We Are Coast Guard: What Happens When One of Our Own Needs Help

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By MCPOCG (Ret.) Charles “Skip” Bowen, Vice President of CGMA’s Board of Directors and 10th Master Chief Petty Officer of the Coast Guard

I’ve spent a lot of years around the Coast Guard, and one thing I’ve learned is that even when people are doing everything right, life can still get hard.

We wear a uniform. We get a paycheck. We have healthcare and other benefits. But none of that makes us immune from a car breaking down, a PCS costing more than expected, a loved one getting sick, or an emergency arriving at exactly the wrong time.

Life happens.

And sometimes, even a good Coastie needs help.

During the 2018–2019 government shutdown, my son was an MK1 and an EPO. He had an amazing spouse, two children, and was doing everything he was supposed to be doing.

He called me and said he had enough money to make it through the first missed paycheck. He wasn’t sure he had enough to get through the next two weeks.

So he went to a food bank and picked up groceries.

Think about that for a moment. Here was a First Class Petty Officer serving his country and wondering whether he had enough money to feed his family.

That’s not irresponsibility.

That’s life.

We need to be careful about financial stigma

I spent years telling Coasties to save their money, invest, and build an emergency fund.

That’s good advice.

But I’ll tell you something else: I wasn’t particularly good at it myself.

When I retired after 32 years, I didn’t have a real emergency fund. And I know I wasn’t alone.

That’s why I think we need to be careful about the way we talk about financial hardship.

It can be easy to assume that someone who needs help failed somewhere along the way. Maybe they didn’t save enough. Maybe they didn’t plan well enough. Maybe they made a bad decision.

Sometimes people make mistakes.

But a lot of the time, life just happens.

A good Coastie can have a financial problem. A responsible family can need help. And when someone finally has the courage to say, “I’m in trouble,” our first response shouldn’t be judgment.

It should be: “Let’s figure this out.”

That’s leadership.

And that’s helping our own.

Sometimes Mutual Assistance means solving one impossible problem

Recently, a Coast Guard family had to PCS. Their children relied on specialized medical equipment to survive.

The equipment couldn’t move with their household goods. Insurance wasn’t going to cover the cost. Moving it was going to cost the family $12,000.

Think about what that family was already dealing with: caring for children with serious medical needs, moving their entire household, and now trying to figure out how to transport equipment their children needed to live.

Coast Guard Mutual Assistance stepped in and paid to move it, as a grant.

One less impossible problem for that family to solve.

That’s Mutual Assistance. That’s the Power of Us.

Sometimes the stakes are even higher.

CGMA’s Safe Harbor program helps members of our Coast Guard family escape domestic violence. Sometimes the only thing preventing someone from leaving a dangerous situation is that they simply don’t have the financial resources to do it.

In 2026, CGMA provided more than $118,000 in grants to help victims escape domestic violence.

Those are the moments when this organization matters most.

CGMA is us

CGMA has been helping Coast Guard people for more than a century through world wars, major disasters, government shutdowns, and thousands of personal emergencies that never make the news.

The circumstances change.

The Coast Guard changes.

But Coast Guard Mutual Assistance does not.

Coast Guard people help Coast Guard people.

CGMA isn’t some outside organization coming in to help us.

CGMA is us.

Last year, more than 4,000 members of the Coast Guard community received assistance from CGMA.

Maybe you’ve never needed Mutual Assistance.

Good. I hope you never do.

I didn’t need it during my 32 years of service either. But I gave then, and I still give today, because somebody out there does need it.

For Coast Guard leaders, especially our enlisted leaders, that means knowing what Mutual Assistance can do. Make sure your people know it’s available. Support your CGMA Representatives. And when someone comes to you with a financial problem, know that you have a resource that can help.

And yes, I believe in supporting CGMA financially too. Five dollars. Ten dollars. Whatever makes sense.

Because when a lot of Coasties give a little, we can be there when one Coastie suddenly needs a lot.

That’s what I hope people remember.

Know the resources.

Make sure your people know them.

Help sustain them for the Coasties and families who will come after us.

We are Coast Guard.
We are Coast Guard Mutual Assistance.
We help our own.
That’s the Power of Us.