Community host and registration coordinator
Wine Country Marines
Visit planning, participant communication, registration, and SAL youth coordination.
Coast Guard career exploration
See where a Coast Guard career can take you
Wine Country Marines and U.S. Coast Guard Air Station San Francisco are planning to host San Mateo County Sheriff’s Activities League youth for a special educational visit—an inside look at Coast Guard aviation, public service, training, teamwork, and rewarding career opportunities.
Independent Wine Country Marines registration Not a U.S. Coast Guard website
Tuesday, October 13, 2026 is the confirmed visit date. The tour and any potential orientation-flight opportunity remain subject to Coast Guard operational requirements, weather, safety, capacity, and aircraft availability.
Historical MH-65C Dolphin imagery from San Francisco Bay Area Coast Guard aviation operations. Air Station San Francisco later transitioned to the MH-65E.
Coast Guard host unit
Coast Guard Air Station San Francisco
Home of the Guardians of the Golden Gate, the MH-65E Dolphin, and Coast Guard professionals serving the San Francisco Bay Area.
The planned experience
Meet the people, mission, and careers behind Coast Guard aviation
This visit is designed to introduce SAL youth to Coast Guard professionals, rewarding enlisted and officer career paths, and the training, teamwork, discipline, and purpose behind the service’s missions.
Discover Coast Guard careers
Explore aviation, operations, engineering, intelligence, law enforcement, cyber, emergency response, and mission-support career opportunities.
Meet the people behind the mission
Learn how pilots, flight mechanics, rescue swimmers, maintainers, and support professionals train, work as a team, and prepare to respond.
Experience aviation up close
Tour the air station and learn how its aircraft and crews serve the region. Any orientation-flight opportunity requires separate Coast Guard approval and is not guaranteed.
Aircraft spotlight
The MH-65E Dolphin
Air Station San Francisco currently operates the Coast Guard’s modernized short-range recovery helicopter.
- Cruise speed
- 148 knots
- Published range
- 350 nautical miles
- Endurance
- About 3 hours
- Rotor diameter
- 39 ft 2 in
The Echo configuration adds a digital glass cockpit, integrated weather radar, enhanced sensors, upgraded automatic flight controls, and other mission-system improvements.
Meet the host unit
Guardians of the Golden Gate
Coast Guard Air Station San Francisco has operated at San Francisco International Airport since 1941. Its aviation crews support search and rescue, maritime safety and security, law enforcement, environmental protection, and other Coast Guard missions across central California.
Today the unit operates the MH-65E Dolphin and maintains a continuous readiness posture for urgent missions throughout its area of responsibility.
A station takes flight
Completed on February 15 with PBY-5 Catalina and RD-4 Dolphin aircraft, the air station was placed under Navy command later that year for World War II service.
Rotary-wing capability
The station received its first helicopter, an HO3S-1 Dragonfly, beginning a long San Francisco tradition of Coast Guard helicopter operations.
The Dolphin arrives
Four HH-65 Dolphin helicopters moved to San Francisco, establishing the aircraft lineage that continues at the unit today.
Modernized for the mission
The air station received the MH-65E, adding a digital cockpit and modern mission systems to its short-range recovery capability.
24approximately 24 acres at SFO
7buildings supporting operations and readiness
Air Station San Francisco is one of the oldest continuously operating organizations at San Francisco International Airport.
Current command team
Leadership behind the mission
Meet the officers and senior enlisted advisor responsible for operational readiness, personnel, training, and the welfare of the air station’s Coast Guard professionals.
Commanding Officer
CDR Christopher N. McAndrew
Commander McAndrew assumed command in July 2025. He leads 100 personnel and four MH-65 helicopters supporting Coast Guard missions across 250 miles of central California coastline and inland to the Nevada border.
Executive Officer
CDR Eric G. Vryheid
Commander Vryheid’s career spans afloat engineering, MH-65 aviation, instructor-pilot and flight-examiner duties, congressional service, and Coast Guard strategic policy.
Command Senior Chief
SCPO Douglas Brodbeck
Senior Chief Brodbeck is the command’s senior enlisted advisor, counseling the Commanding Officer on morale, welfare, discipline, utilization, and training. His Coast Guard service began in 1999.
Official U.S. Coast Guard unit history and command biographies · Command information reviewed August 28, 2026
Inside the mission
Coast Guard aviation in action
Confirmed schedule
The visit date is confirmed
Coast Guard Air Station San Francisco has confirmed Tuesday, October 13, 2026. Register each proposed attendee only if they can participate on this date.
Confirmed by the Coast Guard
Preparing a secure registration form…
Information received
Your registration has been recorded.
Confirmation code
Save this code for your records. Registration is not a reservation, installation-access authorization, or guaranteed flight seat.
Independent registration website
This attendance-planning website is administered by Wine Country Marines. It is not an official U.S. Coast Guard or Department of Homeland Security website. References to Coast Guard Air Station San Francisco and the appearance of Coast Guard names, aircraft, personnel, or imagery are provided for factual educational and event-planning purposes and do not imply federal endorsement.