Friday, August 26 , 2011

On the18th and 19th May 2009, John Cooper, Caribbean Division Chief of the Auxiliary’s International Affairs Directorate, David Elliot, Auxiliary Operations - Response Department Chief and CDR David Allen, DIRAUX D7 met with a group of officers from the Dominican Republic Navy and several of the prospective members

of AND, the Dominican Naval Auxiliary was formed there.

The US team was in Santo Domingo to conduct a Subject Matter Expert Exchange (SMEE) in order to assist the Dominicans in setting up their Naval Auxiliary, continuing with a process that began at the Caribbean Search and Rescue (SAR) conference held in San Juan, PR, on July 2009.

The objective was to give the Dominican Navy the benefit of the USCG Auxiliary’s 70 years of experience in operating a volunteer SAR organization – the Dominicans could then modify the methodologies presented so that they meet their particular needs. The Dominican Navy contingent was led by CAPT Edmundo Félix Pimentel, Chief of Logistics, and the civilian group was headed by Mr. José Antonio Najri, a prominent local businessman and the “champion” for the formation of SAND. The entire meeting was organized by LCDR Derek Cromwell, USCGLO in Santo Domingo.

During the two days of intensive meetings, Auxiliarist Cooper discussed the history and organization of the USCG Auxiliary and the “Prevention mission” as well as how to use the web as a resource for documents, courses and qualification training of members on-line.

VADM Lajara Solá publicly endorsed the creation of AND, saying, “When I was a junior officer training at Governor’s Island, I was very impressed with what the USCG Auxiliary was doing for the US Coast Guard and vowed that our country would have such an organization one day. Now that I am the CNO, I expect it will be formed immediately for the benefit of all Dominicans and boaters who visit the Dominican Republic.”

After over a year of continuous coordinated effort, CPT. Juan Carlos Porcella, Executive Director of Auxiliares Navales Dominicanos (AND), the Dominican Naval Auxiliary, announced the formal presentation of the new organization to the Dominican public as a result of the signing of the official decree of formation by Dominican President, Dr. Leonel Fernández.

An impressive ceremony was on December 15th, 2009, with the participation of the Assistant Secretary of Defense, VADM Nicolás Cabrera Arias, members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and senior government and VIP private sector officials. Remarks were made by the Chief of the General Staff of the Dominican Navy, VADM Homero Luis Lajara Solá, and the newly-designated National Commodore of AND, COMO José Antonio Najri, a prominent local businessman and former Dominican Senator who has been the driving champion of the formation of the new volunteer organization

Cpt. Juan Carlos Porcella AND Executive Director, National Commodore José Antonio Najri, VADM Homero Luis Lajara Solá, National Vice Commodore Freddy Reyes, Cpt. Arturo Santana, and VADM Nicolás Cabrera Arias, Actual Chief of the Dominican Navy

•Save life at sea.•To aid the Dominican Navy in search and rescue operations.•Provide assistance in prevention for pollution control.•Provide courtesy vessel inspections.•Provide and receive training in navigation, seamanship, first aid for people at sea.• Promote Boat Safety education.•To be the top of the line organization of volunteers that are always ready and prepared

José Antonio Najri – National Commodore

Freddy Reyes- National Vice Commodore

Cpt. Juan Carlos Porcella – Executive Director

Cpt. Manuel Peña –

Southern Region

Cpt. Armando

D’Alessandro- Central

Region

Cpt. William Vega – Eastern Region

Cpt. Elias Ignacio Cruz –

Northern Region

Cpt. José García –

Northeastern Region

RADM Maxime Taule –

Air Wing

Special groups within AND•Medical team: Led by Cpt. José Joaquín Puello•Divers team: Led by CDR Gustavo Torreira•Pollution Control: Led by CDR Oscar Oviedo•Public Relations: Led by CDR Manuel Santana

On January 12th 2011, we were called by the United Nations Resident Coordinator to assist them as an Air Bridge Coordinator between the Dominican Republic and Haiti due to the January earthquake. We worked non stop with UN for two weeks. We were proud to serve to this cause.

International rescue personnel waiting for the next flight to Port au Prince

The Dominican-Hatian Air bridge operated out of Santo Domingo (Joaquín Balaguer Intl. Airport). Over 1,000 rescue workers and thousands of pounds of medical relief were sent to Port au Prince, Haiti. The dispatch of all aircraft were under control of the Auliliares Navales Dominicanos and United Nations.

•Incident AND 001-10: A local fabrication boat sank on January 7th . This was our first incident almost a month since we were created. Unfortunately, two bodies out of four were recovered by two of our units.•Incident AND 002-10: A stolen boat with 12 people on board capsized south of Saona Island, we dispatched one of our units out of La Romana and brought them to ground (illegal immigrants bound to Puerto Rico).•Incident AND 002-10

After our first incident we had 12 SAR missions saving 42 lives.Our vessels units as well as aircraft, patrolled more than 4,000 miles on SAR missions.During our patrol we encountered several situations endangering lives at sea and illegal fishery. These situations were reported to the Dominican Navy for them to take actions.

Since January 1st until this date, we have participated in 12 SAR mission saving 32 lives including 6 American citizens. The last one was in international waters where one of our members called the USCG Sector San Juan for help as they were sailing the Caribbean sea.Almost 5,000 miles have been covered by our units on SAR operations within our 5 regions. Over 2,000 inches of written press coverage as well as television media and internet has been published on our SAR missions

Since AND inception, we have participated in several trainings and courses. The first one, was held by the USCG Training Team about learning to use the Incident Command System (ICS-100 and 200).

The Chief of the AND Southern Region Cpt. Manuel Peña, organized a two day course on seamanship and navigation at Palmar de Ocoa. Facilitators were Cpt. Edmundo Felix Pimentel and CDR. Aramis Céspedes of the Dominican Navy.

On April, 2011, the Chief of the east region CPT. AND William Vega, organized a training to boat owners and its crew regarding Search and Rescue. The facilitator was LTCDR USCG Luis Gutierrez who discussed about his experience in the USCG´s 7th District.

On May 2011, we made the first AND Seminar on SAR Operations were the Dominican Navy Operation’s Chief, LTCDR USCG Luis Gutierrez, Dominican Institute of Civil Aviation, Mr. Ramón Pirón were among the facilitators.

Last month, the AND medical staff led by CPT AND Jose Joaquin Puello prepared us a course of basic maritime First Aid. 65 auxiliaries assisted this course which was held at the Dominican Navy´s Officer´s Club.

The Dominican Navy asked us to perform courtesy vessel inspections as a pilot program in order to assist them in this duty. We have made several changes to their forms and made them much complete and user friendly.

CDR AND Oscar Oviedo, is the president of Vida Azul (Blue Life), country´s coordinator of Ocean Conservancy. Each year, we celebrate among with International Coastal Clean Up (ICC) where thousands of Dominican volunteers and AND participate in this event cleaning our coast.

We made several inspections to the Ozama and Haina Rivers and made a report to the Pollution Control Ministry with pictures and video of the focal points of contamination. The solution sadly to say the solution is a political issue to move the people from the shoreline of these two rivers.

For the first time in history, Auxiliares Navales Dominicanos have participated twice in the annual military parade. We are the first civilian organization that parades with the Dominican military.

On March 27, a group of the Dominican Navy Auxiliaries were invited to climb aboard the USCG Cutter Campbell. As always, we were treated very well by the host.

On December 15th, 2010, National Commodore José Antonio Najri, hosted our first anniversary held at the Great Ballroom of the Santo Domingo Country Club. Over 400 invitees attended this magnificent event in which among these, the President of the Dominican Republic, military leaders, top businessman, CPT USCG Eduardo Pino (San Juan Sector), CDR USCG José Quiñones, LTCDR USCG Luis Gutierrez, CPT USCG Aux John Cooper were part of our guests.We were honored to receive a plaque from the USCG Aux in recognition and admiration for the first anniversary of our foundation. The following slides are pictures of this unprecedented event.

Table of honor CPT USCG Aux John Cooper

National Commodore Najri awards the President of the Dominican Republic with the Honorary Medal Award for executing the Presidential Decree that creates AND.

Thank you

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Contact: CPT AND Juan Carlos Porcellajcporcella@auxiliaresnavdom.orgCellular phone: 829-846-6161

On behalf of all Dominican Auxiliaries, we salute you.