Toward a National Organization

Following the early meetings in Boston, Raymond Gillis continued organizing efforts with the assistance of warrant officers from Division Two, who had been on patrol during the initial gathering. Together, they formed what was known as the National Board of Control, later renamed the National Council. This governing body would eventually charter District Clubs throughout the Coast Guard.

The term “club” was deliberately chosen to avoid drawing unwanted attention or concern from Coast Guard leadership. According to LCDR John Heikel, no prior approval had been requested for the first meeting because “we felt that the people above would take a dim view.”
Not every warrant officer was willing to join. Some feared that participation might jeopardize their careers, delay advancement to chief warrant officer, or threaten their retention in the service. LCDR Floyd B. Cottrell, a charter member of the Golden Gate District Club at Base 11 in Alameda, California, recalled that this concern was widespread.
In early 1929, several 125-foot patrol boats transferred from the East Coast for Prohibition enforcement were stationed in San Francisco Bay. All officers aboard were warrants, and eventually 18 signed up for membership. On September 1, 1929, Gillis issued a club charter from Boston. However, despite the initial enthusiasm, no warrant officers from the district office would join. According to Cottrell, they feared possible retribution.
Meetings were often held quietly—in members’ homes, on a ship’s mess deck, or in unused offices on base. One of the most persistent challenges was collecting dues. At the time, allotment payments were not permitted for this purpose. As a result, club members made regular rounds to docks and bases, boarding ships in port and visiting units to collect dues in person.
Seven months before the Golden Gate charter, the New London Club had been established. LCDR Irv V. Beall, the first warrant officer assigned as a classroom instructor at the Coast Guard Academy, recalled that the first organizing effort in New London took place in February 1929.
“I reported to the Academy on February 9, 1929,” Beall wrote, “and later that month a meeting was called for all warrant officers in the area to form a warrant officers ‘Social Club,’ as we were forbidden to attend commissioned officers’ social affairs—not even chief warrant officers were invited.
“So about 20 or 25 of us met in a corner of the Receiving Unit galley at Fort Trumbull one night to form a club. Boston and New York already had clubs, and Chief Pay Clerk Ray Gillis came down from Boston to give us a pep talk and help us organize.
“Later he was transferred to Headquarters, and we thought it was to get him out of the way of organizing clubs, so the leadership in Washington could keep an eye on him.
“But that was not the case. Soon after his arrival, we learned he intended to unite the clubs into a national organization, with district clubs wherever possible—and with the blessing of Commandant RADM Frederick C. Billard, the only admiral in the Coast Guard at the time.”
Gillis is widely credited with conducting much of the early “missionary work” of the Association—traveling throughout the Northeast, visiting major Coast Guard units, and personally assisting with organizing local clubs. With charters issued and membership expanding across districts, the movement, as Heikel described it, “mushroomed overnight.”
What began as small gatherings of warrant officers seeking fellowship and professional unity was rapidly evolving into a national organization.