Coast Guard Air Station Clearwater

Coast Guard Air Station Clearwater, in Clearwater, Florida, flies MH-60 Jayhawk helicopters and HC-130 Hercules airplanes. In a January 19, 2024 Coast Guard video release on DVIDS, “A Coast Guard Air Station Clearwater MH-60 Jayhawk helicopter aircrew medevaced a 66-year-old male passenger suffering from symptoms of a stroke, while a HC-130 Hercules airplane aircrew maintained comms, from cruise ship Carnival Pride, 230 miles southwest of Tampa”. MilitaryINSTALLATIONS has no page for this air station, so your sponsor and gaining unit are the source for reporting instructions.

The district’s new name

The DVIDS releases on the station are published under the “U.S. Coast Guard Southeast” unit name. A Coast Guard rule published in the Federal Register on October 2, 2025 renamed the districts from numerical to geographic names, listing District 7 as the USCG Southeast District, effective October 2, 2025. If your orders or a form refer to the Seventh District, that is the same district under its former name.

Rescue swimmers and training with Sector St. Petersburg

A photo caption on an August 2025 DVIDS story on search and rescue training at Sand Key calls the air station’s rescue swimmer shop the largest in the Coast Guard, with over 25 active duty aviation survival technicians. The story reports that Sector St. Petersburg boat crews regularly hold hoist training with Air Station Clearwater aircrews. The same story says Station Sand Key crews and the rest of Sector St. Petersburg’s units responded to 588 search and rescue cases, saving or assisting 713 people, in fiscal year 2024. For the sector’s own waterfront, see the Coast Guard Sector St. Petersburg guide.

Commissary and exchange

A Defense Commissary Agency history on DVIDS names Integrated Support Command Kodiak, Alaska, as “the only Coast Guard commissary active today”; the Coast Guard Air Station Kodiak guide covers it. For shopping near Clearwater, ask your sponsor which Department of Defense commissary and exchange families at the air station use; MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa has its own MacDill guide.

Questions to settle with your sponsor

• Where do you report on your first day, and who endorses your orders if you arrive after hours?
• Is any government housing available to you, or will you rent off base, and which housing office reviews leases?
• Which military clinic is your primary care site, and which emergency room is nearest the station?
• Does the unit expect you to join the hurricane-season response plan, and what should your family plan if the aircraft and crews deploy?

Before you report

Confirm your reporting location and the district name on your orders, and save your sponsor’s and duty officer’s numbers before you drive to Clearwater.