Mississippi Senator Thad Cochran Offers Resolution, Expresses Appreciation to Coast Guard Leader

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The U.S. Senate today approved a resolution authored by U.S. Senator Thad Cochran (R-Miss.) that commemorates the 39-year career of retired Coast Guard Commandant Admiral Thad Allen.

The resolution (S.Res.170) cites Allen’s overall career and accomplishments, particularly those demonstrated in the aftermath of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, as well as response to the April 2010 explosion of the BP Deepwater Horizon oil platform in the Gulf of Mexico.  It was approved by unanimous consent.

“In Mississippi, we are grateful for the service and leadership of Admiral Thad Allen, which will be long remembered and appreciated,” Cochran said.

“Admiral Allen proved himself to be a man of not just sterling courage with compassion to match, but also a man of great integrity and an enormous capacity for hard work.  He is a direct reflection of the guardian ethos and an inspiration to those who have had the good fortune to work with him.  Admiral Allen will, of course, be the first to say that the brave men and women throughout the ranks of the Coast Guard are the ones who deserve the credit for success.  He has made a habit of openly praising their sacrifice and often thankless service,” the Senator said.

“Today I’m proud to say that my state, due in part to his leadership and those Coast Guard men and women who have served under him, has made a great deal of progress in recovering from the most severe natural disasters in our nation’s history,” he said.

The resolution introduced by Cochran recognizes and honors Allen for his service to the nation and states that “it is appropriate that he be remembered as exemplifying such trademark characteristics exhibited by great leaders.”

The measure was cosponsored by Senators John D. Rockefeller (D-W.Va.) and Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas), respectively the chairman and ranking member of the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee.  Senator Mary Landrieu (D-La.) also cosponsored the resolution.

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112th CONGRESS

1st Session

S. RES. 170

Honoring Admiral Thad Allen of the United States Coast Guard (Ret.) for his lifetime of selfless commitment and exemplary service to the United States.

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
May 5, 2011

Mr. COCHRAN submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation

RESOLUTION

Honoring Admiral Thad Allen of the United States Coast Guard (Ret.) for his lifetime of selfless commitment and exemplary service to the United States.

Whereas Admiral Thad Allen, the 23rd Commandant of the United States Coast Guard, retired from the Coast Guard on June 30, 2010, after 39 distinguished years of service;

Whereas Admiral Allen graduated from the United States Coast Guard Academy in 1971 and served in a number of capacities, including serving as the Principal Federal Official for response and recovery operation for Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, Coast Guard Chief of Staff, and most recently as National Incident Commander for the Deepwater Horizon Disaster in the Gulf of Mexico;

Whereas Admiral Allen commanded with distinction the foremost Coast Guard in the world from 2006 to 2010 and has embodied the Coast Guard’s enduring values of honor, respect, and devotion to duty;

Whereas Admiral Allen, during his tenure as Commandant, focused the Coast Guard on modernization and improved readiness in responding to natural disasters;

Whereas Admiral Allen, during his tenure as Commandant, worked to ensure the safety of professional mariners and millions of recreational and commercial vessels, facilitate commerce, protect the ports and maritime infrastructure of the United States from terrorism, conduct humanitarian operations, protect our marine environment, secure United States borders, combat drug trafficking, support anti-piracy efforts, and support Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom;

Whereas Admiral Allen demonstrated the vision and transformational leadership that will provide the United States with a Coast Guard that is not only capable of meeting and exceeding the ever-changing maritime challenges of the United States, but also able to better anticipate future challenges and missions;

Whereas Admiral Allen provided steady leadership in times of crisis;

Whereas as Dwight Eisenhower, the 34th President of the United States once said, `The qualities of a great man are vision, integrity, courage, understanding, the power of articulation, and profundity of character’; and

Whereas as we bid fair winds and following seas to Admiral Allen, it is appropriate that he be remembered as exemplifying such trademark characteristics exhibited by great leaders: Now therefore, be it

Resolved, That the Senate–

(a) recognizes and honors Admiral Thad Allen of the United States Coast Guard (retired), on behalf of a grateful Nation, for his lifetime of selfless commitment and exemplary service; and

(b) directs the Secretary of the Senate to transmit an enrolled copy of this resolution to Admiral Thad Allen.

This week the gCaptain team is in New Orleans attending the annual International WorkBoat Show.  The show is huge, with thousands of visitors from all over the world and easily a few hundred exhibitors sprawled throughout the Morial Convention Center.  Yesterday, we were able to meet with a number of the largest companies operating in the maritime and offshore industries, something that is always good for us (and you).

The highlight of the day was Admiral Thad Allen’s Shipyard Day Keynote address.  For those of you who missed it, Ben Strong from the Amver blog has a good write up and be sure to click over to the full article for a roundup of tweets from Allen’s speech.

If you weren’t able to attend Thad Allen’s presentation today at the International Boat Show here is the breakdown of Tweets we provided.  It was nice to see our old boss today.  Despite a hoarse voice he provided an excellent overview of leadership in complex incidents drawing on his experience from Hurricane Katrina, Haiti, and the Deepwater Horizon spill.  He also answered questions from the audience.

What’s he up to now?  He’s working as a Fellow at the Rand Corporation.  Want to hear more from Allen?  Check out his interview with the Harvard Business Review.

For those of you in the New Orleans area today and tomorrow, I highly suggest coming by the show.

[Image via Amver Blog]

In a change of command ceremony held today at Fort Lesley J. McNair in Washington, D.C., Adm. Robert J. Papp, Jr. assumed command as the 24th Commandant of the United States Coast Guard, relieving Admiral Thad Allen and marking the conclusion of the transition to a new leadership team for the USCG.

“I am honored to serve as the 24th commandant of the Coast Guard,” said Papp. “When I assumed the duties from Admiral Thad Allen at noon today, it concluded a series of key rotations and marked the setting of a new watch to lead our service.”

During the ceremony, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates awarded Allen the Defense Distinguished Service Medal. Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano presided over the change of command and awarded Allen the Homeland Security Distinguished Service Medal.

While today’s ceremony marks the end of his term as commandant, Allen will continue to serve as the National Incident Commander for the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, managing an unprecedented response effort.

“I have the utmost confidence in Admiral Papp’s and Admiral Brice-O’Hara’s ability to lead the Coast Guard during a period of tremendous changes, challenges and opportunities,” said Allen. “The new leadership team is well equipped to continue to elevate the value of the U.S. Coast Guard to America and the global maritime community.”

Papp reports to Coast Guard Headquarters from Portsmouth, Va., where he served as commander of Coast Guard Atlantic Area since 2008.  In this position, he served as the operational commander for all Coast Guard missions from the Rocky Mountains east to central Asia, covering more than half of the world including the recent Haitian earthquake disaster response, Coast Guard support to Operation Iraqi Freedom and counter-drug operations in the Caribbean.

Allen became the 23rd commandant of the U.S. Coast Guard on May 25, 2006. He has led the largest component of the Department of Homeland Security, comprised of 42,000 men and women on active duty, 7,000 civilians, 8,000 reservists and 34,000 volunteer Coast Guard Auxiliarists. Allen’s leadership in times of crisis includes the aftermath of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, when he served as the principal federal officer responsible for response and recovery operations.  Allen has led the Coast Guard through a remarkable recapitalization effort to replace an aging fleet of cutters, aircraft and sensors, as well as a modernization program to better organize, train, equip and deploy Coast Guard personnel to meet the challenges of the 21st century.

Admiral Thad Allen, USCG

Last week I had the opportunity to sit down with Admiral Thad Allen, Commandant of the United States Coast Guard. We discussed a wide range of topics from the state of the US Flag to the growth of the offshore sector but a common thread in the discussion was the evolving role of the industry and government organizations in the digital age.

For the past few years the Coast Guard has embraced new social media and publishing technology from within the organization starting with improving the availability of information, through the development of internet resources like Homeport, to interacting through the use of social media sites, like gCaptain, Facebook and iCommandant. While this is certainly the most visible aspect of the CG’s digital initiative the manner in which the guard interacts with information, both today and in the future, is more complicated and touches operations as diverse as the organization itself.

The following is part one of my interview Admiral Thad Allen:

gCaptain: Your office has been a proponent of Web 2.0 initiatives. At the most fundamental level Web 2.0 companies either facilitate communication (facebook, twitter) or provides timely access to relevant information (google, digg, yahoo news). On the information side it seems that homeport was the first step and blogs like iCommandant the second, where are we heading?

Admiral Allen: The ultimate goal as I see it is mission execution which is the focus of everything we do here. Social media, being able to align people and create better transparency, allows us to focus the organization to be more effective. The more we can make information transparent, not only to our own people but the American public, the better everyone will understand what the organization is trying to do and assist in moving all of us in the same direction.

The real issue we have right now is an inter-generational issue inside the Coast Guard where not everyone is a digital native like our young kids coming. There is a certain level of socialization that needs to occur and the same applies to dealing with the American public.

I don’t think there is any limit to the potential application for information in creating greater transparency and access to information. For example, today you can view a map of all airlines flying around the country. There is no reason the Coast Guard could not make AIS information available in a similar manner, it’s just a matter of having the right data collection centers and distribution points. It’s not a technology issue, there just hasn’t been enough demand for it. In the future this information could be made available by the Coast Guard leading us to better uses for Web 2.0 and beyond.

gCaptain: The intergenerational issue is interesting. In a recent article for The Maritime Executive Podcast, Editor Joe Keefe tells us of a recent trip with his daughter when, immediately upon boarding a plane, her Nintendo DS connected with the other kids who were able to share files, chat and discuss the trip. Do you foresee a time when a vessel pulls into port and has a similar ability to communicate with VTS, pilots and other vessels?

Admiral Allen: I do and have already had people ask me why, if in cell phone or wireless range, they can not use services like Twitter or email to share information and pictures to increase situational awareness for our operational  commanders. There is a difference between getting VHF updates from an on-scene coxswain in a SAR case and receiving pictures from an iPhone along with real time updates via Twitter. There are some issues with security and the types of equipment used but this is all within the realm of the possible.

gCaptain: Who do you see building this type of system?

There are a couple of issues surrounding this question. From within the .mil domain there will always be security issues that require the use of a firewall. Most of the stakeholders and people we deal with, however, live outside in the .gov or .com domains and we need to find a way to crossover and securely move back and forth between these secure and public domains. The threshold is between what needs to be secure and what doesn’t, what’s internal operations and what isn’t. The greater extent to which we can make information completely visible for use by the developers and the public, the greater off we’ll be in the future.

The Homeport website has served us very well but it needs to continue evolving as we move data off the firewall and make it accessible to everybody.

gCaptain: I remember just getting into shipping when daily information between vessels and ship owners was limited to one phone call via Inmarsat-B. The nature of information exchange is rapidly changing with shoreside having access to real time information and access to the vessel. This is new to the maritime industry but the Coast Guard has much experience with this level of connectivity. I would like to ask how real time information and communication has changed the dynamic between Coast Guard Vessels and headquarters?

Admiral Allen: The Coast Guard has always had a command and control system where any unit is available on a frequency and continuously available 7-24, so we have never had the issue of periodic updates. For us the question is moving from analog voice communication to VOIP and data systems that exchange both business information and a common operating picture. This is all being done right now. The real challenge, in my mind, is taking a wider range of systems/business data and the speed/bandwidth in which to move it. As far as command and control we are already there in the Coast Guard.

gCaptain: In the commercial sector this is new technology. Shoreside managers want to use information to support the vessel and this is well received but there is a fine line between providing support and micro-manging individual vessels. Do you have any advice for the maritime community on this topic?

Admiral Allen:  I have a lot of conversations about this, especially on the security side, and what I try to do is compare and contrast the aviation community with the sea-going community. The aviation industry is a product of the 20th century. Because there was such a premium placed on safety, with many passenger and cargo flight incidents early on,  our air traffic control system is now one of the safest and most transparent operations that you will see anywhere. Pilots are use to being given commands to go from point A to point B and cleared for a specific altitude  then cleared for final and cleared to land. That type of control in the maritime environment is something no one has ever seen and will probably take some getting use to.

For a thousand years we have operated on the water where anonymity was a proprietary advantage, you didn’t want anyone to know where you were going based on what goods you were carrying or what the markets were doing. The fact is that modern economics is driving us in a direction, not solely because of safety and security, but as a profit motive for visibility of the supply chain. Business managers want to know, anywhere in the world, the location of a container and this information is not possible without knowing the location of the vessel carrying it.

So I think we are being pressed this way for economics but on the safety and security side the automation of our vessels and its sensors makes it possible to be anywhere on the ship and understand the entire operation. The days of wipers, oilers and engineering officers making rounds is rapidly disappearing. For example, I’ve made the comment that our new national security cutter, the Bertholf, is really a computer with a ship attached.

I am not sure it’s a matter of everyone having to change, I think it’s a new environment and operators have to realize this or be overtaken.

CONTINUED: Click HERE to read Part II of our interview with Admiral Thad Allen.

Fellow blogger and podcasting partner, Peter A. Mello, of Sea-Fever.org and Messing About in Ships had the distinguished honor last week of interviewing USCG Commandant Admiral Thad Allen in his other podcast, Weekly Leader.

Peter tells us on his blog:

In 2006 United States Coast Guard Commandant Admiral Thad Allen was joined by investor Warren Buffett, NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Proctor & Gamble Chief Executive Officer Arthur Lafley, Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor and 12 other impressive individuals in being named by US News & World Report as one of America’s Best Leaders. Today Admiral Allen leads nearly 100,000 enlisted, reservist, civilian and auxiliary men and woman who fulfill the Coast Guard’s mission “to protect the public, the environment, and U.S. economic and security interests in any maritime region in which those interests may be at risk, including international waters and America’s coasts, ports, and inland waterways.”

Check out Sea-Fever.org for more info including show notes from episode 5 of Weekly Leader.

Weekly Leader HOMEPAGE

For more be sure to read Mass Maritime Cadet Christiaan Conover’s interview with the Admiral (Part 1 and Part 2) then visit his official iCommandant blog and twitter pages.

Update: Click here to read gCaptain’s interview with Admiral Thad Allen

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US Coast Guard Commandant Thad Allen

US Coast Guard Commandant Thad Allen said in a recent email:

“USCG activities involving U.S. and foreign professional mariners and maritime organizations will be conducted with utmost professionalism and respect. Licensed and documented mariners are professionals who share our interests in a safe, secure, and environmentally compliant industry. Alexander Hamilton’s charge – to keep in mind that our countrymen are free men, and as such, are impatient of everything that bears the least mark of a domineering spirit – applies as much today as it did in 1790 and equally to international mariners and our trading partners .I have received reports from highly respected professionals recounting Coast Guard boardings, inspections, and investigations not displaying professionalism. additionally, some have said they lost the complete trust they once had in the Coast Guard and are fearful of retribution if they challenge the Coast Guard’s conduct.”

The complete text of Admiral Allen’s comments are HERE. Wired.com blog post: Coasties Get Sloppy Around Boaters It should be noted that my experiences with boarding teams have been positive. While Coasties do put on a game face when conducting boardings they are by in large fair in their approach. Voyages are terminated in only the most egregious of circumstances.

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This post was written by Richard Rodriguez, Rescue Tug Captain, and US Coast Guard approved instructor for License Training. You can read more of his articles at the BitterEnd

This Week Admiral Thad Allen gave his annual State Of The Coast Guard speech at the National Press Club in Washington DC. The Unofficial Coast Guard blog has posted a copy of the internal All Hands email HERE and you can watch video of the speech HERE.