Association Communication Efforts

Throughout the post-war period, the Association employed numerous methods to communicate with its members, Coast Guard leadership, and Congress. These efforts reflected a deliberate and organized approach to representation and engagement.

Key initiatives included:
• Tracking new members and publishing their names.
• Recording retirements and deaths within the membership.
• Reporting promotions and transfers.
• Compiling statistics on Association membership and warrant corps strength within the Coast Guard and other services.
• Publishing congressional testimony related to service matters.
• Highlighting new Coast Guard personnel policies and offering comments or recommendations for improvement.
• Retaining professional counsel to lobby and testify before Congress as the official representative of the warrant corps.
• Polling and balloting members on significant issues and publishing the results.
• Reporting on the formation and activities of local Clubs nationwide.
• Drafting letters and articles for publication in service-related magazines.
• Hosting social events such as dances and picnics to strengthen fraternity and camaraderie among members.
Perhaps the most impactful form of communication, however, was the Association’s direct presentations to the Coast Guard Commandant.
CDR Theodore LeBlanc, who served as president from 1937 to 1941, reflected years later:
“I recall one occasion in the late thirties when we were told that the Warrant Officers’ Association was the most effective service group ever organized; and a great measure of its success was due primarily to the presentations of its problems, varied as they were, to the Commandant.”
LeBlanc also emphasized the enduring principles that should guide the Association’s future:
“As I see it, the Association must never operate as a protection for any individual, but on the premise that it operates to achieve such material benefits which the Corps feels are due them, and which benefit the entire group. It strikes me that the Association currently should be striving to improve the status of the Warrant Officer as such, with particular reference to new Warrant Officers being appointed.
“In order that the Association be attractive to the newly-appointed Warrant Officers, it should have a program with some benefits for them, administered by officers who have committed themselves to conducting the Association for the benefit of the entire group and not any single category. If the Association is to grow, as I hope it will; and if it is to remain an ‘evergreen organization,’ plans must be developed continuing benefits for the new members, who by the mere passage of time will ultimately become older members and the guiding hands of the group.”
These words captured both the Association’s philosophy and its long-term vision: unity over individual protection, service over self-interest, and sustained investment in the next generation of warrant officers.