Feature Story

REAR ADM. J. SCOTT BURHOE:  It is now my privilege to introduce the Commandant of the United States Coast Guard, Admiral Thad Allen. Admiral Allen graduated from the Coast Guard Academy in 1971. When I asked him once why he came to the Academy, he told me it was so that he could play football all four years. I've known Admiral Allen for many of his 39 years of service. But I've known him well for the last 15 or 16 of those years. I admire his intellect and his interest in knowing the truth. I have learned much from him, mostly from watching how he treats others and the respect that he shows all of those around him.

Admiral Allen is a leader's leader, and Admiral Allen loves the Academy and the Corps of Cadets, and as best as I can tell, the Corps of Cadets loves him back. I know that he's been excited about speaking today because he became Commandant shortly before this class arrived, and he will be retiring from the Coast Guard shortly after this class graduates.

In essence, one of today's graduates will take Admiral Allen's place in the United States Coast Guard. Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome Admiral Thad Allen. [Applause].

ADMIRAL THAD ALLEN:  Thank you, Scott. It's great to be here today and I look out at all the stories. And Matt, that was an outstanding speech and that's an outstanding topic. If you don't mind, I'm going to change what I'm talking about to match it. Actually, we had the same topic. We just didn't know it. The force was strong.

But let me first say to the folks in the stands there, the families, the parents, the friends, the loved ones—those who have provided support over these four years—this has not been easy for you. And the story is the journey. And I'm going to talk about the journey as story. You all have a journey you've traveled through in the last four years. And there have been difficult times. You've persevered and you are here today supporting these men and women who will become Coast Guard officers. I'd like you to give yourselves a hand, please. [Applause].

One of my favorite books on leadership is a book called "Leadership in the Crucible" written by Warren Bennis, who's a phenomenal writer and thinker about leadership. And "Leadership in the Crucible" is about events that are called crucible events that force you to change. They are the story that Matt talked about. And we all have crucible events in our lives. And the way I like to talk about it is that when I talk about leadership and situational leadership, I talk about the ability to reconcile opportunity and competency. And many times that happens in a crucible. A physical crucible, an emotional crucible, stress being applied, decisions that have to be made.

When I finish my remarks I'm going to come back and revisit that definition of leadership. The ability to reconcile. Competency. And opportunity.

Let's talk about today's journeys. Let's start with mine. I walked in the gates of the Coast Guard Academy in 1967. What Admiral Burhoe didn't say I thought I was too small to play division one football. I had applied here. I was accepted at the Naval Academy, I had a couple of other offers. I knew about this Academy because my father is a retired Chief Petty Officer. I was born while he was underway on a Coast Guard cutter and he lied about his age, went in the Coast Guard when he was 16 in World War II. He's recovering from hip surgery and hopefully, he'll be there next week when I have my change of command, because I'm hoping that my father will retire me. He commissioned me at this corner of this stage in 1971. Those are stories. Those are journeys.

My journey was a little rocky early on. I was kind of a recalcitrant junior officer. I required a lot of counseling, a lot of mentoring, and some stern warnings from time to time. But somewhere along the way—as I tell everybody—I became a born-again Coasty. I think it was when I was assigned to Loran Station, Lampang, Thailand, right at the end of the war in Southeast Asia. I arrived there in the fall of 1974. I commanded a station with 35 people 500 miles north of Bangkok, about 100 miles of China. Our job was to keep the Loran signal on air so that it could be used for navigation in Vietnam.

I was there when the Vietnamese went south in April of 1975. Saigon fell. We closed down the station and I shipped all the equipment back and I was the last commanding officer. That far away from my senior command in Bangkok, Thailand and forced to deal as a Lieutenant JG with an independent command, it was time to either lead, get out of the way or decide what you were going to do in life. That was a crucible event for me, and very formative as I moved on.

As Admiral Burhoe said, it's been a long journey for me and as Jerry Garcia would say, a long strange trip probably. It took a dramatic turn in 2006 when I became the Commandant of the Coast Guard. And when I was mulling over this ceremony about a year ago I thought well, you know, the first year President Bush was here. The second year Vice President Cheney. And last year Secretary Napolitano was here. So I deduced from the reverse chain of command that it was my time to take the stage and talk to you today. As I came in with the class of 2010, I'm going to go out with the class of 2010.

Let's talk about your journey. Summer of 2006, 274 of you walked through the gate. By the fall it was 251. And I believe we have around 201 today, including three international graduates. You've made your mark on this institution. You will make your mark in the Coast Guard. We have 16.7% minority. I'd like to see the .7% one of you that's out there. And 21% women in the class. If I were to characterize you from what I've seen for the last four years, interacting with you, coming up here very often, I would say that one of your stories is you understand community. It is your class that's paved the way, working in the City of New London and the surrounding community, to get yourself involved, improve the world you live in, help out those around you, and then mentor classes behind you regarding what it means to be a citizen of a community and what it means to give back. You can be rightly proud of that.

You've got an international reach. We sent you to some pretty strange places. Japan, China, the Czech Republic, Italy. Headquarters. I'm on a work release program today. You've served with distinction and intellect. You've worked at the Johnson Space Lab, the Sandia National Laboratory. You have Alex LeKander, your Truman Scholar. You have Joe DiRenzo, your Fulbright Scholar. You have – You got members of Beta Gamma Sigma Honor Society. You participated in the Law of Armed Conflict Society. You have challenged the folks at the Academy to become better people through your challenge of the Guardian, and you created mentors. Your journey has been terrific and it's manifested itself in some of the most spectacular performances by athletic teams that I can remember in a four-year period, that I've been watching athletics at the Academy. Basketball, volleyball, softball, soccer, Rugby, water polo, track and sailing. And congratulations to the ladies softball team for what you did this year.

Not all journeys are good and we do have crucible events. I think it was very traumatic for the entire Academy to deal with the loss of Third Class Kenneth Link [phonetic] this last year. I remember standing in the hospital in Baltimore with his parents. That is truly an anguishing moment to have to go through something like that with your family members. You were all strong. You made his family strong. I talked with his parents on several occasions. They were extraordinarily grateful for the empathy, the support and the passion and compassion shown by you all in support of him.

And finally, I was very proud to stand next to the President. [break in audio] – Once you pass in review bearing witness to history last - - January. It was my honor. One other thing. I had to tour, as an intelligence officer when I was a lieutenant, and I talked to the producers of Cold Case. And we uncovered a file. And Keith, I have your DVD of [inaudible over laughter and applause]. - - right here. You can all explain that.

The Coast Guard's been on a journey as well. And part of my journey in 2006 was to create change in the Coast Guard. [break in audio] Those were the conditions I sent forth as my value proposition to Secretary Chertoff and I'm going to give you some advice that I talked to him about in 2006. Actually it was the fall of 2005 when I was interviewed.

Throughout my career I've been carrying an invisible bag. And I've been filling that bag up with things. And it's things like you read an All-Coast [phonetic] from headquarters and you say what were they thinking. You see a decision—a policy decision made, and you look up at headquarters and you say is everybody there crazy? You see guidance from somebody in government that appears to be contrary to core values of what we need to do. I've been filling that bag my entire career. And I told the Secretary that if he made me Commandant I was going to unpack that bag. And so I did. I started pulling things out of it. Well, that one's been fixed. Don't worry about that one. Our financial system's still atrocious. We're going to do that one.

We've never got our act together on logistics and maintenance in the Coast Guard. We're going to do that one. And out of that bag that I have been carrying for over 30 years came the Commandant Intent Action Orders and my strategic direction I issued the day after I became Commandant. That has formed the basis for the modernization we've been going through, and that has been the Coast Guard's story and the Coast Guard's journey moving forward. You have been part of that because I challenged Admiral Burhoe and the Coast Guard Academy and the faculty to become part of Coast Guard modernization, and Coast Guard modernization—you need to become part of the Academy. And we have done that together. That has been the Coast Guard's story.

We've also dealt with tremendous operational challenges. The earthquake in Haiti, the tsunami in American Samoa, the rescue of over 40 people from the Alaska Ranger in Alaska. The flooding in the Pacific Northwest several years ago. And yes, we've had our tragedies too. We lost air crews from the 1705 and the 6505 in the last year and a half. And we lost shipmates from the Coast Guard cutter Healy, AM SST [phonetic] Anchorage. And we have grieved with them and their families. No journey is easy and no story is easy.

You at the Academy have gone through your journey as well. I was going to recount your journey, but I thought I might do it in a little different way today. Admiral Burhoe, would you join me at the podium please? In recognition of the work that has been done here, particularly under Admiral Burhoe's leadership over the last three years, and the extraordinary changes that have taken place, I am announcing today that I am awarding the Coast Guard Unit Commendation to the United States Coast Guard Academy. The citation is set forth in the following:

For exceptionally meritorious service from January 2007 to January 2010 while delivering as enhanced professional 200 week academic intercollegiate sports and military program for the Corps of Cadets that produced over 1,000 highly educated, trained and inspired ensigns to serve and strengthen our great nation. A testament to quality and rigorous undergraduate programs, the Academy received accreditation by the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology, and the Association to Advanced Collegiate Schools of Business, commissioned the first undergraduate secret Internet protocol router network, Sipranet Classroom. Established a pipeline of national academic scholars and won national acclaim as the number one public school in the northern U.S. for Baccalaureate Colleges.

The Academy has also completed its decennial reaccreditation self-study and hosted the visiting team from the New England Association of Schools and Colleges. The Academic Leadership Development Center similarly expanded the American Council on Education Accreditation, and Coast Guard mission performance widely providing world-renowned leadership and quality programs to over 20,000 active reserve civilian and auxiliary personnel. Working tirelessly to improve access, equity, accountability and cultivating a community of inclusion, the Academy changed cultural attitudes and created partnerships with local, state and national diversity, SIM [phonetic] and leadership serving institutions. The Academy increased the number of completed applications, trained and employed over 600 admissions partners, and established a robust minority outreach team.

Carefully stewarding resources, the Academy restored infrastructure and make campus-wide improvements, including a new cadet barracks wing, student center to enhance quality of life and capacity, upgraded athletics and physical fitness facilities, and state of the art facilities for continued prominence in the engineering curriculum. The professionalism, pride and devoting to duty displayed by all Coast Guard Academy personnel in the execution of its officer accession programs and professional development responsibilities are in keeping with the highest traditions of the United States Coast Guard. Signed, me.  

Yes, cadets are eligible. Just one more prop later on here.

Let's talk about the future journey and the Coast Guard you're about ready to enter. You know this very well, but I'm going to say it cause we have a larger audience here and I can't say it enough in Washington and the citizens of this nation and to the citizens of this world. The Coast Guard—your Coast Guard is a unique product of the American Revolution. Before our Revolution there were Navies, there were border guards, there were collectors of customs. There was never a maritime constabulary force constituted the way we have been over the last 200-plus years. It is out of the constitutional structure that was built, the egalitarian nature by which our country was formed, that we are present today as a Coast Guard. And it is no secret, as I travel around the world, that Coast Guard and Coast Guard-like agencies are the fastest-growing types of governing structures and ways to protect lateral resources, fisheries, natural resources, to protect against drug trafficking, illegal migrants. We cannot do enough training around the world. What Coast Guards are and what they do have never been more relevant or more visible in this world. And as testimony to that fact, in the fall of 2007 I stood on the stage at the International Sea Power Symposium at Newport with Gary Roughead and Jim Conway, Chief of Naval Operations and Commandant of the Recorps where we issued a new 21^st century strategy for maritime security that included maritime security, humanitarian assistance and disaster assistance for the first time.

This is selling well around the world, folks. We cannot keep up with the demand to help train and create new Coast Guards. One of the reasons we are so valuable is we are an anomaly in government. We are a whole of government agency. We seek unity of effort. There is not a single department in this government we do not interact with. We know how to build teams, we know how to engage stakeholders, we understand our operating environment, we create unity of effort. Even as we are here today there is a group called the Interagency Solutions Group stood up under the National Incident Command for this oil spill response that are working technical issues trying to establish the flow rate of what's coming out of that pipe at the bottom of the ocean. That's done by people that walked off of this field, graduated, and continued their story and continued their journey.

It's important you understand that cause you're moving into an environment where interagency cooperation and our ability to build teams has never been more important. Nor is it more misunderstood. And here's my only political statement of the day, folks. We understand whole of government operations. We understand how to create unity of effort. I wish it was as well understood by those who review our budgets and make policy regarding the Coast Guard. You will hear more from me on the 26^th of May. That was Thad Allen talking.

It's not enough that we know how to do this; we have to create the conditions for future success as well. Modernization is only the current work list. If we're going to be successful in the future we have to become more agile and more flexible. We have to be a change-centric organization. We have to become a learning organization. We have to be self-correcting. The price for not being able to understand how you can do better in making that change before you're prompted externally is having terms dictated you by higher elements in government that feel like they need to fix something. We have to constantly be able to understand our external environment, self-correct the Coast Guard, keep ourselves on track and do what we need to do to serve this country. Why is that important to you? Because you all need to do that individually. As you carry out your journey, as you write your story, you must be lifelong learners. You must be insatiably curious. You must have moral courage. And of everything else I will tell you here today, you must learn how to speak truth to power. You must tell those around you and who you work for, what they need to hear, not what they want to hear.

And when you do that— When you do that, you will understand and know when that opportunity is presented to you and when you can bring your own personal competency to bear.

I'm going to finish with one story. When I graduated from the Coast Guard Academy my father commissioned me. A few months later the ship I was assigned to—by the way, it was a steam plant—I'm marking my age here. We were in the yards in Curtis Bay undergoing a renovation. The whole ship was torn apart. We were also taking down the berthing areas and repainting them. I was with four other people in the radio room, which was right behind the captain's cabin. It was after lunch and we were kind of sitting around telling stories. Kind of goofing off a little bit. And I was looking down, as I was talking someone, I noticed that—I just remember the shoes I had on that day were some shoes my dad had given me. And I was an ensign. Wherever you can save money you want to do it. He said I got these shoes. I said I'll take them, dad. So I happened to be wearing those shoes that day.

One of the radio men went over to open the door to do something and was basically knocked back on his back my flames. Fire had erupted in the berthing area three decks below and it was all funneling up through the air castles in the stairwells clear up to the top of the ship, in this case going right into the radio room where we were. We shut the door, tried to call the quarterdeck. All comms were failing. We starting hearing general alarms go off. We heard sirens out on the dock. We could not get out the door because the flames and the smoke were prohibiting us from doing that. Down below fresh paint and rubber lagging were burning and sending black smoke up. It started to fill the radio room, started to come down. We were down onto our knees and then crawling around trying to stay below the toxic smoke. It became apparent that we could not communicate with anybody and things were looking pretty bad. And some of the folks were actually breaking down, starting to become hysterical and crying.

My roommate and I took a knife and we cut the insulation off the wall of the radio room. And we took the sledge hammer that's used for emergency destruction in the radio room, we started beating an SOS on the side of the bulkhead. We did that for a while and pretty soon there was about this much room left, and you're laying face down, and actually we were starting to say goodbye to each other. A pretty tense moment. When we—I felt a hand on my shoulder, and I looked up and I saw oxygen breathing apparatus, OBA coming from the smoke. And it was the engineering officer. He had come running back down. A quartermaster on the dock said he thought he heard an SOS up on the bulkhead. They came in and they got us out. They let—they suppressed the fire and let us through. We never would have been able to find our way out.

My dad is a damage control man. He was responsible, when he was at sea, for making sure the compartments were safe and leading the repair teams and firefighting teams. I called him that night. And here is my story. I said dad, I made it out because I was wearing your shoes. I'm in the will. We always talked metaphorically about being able to walk in someone's shoes. I had the extraordinary chance to actually stand in my father's shoes in a situation that would have been a crucible moment for him and the specialty rating that he chose in the Coast Guard. And it became my first crucible moment as an officer.

But what does that mean? There are crucible moments coming for you all. And I'm going to take you back to that very frank conversation we had in Leamy Hall with Elijah Cummings, and we both came up and talked a couple of years ago. You all remember that, I'm sure. He said something that has stuck with me the rest of my life. I have quoted it many, many times, and I'm going to close here today with it. He told us that night—and he has told me several times since then—our children are the living messengers we send to a future we will never see. You are the living messengers that we will send to a Coast Guard that I will never see. And it is your duty to metaphorically fill those shoes. It is your duty, when presented with choices, to reconcile opportunity and competency. And it is your responsibility to live your class motto, Eternal Guardians of the Sea.

Thank you. Semper Paratus.

REAR ADM. J. SCOTT BURHOE:  Thank you, Admiral Allen, on behalf of the Academy, for your service to this nation and for taking the time to be here with the class of 2010.