Innovation & Imagination

Following the terrorist attacks of 9/11, the United States Coast Guard has seen dozens of new tasks and responsibilities added to its already demanding workload.

Along with its transfer in 2003 to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), these added assignments now include increased protection of the U.S. domestic maritime borders, enforcement of the U.S. territories' exclusive economic zones in the Indo-Pacific, adaptation to new Arctic challenges, conducting vessel interdictions on the high seas, and, most recently, addressing issues in the Middle East.

In its ongoing efforts to maintain the same levels of domestic safety and protection it has historically provided, while also responding to these newly assigned tasks and missions, the Coast Guard has had to continually reassign and reallocate its critically limited resources to meet all of these additional post-9/11 demands, putting the world’s premier maritime law enforcement agency overextended, short-staffed, and underfunded.

This is where the Auxiliary's CGD-NE-SR’s Division 7 Special Projects Group (SPG) was created, envisioned as a voluntary resource pool of subject-matter experts who could be called upon, if and when needed, to provide assistance and guidance in support of service improvements, vessel or manpower logistics, or any other issues related to the safety and security of the recreational boating community in Western Long Island Sound or elsewhere. Especially now during this current Coast Guard manpower and equipment shortage.

In support of the U.S. Coast Guard Innovation Program, the mandates of Force Design 2028, and the Commandant’s directive to foster a culture of continuous innovation and learning, the SPG has been established to provide, maintain, and support a collaborative, open-invitation think tank environment where skilled and talented members can provide input and guidance on matters affecting the safety and security of the recreational boating communities.

To promote this Coast Guard-wide effort to increase efficiency and accelerate the process of turning innovative ideas or solutions into mission results, the SPG was created to provide an environment and a structured framework that encourages the imaginative and resourceful experts and specialists among us to contribute their experience without fear of being asked to supervise an entire project.

By bringing together creative and imaginative individuals within a decentralized, open dialogue framework that fosters collaborative brainstorming and the cross-pollination of ideas, the SPG concept has been created to ensure that the path from an initial idea to meaningful impact remains clear and achievable by maintaining a nexus where leadership can directly request ideas from the group and the group can directly share ideas with leadership.