Search & Rescue Organizations & Affiliations

AFRAS is a proud member of the International Maritime Rescue Federation (formerly the International Lifeboat Federation), and we maintain a very special relationship with the Royal National Lifeboat Institute of the United Kingdom and Ireland, the U.S. Coast Guard and the U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary. We also maintain an International Advisory Group, with representatives (past and present) from search and rescue organizations from the United Kingdom, Ireland, the Netherlands, Germany, and the British Virgin Islands.

The U.S. Coast Guard is a formal sponsor of three of our annual awards for heroism; namely the VADM Thomas Sargent Gold Medal (awarded to an enlisted member of the U.S. Coast Guard), the AFRAS Silver Medal (awarded to a Coast Guard Auxiliarist), and the Amver Award (awarded to a deserving Amverregistered vessel that takes part in a rescue, anywhere across the globe). The Coast Guard annually solicits award nominees on behalf of AFRAS, and the AFRAS Board of Directors makes a selection based upon our stringent criteria from among the nominees forwarded for consideration.

The National Commodore for the Coast Guard Auxiliary is a sitting Director on the AFRAS Board during their tenure, and past National Commodores are afforded AFRAS membership after they’ve departed their post. The Coast Guard Auxiliary International Outreach program is an integral part of our team in soliciting for and coordinating our annual Caribbean SAR Award.

Please access the buttons of the pull-down list of “SAR Organizations & Affiliations” for the web-sites of several organizations that may be of interest. Two of the web-sites (International Maritime Rescue Federation and the Coast Guard Auxiliary International Outreach program) contain the web-sites for world-wide and Caribbean rescue organizations, respectively.