Is there anything else you think the Coast Guard needs, or that should be developed, in the Arctic in order for the Coast Guard to meet its mission requirements there?

Well, obviously, winterizing our platforms to operate in that environment. The other is, as I mentioned, the status of the charting information up there as well, to enable reliable navigation routes. Right now we’re looking at a traffic separation scheme to minimize risk of collision for traffic that comes through Unimak Strait, through the Bering Strait and into the Arctic domain. And obviously with that would come aids to navigation as well. Those are some other areas where the Coast Guard has equity that we need to be looking at as we look to the future in the Arctic.

The Coast Guard acquisition program – and the updated “A Cooperative Strategy for 21st Century Seapower” – call for procuring a fleet of 91 national security cutters, offshore patrol cutters, and fast response cutters to replace 90 aging Coast Guard cutters and patrol craft. But your acquisition budget has taken some hits in the past few years. Is the budget slowing you down, particularly as you try to acquire the first offshore patrol cutters?

We’ll actually downselect at the end of next year. We hope to see the first offshore patrol cutter [OPC] in service in 2021 – that’s the crucial date for me, as I’ve got to recapitalize these 50-plus-year-old medium endurance cutters that are still out in the front lines operating today.

The General Accounting Office released a report earlier this summer that stated, basically, given the current level of appropriations, the Coast Guard’s acquisition program isn’t affordable.

The real challenge – and this is going to be true for all the armed services – is how do you retain this workforce of the 21st century?

I liken it to buying a house – where maybe your monthly mortgage payment is a thousand dollars, and it’s a very affordable house, and it does everything that you want. But then the next year your boss says: “Guess what? I’m cutting your pay 40 percent.” And you say: “Wow, I can’t afford this house. And I can’t afford that addition that I need to put on it, either.” Well, that’s exactly what happened to the Coast Guard. Our acquisition budget took about a 40 percent reduction from best of times to worst of times as we went through these annualized budget drills.

We’ve talked a lot about assets and infrastructure, but you spent a good portion of your State of the Coast Guard Address talking about the people of the Coast Guard. Would you like to talk about some of your goals for recruiting and retaining the people the 21st century service is going to need?

I know if people were to focus on our public discussions of what the Coast Guard needs, they’re likely to think: “Well, this is a very platform-centric approach to the Coast Guard. You need icebreakers. You need the national security cutter, patrol boats, the OPC. You need to missionize airplanes.” And yes, we need to do all of that. But you can’t do that in a vacuum. The platform is only as capable as the people who support it, maintain it, and operate it. So I go back to when the Stratton pulls in, and you see the silhouette of the ship, and the flight deck is literally stacked about 4 feet high, all the way across the entire flight deck, with cocaine that was seized during that patrol. The ship didn’t do it. It was the crew of 125 that did all of that. So I need to make sure I have that crew of 125, 40 years from now, doing the exact same things – and even better yet, to leverage the full capability of these platforms.

But when I talk to that crew, they’re a little bit tired. They’ve been busy out there. They’re going to get even busier when they return to port to maintain it so we can turn that ship around and keep it deployed at sea for 210 days in a given year. So we’re running our people pretty hard. And I’m listening to them, because we’re doing a great job recruiting. We’re doing a great job training our folks. This is the first year in a number of years that a commandant has not had to call a mother, a father, or a spouse to say their beloved was killed while conducting Coast Guard operations. We did not have one Class A mishap in the conduct of our missions – which are often in the harshest of weather and dark of night. So we’re doing a good job recruiting and training.

The real challenge – and this is going to be true for all the armed services – is how do you retain this workforce of the 21st century? Today about 9,000 people a day leave federal service. Some are military. Some are civilian employees. That’s just in the public sector. We have private-sector baby boomers who will time out, and folks may look for greener pastures. I need to make sure that the folks who stay in today feel they are part of something bigger than themselves, and that the work that they do is relevant. That is the best retention tool that I have – and if I lose that, I will have all these wonderful platforms, but they won’t fly. They won’t get underway. And quite honestly, they won’t enjoy the successes these new platforms today are enjoying because of the great people who operate and maintain them.

But have you ever talked to anyone in the Coast Guard who didn’t believe they were part of something bigger than themselves?

No, and every year we participate in the Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey [an annual survey measuring employee perceptions of organizational success], and the Coast Guard stands out among all the other federal agencies in terms of a workforce that comes to work with a sense of purpose. They work in an inclusive environment and they go home at the end of the day with a sense of satisfaction that they make a difference in the maritime domain, whether they’re doing front-line operations, doing mission support, doing major acquisitions, intelligence work, you name it.

If you ever have a bad day in Washington, D.C., just push away from your desk, go down to a field unit, and spend five minutes over a cup of coffee talking to the young men and women in the Coast Guard. And if you don’t go back refreshed, then maybe you do need to see a therapist. I could not be more proud of the men and women who become part of this all-volunteer service.

Editor’s note: Since this interview was conducted, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers announced Oct. 26 a 12-month pause in its “Alaska Deep-Draft Arctic Port System” feasibility study. In October 2016, the Army Corps, state of Alaska, and city of Nome will assess whether to proceed with the study as is or change the scope of the study.

This interview first appeared in Coast Guard Outlook: 2015-2016 Edition.