Can you describe an early experience with the Coast Guard? After I received my commission, I was put in command of a patrol boat during the Mariel boatlift. It was an opportunity to lead and be a captain of a ship at the ripe old age of about 25. From that point on, the Coast Guard became part of my DNA.
How has the Coast Guard changed since you graduated from the academy in 1977?
When I graduated from the Coast Guard Academy 40 years ago, the word terrorism really wasn’t in our vernacular. Even the counter drug movement hadn’t become par for the course. The Coast Guard was doing mostly fisheries and search and rescue. On my first ship, we would go toward the Azores in the Atlantic Ocean with meteorologists and would try to track where tropical cyclones might be forming by launching weather balloons every 12 hours. We didn’t have space-based technology. We had National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration buoys. Today, there is a rapid pace of change with technology and the world is much more complex.
Have there been times that tested your leadership skills?
The biggest one was seven years ago with the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. I was the federal on scene coordinator. The spill impacted five states, we had nearly 50,000 responders, and thousands of boats and hundreds of airplanes. But locals viewed us as outsiders from Washington, D.C. Some communities were still recovering from Hurricane Katrina, and they didn’t have the best memory of a federal response. Job one was to earn the trust at the local level. I came to recognize that we were not just managing an oil spill. We had to be in front of the camera to tell our story. We had to work with the governors and provide accurate information and do town hall meetings. As a leader, my responsibility was to help bring back that trust.
This post was originally featured on The Washington Post's website.