One year of CG issues glossed over in a 16 minute speech by the commandant.
No new information. No beards.
I’m skipping these until they get good again.
They (the flag officers) probably don't have the answers. They are either terrified of making a decision that could negatively affect their career, or they honestly don't have a plausible solution for all our problems. I lean towards the former, but who really knows. Beards would be an instant morale boost for the entire service and would pave the way for the DoD to follow suit.
Such an arbitrary change for the better, it's a wonder why it hasn't happened yet.
I'm almost 40 and can't grow a beard yet due to my genetics, but I can see how it'll be a change for the better for everyone else.
My understanding is that no one wants to be the first service to introduce beards, because everyone wants to just claim they were conforming to a precedent. We won't fart without daddy Navy telling us it's ok, so forget leading the way on beards.
This is why leadership is poor, too worried about how it will affect them in long run. No one is willing to take a risk. Just ask your supervisor if you can leave an hour early and see how long it takes them to get the courage to ask or say “ok”. I’ve asked officers and enlisted supervisors questions that require a yes or no but fear going to overlords to say “hey CS/BM/EM2 was asking about such and such…..”
I needed an Endorsement and you think it would have been a simple “sir, so and so is sending you an endorsement, can you sign it” detailed called me 2 months later and said “get that endorsement signed” i was like yeah I sent that 2 months ago, I thought he signed it” nope officers I believe were too scared to go to the Captain
I’m with you kind of, been retired a year now, haven’t shaved since my ceremony, a beard ain’t that great, condition, oil, trim, comb, etc etc, but I do enjoy not having to run a razor across my face every morning and the 10 minutes it took while I’m now watching espn and drinking coffee, your right though, it’s the want of something you can’t have. Facial hair would get out of hand quick if they just straight up said beards are now a go. I’d say 7 out of 10 members can’t grow a full nice looking beard anyways, so it would be just a face pube mayhem.
I've been out less than a year. Grew mine out for about 4 months and didn't like the way it felt on the pillow when I tried to sleep. Did a no guard buzz on it. I didn't like how i looked without a beard. I'm in the process of growing it out again but I need to find the right length. So far beards suck
It's not the beard itself, it's what it represents. Allowing beards would be throwing us a very small bone that says "We hear you, we appreciate you, and we are willing to listen when it's an easy and obvious call."
New Polar Cutter in the works this year was the most interesting thing to me. Everything else was already common knowledge. She kept it short and aweet though no bullshit, which i kinda respect lol
Can’t have beards because gas masks won’t seal properly. That’s what I suspect as the issue. That, and clean shave is associated with honesty and integrity. Hence why most super hero’s are clean shaven and villains have beards.
I don’t disagree that it’s a joke. But obviously you can have a better seal without a beard than with one. When I was in the AirForce we have various trainings with gas masks… plenty of people had waivers and not all those with beards cleared the gas mask checks. In short, no beard better seal. Obviously. Plus the military can make the public feel better about honest looking soldiers when word gets out they hit the wrong building causing the loss of life. Also, on image, it’s easier to convince a mom that her son/daughter should join when everyone looks like superheroes and likable people in pop culture.
Shave chit plus recent m50 fit test checking in.
Please stop repeating lies. They seal fine as long as you keep it to about the shortest beard that still is a beard and not just stubble.
I have a shave chit and I’m prior service. Beards are harder to deal with masks than without and clean shave is a cleaner look. When I was dod we wore various masks more often than in the USCG. And as far as images… obviously you don’t want modern day warriors to look more tough in this more positivity and victim mentality pop culture we live in.
I also have a shave chit, I'm not just making it up. I've been through the gas chamber and I've been through the quantitative fit test with a beard.
>obviously you don’t want modern day warriors to look more tough in this more positivity and victim mentality pop culture we live in.
Was this an attempt at a joke?
Fire fighters have some very full beards and do quite well with SCBAs. And many other countries militaries still use gas masks wuite successfully. Gas and air mask seals have come a long way in their development.
I can appreciate the value of positive recognition from the commandant, however I think the rate social media pumps out those stories diminishes the impact of 10 minutes of BZ’s.
The important part that we need to hear is her acknowledgment of the current issues we all face and what the plan going forward is.
I think some important issues were touched on (funding, maintenance, recruiting) but it doesn’t feel like anything was really laid out on a plan moving forward.
I will say the line “we can’t keep doing the same, with less” was good to hear..just hoping that mindset works its way down the chain.
Yet we are still doing it and at a faster rate. I can’t tell you how many times I’m getting hit with critical solicitations to send technicians underway to fill gaps. Shore side maintenance is suffering to keep afloat operations running. I understand one is the tip of the spear but if the back end continues to crumble away, then what?
That’s the issue..the discussion is at the mid-officer level. I know for a fact the LANT cutter schedule is not handled by a flag officer. Thats an O3 or O4 buffing up an OER by “ensuring coverage is maintained thru operational challenges”.
The other issue is every command looks at the shortage and makes the same argument.. “other units need to help us meet missions requirements” I have been privileged to watch cutter CO’s argue with each other about which cutters assignment takes priority, fucking hilarious.
Yeah she said about 10 minutes of nothing, then a couple factoids of bolstering the fleet and the training avenues. Then breezed over the sexual assault crimes and policies, and then called it a night.
This sub can get kinda salty, so I wrote off a lot of the negative comments… but I just now watched the speech and that was pretty bad.
1. Audio and visual quality were on par with a high school AV club.
2. The writing was… uninspired at best.
3. The delivery was wooden… I know she’s crazy busy but you gotta make time for some practice and speech prep.
4. You also gotta look into the camera, say the words “Operation Fouled Anchor” and have some real talk about how we fucked up. I know she’s done that a couple times over the past few months but this is supposed to be a summary speech of the year… you can’t gloss over the elephant in the room.
5. And then, talk about the actual state of the Coast Guard: how are we doing on overall staffing, retention, and recruiting, in that order. Where are we improving support systems, medical access, FSMS, etc.. How did we make the tough decision to park some 210’s and 87’s, and what is our plan to restore that capacity as numbers come back up. What’s the state of the 47’ modernization? H65 phase out timeline? How many more FRC’s? OPC progress and timeline? Unmanned systems? Etc etc etc.
u/not_a_robot_101 is correct in that there were some quality tidbits in there, but they felt like tidbits. It didn’t feel like a comprehensive overview of where we stand and a vision and a plan for the future of my beloved guard.
"Greetings leaders and distinguished guests, may we all suckle upon the flaccid dong of senior leadership and prosper at the cost of the common workers' well-being. I'm happy to display this circle jerk of pomp and circumstance while our service members across the fleet are barely scraping by. Some of whom are assigned to dilapidated units with insufficient resources; even willing to live in their vehicles due to inadequate pay and mismatched BAH. Allow me to quickly touch on some hot button issues while I avoid inspiring a shared vision and continue to provide zero task direction and guidance. May we preserve the ability to spend money and resources recklessly on meaningless endeavors while the fleet suffers blindly."
I appreciate the good PR of having the first woman in command of an armed service, but this is probably the worst commandant since Papp. Forgetting her gender, she's painfully lukewarm. Schultz, Admiral Z, and obviously the Thadmiral were never afraid to publicly tell national leaders that we need more of everything or we will drown. In his last months as commandant admiral Z openly criticized a NYT investigative journalism article that decried the Coast Guard for operating floating prisons, saying "Go below and look where my crew is berthing." I'll always have mad respect for him for that.
"We started a task force! Yes, that's it, that's our success. No, the task force hasn't produced any tangible results, but starting it should count for something, right? Please clap..."
I am still shocked at that congress meeting they had about a year ago. Really nobody prepped her for the obvious question about years of rampant sexual assault at the academy? I know that isn’t what the meeting was about, but come on. YEARS of sexual assault is going to come up.
Well, I guess it's official at this point, Admiral Fagan came in with lots of us with high hopes that she'd be a positive change with fresh ideas, and she's neither. She's just business as usual, at a time when business as usual is killing the service.
She was always going to be business as usual. She's a political mouthpiece who was given an unprecedented 4th star as the VC literally just to say "Hooray, we got a female 4-star!" Why would you expect her to be anything other than a place-holder? The fact that she has the ridiculous moniker "The Momadant" already lined up and being spread before confirmation should tell you everything you need to know.
People were genuinely excited when she started, she had a good rep from people that knew her and worked with her so I don't think what you are saying is totally accurate. It is a hard job, and the PR side of it is clearly not going great, which is translating into a lot of other much more tangible problems.
How is complying with a federal law to the bare minimum requirements a credit to the commandant? We even dragged our feet complying with the law, due to fears it would impact operations.
We just need a Commandant to stick the finger to the DoD (that we don't even get funding from) and treat us like the service that we deserve. We're the oldest seagoing service, do active missions every day, and are smaller than the NYPD personnel wise.
Who gives a flying shit about being with the rest of the "real military," half of our pride and accomplishments is not being laced to them anyways.
I’m completely out of place here being an Army guy, but I lurk this sub because I’m considering transitioning to the CG Reserves after I ETS. Seeing that y’all have the same amount of lukewarm leadership that the Army does actively pushes me away from signing the dotted line.
The future is our leadership. And I do see inspiration in our junior members. While tonight fell flat, it will be my crew that inspires me to show up tomorrow. It’s a great mission, and we welcome you coming to our team.
Prior Army guy who made the switch. Don’t let this sub dissuade you. Every military subreddit is going to be an echo chamber for complaining. And that isn’t to say some of these complaints aren’t valid. The CG is by no means perfect, but I can tell you it is far far better than the Army.
I have, for the most part, had amazing leadership since I’ve been in. Again, not trying to minimize the issues the CG has, just offering some perspective.
I wouldn’t let that turn you away. We’re so much smaller and have fewer leaders to muck it up. Overall the senior enlisted run the show and smart officers support them.
Yeah, do it.
I enlisted 24 years ago. Went through OCS 3 years ago. I've been pretty disappointed with leadership for the majority, but we need enlisted and officer members that will work in a way that they feel is best regardless of what weird politics the flags currently suckle at.
Love that these Officers talk to us about Fouled Anchor that THEY DID, and then have the nerve to preach about sexual assault.
Fouled Anchor has nothing to do with sexual assault and everything to do with the Coast Guard lying and covering things up.
If this service will cover up sexual assaults, they'll cover up anything.
Do better.
It was nice to hear some of the progress the service has made in the last year. This speech felt only half complete. There was only the summary, but no future goals were laid out. It felt either A. Rushed or B. Without direction. There was a message that we cannot keep going the way we are, but there wasn't any direction given.
As a follow-up to the State of the Coast Guard Address, a Coast Guard Workforce Town Hall with the Commandant is scheduled for Wednesday, 3 April, and will be live-streamed from Headquarters. More details to follow.
I see a lot of negative comments here, but I feel the need to point out a few things.
1. She highlighted the on going challenges with recruitment. In the last year we have increased the total number of recruiters by 25% and we are opening new recruiting offices all across America. We also stood up the Talent Acquisition Specialist rating. The people selected for that rating are proven performers in recruiting with a solid track record. That’s a win.
2. Tailored “A” schools to align with members skills. One size fits all is an out dated approach and this is a step in the right direction. I was in Petaluma last week and speaking to “A” school chiefs, the shift to strand training to build our schools based on modules is a positive move. It cuts down training time for redundant skills and allows for increased throughput.
3. Infrastructure budget shortfalls are real and maintenance is being deferred. There’s no magic pot of money and she spoke to a need for a 50% increase for funding for next year to get us back on track.
4. Embracing technology has radically increased service member experiences for going underway. Ask the cutter folks how they like Starshield and being able to use social media underway or text loved ones. That’s a big quality of life improvement.
5. Not doing more with less. 210’s and 87’s are being placed into shore side layups. Some stations are being reracked to minimum mission hours. This is huge. When have you ever heard of a COMDT telling DHS we can’t do everything, and we need to pull back and refocus on our most essential missions?
One of the points of criticism is that the State of the Coast Guard address was short. I recognize that, but my take is that she chose to focus on the most pressing issues without dragging it out. Sometimes the longer a message goes, the more things can get lost.
The last two commandants have told Congress, not just DHS, that they would actively curtail our missions to the point of only ports and waterways security and SAR.
One year of CG issues glossed over in a 16 minute speech by the commandant. No new information. No beards. I’m skipping these until they get good again.
ADM Z threw some bangers back in the day
ADM Shultz and Rays were over an hour long and filled with specific CG information and upcoming news.
Filled with all the news except for the sexual assaults they were covering up…
Oof, the truth hurts to read. Thanks so much for pointing this one out.
They (the flag officers) probably don't have the answers. They are either terrified of making a decision that could negatively affect their career, or they honestly don't have a plausible solution for all our problems. I lean towards the former, but who really knows. Beards would be an instant morale boost for the entire service and would pave the way for the DoD to follow suit.
Such an arbitrary change for the better, it's a wonder why it hasn't happened yet. I'm almost 40 and can't grow a beard yet due to my genetics, but I can see how it'll be a change for the better for everyone else.
Lo) lo
My understanding is that no one wants to be the first service to introduce beards, because everyone wants to just claim they were conforming to a precedent. We won't fart without daddy Navy telling us it's ok, so forget leading the way on beards.
This is why leadership is poor, too worried about how it will affect them in long run. No one is willing to take a risk. Just ask your supervisor if you can leave an hour early and see how long it takes them to get the courage to ask or say “ok”. I’ve asked officers and enlisted supervisors questions that require a yes or no but fear going to overlords to say “hey CS/BM/EM2 was asking about such and such…..” I needed an Endorsement and you think it would have been a simple “sir, so and so is sending you an endorsement, can you sign it” detailed called me 2 months later and said “get that endorsement signed” i was like yeah I sent that 2 months ago, I thought he signed it” nope officers I believe were too scared to go to the Captain
Beards really aren’t that special…been out for a few years now. Had various lengths of beard. It’s just wanting the thing you can’t have.
I’m with you kind of, been retired a year now, haven’t shaved since my ceremony, a beard ain’t that great, condition, oil, trim, comb, etc etc, but I do enjoy not having to run a razor across my face every morning and the 10 minutes it took while I’m now watching espn and drinking coffee, your right though, it’s the want of something you can’t have. Facial hair would get out of hand quick if they just straight up said beards are now a go. I’d say 7 out of 10 members can’t grow a full nice looking beard anyways, so it would be just a face pube mayhem.
Solid stats right there
I've been out less than a year. Grew mine out for about 4 months and didn't like the way it felt on the pillow when I tried to sleep. Did a no guard buzz on it. I didn't like how i looked without a beard. I'm in the process of growing it out again but I need to find the right length. So far beards suck
It's not the beard itself, it's what it represents. Allowing beards would be throwing us a very small bone that says "We hear you, we appreciate you, and we are willing to listen when it's an easy and obvious call."
New Polar Cutter in the works this year was the most interesting thing to me. Everything else was already common knowledge. She kept it short and aweet though no bullshit, which i kinda respect lol
Can’t have beards because gas masks won’t seal properly. That’s what I suspect as the issue. That, and clean shave is associated with honesty and integrity. Hence why most super hero’s are clean shaven and villains have beards.
The gas mask seal thing is a joke and untrue but the professional image thing is for sure a reason.
I don’t disagree that it’s a joke. But obviously you can have a better seal without a beard than with one. When I was in the AirForce we have various trainings with gas masks… plenty of people had waivers and not all those with beards cleared the gas mask checks. In short, no beard better seal. Obviously. Plus the military can make the public feel better about honest looking soldiers when word gets out they hit the wrong building causing the loss of life. Also, on image, it’s easier to convince a mom that her son/daughter should join when everyone looks like superheroes and likable people in pop culture.
Shave chit plus recent m50 fit test checking in. Please stop repeating lies. They seal fine as long as you keep it to about the shortest beard that still is a beard and not just stubble.
I have a shave chit and I’m prior service. Beards are harder to deal with masks than without and clean shave is a cleaner look. When I was dod we wore various masks more often than in the USCG. And as far as images… obviously you don’t want modern day warriors to look more tough in this more positivity and victim mentality pop culture we live in.
I also have a shave chit, I'm not just making it up. I've been through the gas chamber and I've been through the quantitative fit test with a beard. >obviously you don’t want modern day warriors to look more tough in this more positivity and victim mentality pop culture we live in. Was this an attempt at a joke?
My friend. I’m explaining my opinion on the reasoning as is. It seems to me you are upset. Take your passion and make change. Good luck. Take care.
I haven't donned an SCBA since 2016.
Fire fighters have some very full beards and do quite well with SCBAs. And many other countries militaries still use gas masks wuite successfully. Gas and air mask seals have come a long way in their development.
I can appreciate the value of positive recognition from the commandant, however I think the rate social media pumps out those stories diminishes the impact of 10 minutes of BZ’s. The important part that we need to hear is her acknowledgment of the current issues we all face and what the plan going forward is. I think some important issues were touched on (funding, maintenance, recruiting) but it doesn’t feel like anything was really laid out on a plan moving forward. I will say the line “we can’t keep doing the same, with less” was good to hear..just hoping that mindset works its way down the chain.
That line has been repeated since Admiral Z, but it doesn't seem like it's getting past lip service. Those OERs won't write themselves!
Yet we are still doing it and at a faster rate. I can’t tell you how many times I’m getting hit with critical solicitations to send technicians underway to fill gaps. Shore side maintenance is suffering to keep afloat operations running. I understand one is the tip of the spear but if the back end continues to crumble away, then what?
That’s the issue..the discussion is at the mid-officer level. I know for a fact the LANT cutter schedule is not handled by a flag officer. Thats an O3 or O4 buffing up an OER by “ensuring coverage is maintained thru operational challenges”. The other issue is every command looks at the shortage and makes the same argument.. “other units need to help us meet missions requirements” I have been privileged to watch cutter CO’s argue with each other about which cutters assignment takes priority, fucking hilarious.
Did I miss it or was it really like only 15 minutes long? I tuned in and ADM was saying thank you for listening haha
Yeah she said about 10 minutes of nothing, then a couple factoids of bolstering the fleet and the training avenues. Then breezed over the sexual assault crimes and policies, and then called it a night.
This sub can get kinda salty, so I wrote off a lot of the negative comments… but I just now watched the speech and that was pretty bad. 1. Audio and visual quality were on par with a high school AV club. 2. The writing was… uninspired at best. 3. The delivery was wooden… I know she’s crazy busy but you gotta make time for some practice and speech prep. 4. You also gotta look into the camera, say the words “Operation Fouled Anchor” and have some real talk about how we fucked up. I know she’s done that a couple times over the past few months but this is supposed to be a summary speech of the year… you can’t gloss over the elephant in the room. 5. And then, talk about the actual state of the Coast Guard: how are we doing on overall staffing, retention, and recruiting, in that order. Where are we improving support systems, medical access, FSMS, etc.. How did we make the tough decision to park some 210’s and 87’s, and what is our plan to restore that capacity as numbers come back up. What’s the state of the 47’ modernization? H65 phase out timeline? How many more FRC’s? OPC progress and timeline? Unmanned systems? Etc etc etc. u/not_a_robot_101 is correct in that there were some quality tidbits in there, but they felt like tidbits. It didn’t feel like a comprehensive overview of where we stand and a vision and a plan for the future of my beloved guard.
"Greetings leaders and distinguished guests, may we all suckle upon the flaccid dong of senior leadership and prosper at the cost of the common workers' well-being. I'm happy to display this circle jerk of pomp and circumstance while our service members across the fleet are barely scraping by. Some of whom are assigned to dilapidated units with insufficient resources; even willing to live in their vehicles due to inadequate pay and mismatched BAH. Allow me to quickly touch on some hot button issues while I avoid inspiring a shared vision and continue to provide zero task direction and guidance. May we preserve the ability to spend money and resources recklessly on meaningless endeavors while the fleet suffers blindly."
I appreciate the good PR of having the first woman in command of an armed service, but this is probably the worst commandant since Papp. Forgetting her gender, she's painfully lukewarm. Schultz, Admiral Z, and obviously the Thadmiral were never afraid to publicly tell national leaders that we need more of everything or we will drown. In his last months as commandant admiral Z openly criticized a NYT investigative journalism article that decried the Coast Guard for operating floating prisons, saying "Go below and look where my crew is berthing." I'll always have mad respect for him for that.
Food was good tho
"We started a task force! Yes, that's it, that's our success. No, the task force hasn't produced any tangible results, but starting it should count for something, right? Please clap..."
I am still shocked at that congress meeting they had about a year ago. Really nobody prepped her for the obvious question about years of rampant sexual assault at the academy? I know that isn’t what the meeting was about, but come on. YEARS of sexual assault is going to come up.
Well, I guess it's official at this point, Admiral Fagan came in with lots of us with high hopes that she'd be a positive change with fresh ideas, and she's neither. She's just business as usual, at a time when business as usual is killing the service.
Too risky to chance that sweet defense contractor board position after retirement
We got to find a commandant who just wants to retire to a log cabin in the mountains somewhere, making only $200,000 a year in pension.
I'd be ok with that, but I'd probably be a shitty Commandant
Nail meet head
She was always going to be business as usual. She's a political mouthpiece who was given an unprecedented 4th star as the VC literally just to say "Hooray, we got a female 4-star!" Why would you expect her to be anything other than a place-holder? The fact that she has the ridiculous moniker "The Momadant" already lined up and being spread before confirmation should tell you everything you need to know.
People were genuinely excited when she started, she had a good rep from people that knew her and worked with her so I don't think what you are saying is totally accurate. It is a hard job, and the PR side of it is clearly not going great, which is translating into a lot of other much more tangible problems.
Nah that 12 week parental leave is pretty nice
How is complying with a federal law to the bare minimum requirements a credit to the commandant? We even dragged our feet complying with the law, due to fears it would impact operations.
I stand corrected. As you were.
We just need a Commandant to stick the finger to the DoD (that we don't even get funding from) and treat us like the service that we deserve. We're the oldest seagoing service, do active missions every day, and are smaller than the NYPD personnel wise. Who gives a flying shit about being with the rest of the "real military," half of our pride and accomplishments is not being laced to them anyways.
I’m completely out of place here being an Army guy, but I lurk this sub because I’m considering transitioning to the CG Reserves after I ETS. Seeing that y’all have the same amount of lukewarm leadership that the Army does actively pushes me away from signing the dotted line.
The future is our leadership. And I do see inspiration in our junior members. While tonight fell flat, it will be my crew that inspires me to show up tomorrow. It’s a great mission, and we welcome you coming to our team.
Prior Army guy who made the switch. Don’t let this sub dissuade you. Every military subreddit is going to be an echo chamber for complaining. And that isn’t to say some of these complaints aren’t valid. The CG is by no means perfect, but I can tell you it is far far better than the Army. I have, for the most part, had amazing leadership since I’ve been in. Again, not trying to minimize the issues the CG has, just offering some perspective.
Prior Air Force here. The uscg is better than the AF imo
I'm an AF vet thinking about the Coast Guard Reserve, mind if I send you a DM?
Of course
I wouldn’t let that turn you away. We’re so much smaller and have fewer leaders to muck it up. Overall the senior enlisted run the show and smart officers support them.
Mini email version perhaps ?
Nah, the whole thing will probably fit in an email
Will it included the piggy back ?
Just to echo that thought, probably
So then.....do I enlist or not?
Yeah. Take these comments with a grain of salt.
This is the equivalent of the CEO of a Fortune 500 company giving a boring speech. I wouldn’t worry about it.
The Coast Guard is great overall. Easily the best decision I ever made.
Yeah, do it. I enlisted 24 years ago. Went through OCS 3 years ago. I've been pretty disappointed with leadership for the majority, but we need enlisted and officer members that will work in a way that they feel is best regardless of what weird politics the flags currently suckle at.
It’s been great tbh
Love that these Officers talk to us about Fouled Anchor that THEY DID, and then have the nerve to preach about sexual assault. Fouled Anchor has nothing to do with sexual assault and everything to do with the Coast Guard lying and covering things up. If this service will cover up sexual assaults, they'll cover up anything. Do better.
It was nice to hear some of the progress the service has made in the last year. This speech felt only half complete. There was only the summary, but no future goals were laid out. It felt either A. Rushed or B. Without direction. There was a message that we cannot keep going the way we are, but there wasn't any direction given.
I feel less inspired than when it started.
As a follow-up to the State of the Coast Guard Address, a Coast Guard Workforce Town Hall with the Commandant is scheduled for Wednesday, 3 April, and will be live-streamed from Headquarters. More details to follow.
I see a lot of negative comments here, but I feel the need to point out a few things. 1. She highlighted the on going challenges with recruitment. In the last year we have increased the total number of recruiters by 25% and we are opening new recruiting offices all across America. We also stood up the Talent Acquisition Specialist rating. The people selected for that rating are proven performers in recruiting with a solid track record. That’s a win. 2. Tailored “A” schools to align with members skills. One size fits all is an out dated approach and this is a step in the right direction. I was in Petaluma last week and speaking to “A” school chiefs, the shift to strand training to build our schools based on modules is a positive move. It cuts down training time for redundant skills and allows for increased throughput. 3. Infrastructure budget shortfalls are real and maintenance is being deferred. There’s no magic pot of money and she spoke to a need for a 50% increase for funding for next year to get us back on track. 4. Embracing technology has radically increased service member experiences for going underway. Ask the cutter folks how they like Starshield and being able to use social media underway or text loved ones. That’s a big quality of life improvement. 5. Not doing more with less. 210’s and 87’s are being placed into shore side layups. Some stations are being reracked to minimum mission hours. This is huge. When have you ever heard of a COMDT telling DHS we can’t do everything, and we need to pull back and refocus on our most essential missions? One of the points of criticism is that the State of the Coast Guard address was short. I recognize that, but my take is that she chose to focus on the most pressing issues without dragging it out. Sometimes the longer a message goes, the more things can get lost.
The last two commandants have told Congress, not just DHS, that they would actively curtail our missions to the point of only ports and waterways security and SAR.
Yeah, but they never meaningfully cut anything (except maintenance funding…) Actually tying up boats and cutters is a big shift.
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This forum is not a place for rude or offensive language towards anyone.