Sea Legs for Coast Guard spouses and families.

Personally, when my husband joined the Coast Guard I felt a little overwhelmed. Trying to figure out all of the different pieces of information involved in this complete change of lifestyle was difficult. I would have really benefited from having this new booklet given out by the Coast Guard.

This edition of Sea Legs for the Coast Guard Family contains information and tips that can assist you as you begin life as a military spouse. I have been a Coast Guard spouse for seven years and as I read through this the other day I still found some information I didn't know. Be sure to follow this link and click on the first item entitled Sea Legs for Coast Guard spouses and Families PDF file.

It really is a useful tool. It lists information about everything from reenlistment to insurance information, relocation and Mutual Assistance. Check it out, and keep it handy for future reference.

The Ombudsman

WELCOME!!!

I would like to say hello to everyone and introduce myself, and this site to everyone at
USCG Station Channel Islands Harbor.

My name is Melissa Cook, wife of BM2 Kenny Cook, and I am the Ombudsman for USCG Station Channel Islands Harbor.

For those of you who don't know what an ombudsman is or does, the USCG website states this......
An Ombudsman serves as a link between a Coast Guard command and the families of the members of that command. An Ombudsman can assist families in locating resources, communicate information from the command to the families, and take concerns of families to the command.

An Ombudsman is a volunteer (who may be a Spouse, Reservist, or Auxiliarist) that is designated by a Command to serve as a link between the command and families, assisting the command in its functions of providing information and related services to families regarding sources of assistance available to them, Coast Guard and command policies, and activities of interest to family members.

After living here for a while now, I realized that it would be great if our station had someone who could be a link between the command the families. I know I personally have had questions, and needed information that I ended up having to find on my own, or wait for my husband to be available to ask. Hopefully, now I will be able to help where I can for any of you who may have that sort of need, which will then allow our spouses to focus more fully on their duties at work and know that we are all being taken care of on the homefront.

I know more than once I have been "pleasantly" surprised to find out that instead of my husband coming home on his off going day......he had to stay for training. I wanted to be able to plan ahead and know what was going on and help work around that. This site allows for just that. We can all go in and see what is coming up and what things we need to plan for.

I have a lot of plans for this site and it will be updated on a very regular basis with new links and pertinent information. I am working on putting together a new welcome/relocation packet for those coming to our station as well. I have also been working with Lt. Gherardi on planning an upcoming party for all of us that should be a lot of fun so stayed tuned for more information on that.

Basically - I wanted to let each of you know that this site is here, and it is for all of you. Check out all of the features including; links to information/websites that you might need, interesting posts about things that are happening at our station, news and upcoming events in the command calendar, pictures of the goings on at the station, as well as a weekly spotlight of a spouse or CG member.

If you have any questions or comments (or if there is something you think should be on this site but isn't) please contact me at uscgombudsman@gmail.com.

I look forward to getting to know each of you better and becoming more connected as a unit. So.....ENJOY AND COME BACK OFTEN!!!

also - please feel free to leave comments on the daily posts!