. The US Coast Guard liked them, and two years ago they awarded me a commendation for promoting international cooperation and friendship.
Also, two years ago, the Queensland government passed the Marine Rescue Queensland Act 2024, which aimed to amalgamate all Coast Guard and Volunteer Marine Rescue (VMR) units in Queensland into one single government-funded service, as happened successfully in New South Wales a decade ago.
The new single service – Marine Rescue Queensland (MRQ) – is designed to offer better funding and consistent training to all marine rescue volunteers, free fuel and maintenance for their vessels, free uniforms for members, and free breakdown and rescue services for all boaties in Queensland. Almost all VMR squadrons in Queensland (24 of the 26) have now transitioned into MRQ, and many Coast Guard volunteers are clamouring to sign up. I signed up last year.
When US Coast Guard Commodore Roland Zwicky heard I’d joined MRQ, he invited me to bring my new uniform to Hawaii, and join his team once again. I thought he meant talk to his team about MRQ, but Commodore Zwicky had something else in mind when he asked me to ‘join his team’.
When I arrived at the US Coast Guard base in Honolulu last month, I found Commodore Zwicky had organised a formal ceremony to present me with Honorary Membership of the US Coast Guard Auxiliary. They said I was the first Australian ever to be granted this honour, which required special approval from Washington.
So now I’ve linked MRQ and the US Coast Guard Auxiliary, thanks to Commodore Roland Zwicky.
