Commandant’s Vision

“We are defined by our Missions, People and Heritage. 

We will selflessly serve our Country and perform 

our duties in a manner that secures the trust and 

confidence of mariners and citizens alike. We will 

set a course that steadies the Service, honors our 

profession, strengthens our partnerships, and respects 

our Shipmates.”

Cover photo: 

A crewman aboard the Coast Guard Cutter Waesche stands lookout as the ship sails to Coast Guard Island in Alameda, Calif., 

Feb. 2, 2011. U.S. Coast Guard photo by Petty Officer 2nd Class Patrick Kelley.

Back cover photo: 

National Security Cutter, Waesche, underway. 
Shipmates, 

Commandant’s Direction 2

We are defined by our Missions, our People, and our Heritage. Your dedication to our missions keeps our Nation safe and 

secure. Coast Guard men and women - Active Duty, Reserve, 

Civilian and Auxiliary - get the job done in the most demanding 

environments. And you continue to enrich our heritage with 

countless inspiring actions to save lives, enforce laws, protect 

citizens, and keep waterways clean. 

From our maritime borders and littorals; through the Great Lakes, 

Polar regions, and the Arabian Gulf; to the U. S. Exclusive Economic 

Zone, territorial waters, and our many ports and inland waterways; 

your performance has been superb, and for me, a source of pride. 

You have earned our Nation’s trust as the lead federal agency for 

Maritime Safety, Security and Stewardship. Demand for the Coast 

Guard’s unique capabilities has never been higher. As we have for 

over 220 years, we will remain ready to meet the Nation’s many maritime needs. We will always fulfill 

our duties and obligations to the American people, true to “Semper Paratus, Always Ready.” 

This Direction is my trackline for the way forward. It takes a fix on our fundamental and enduring 

roles and value; it keeps a weather eye on the future operating environment for which we must prepare; 

and it sets the course with my Principles, Priorities and Objectives.

2010 was a historic year of extraordinary events and accomplishments. Our Nation is safer and more 

secure as a result of your actions. Because of each of you, we can state with conviction: There is no 

better place, and no better way to make a difference, than service in the United States Coast Guard. 

So whenever asked who I am and what I do, I will reply with pride, “I am a Coast Guardsman. We 

are the men and women of the United States Coast Guard.” 

Semper Paratus!

Our Heritage

Commandant’s Direction 4

All Coast Guard men and women, past and present, share a common bond as Lifesavers and Guardians. Ours is a rich history of awe-inspiring rescues, operations in defense of our Nation, 

humanitarian assistance in countless disasters, interception of contraband en route to our shores, 

protection of the maritime environment, and diligent oversight of the marine transportation system. 

Whether as coxswains, engineers, cuttermen, marine inspectors, aviators, search and rescue 

controllers, staff or mission-support professionals, we have the honor of serving in a unique Service that 

does extraordinary things around the globe. 

We take pride in our seamanship, airmanship and mastery of operations in extreme conditions. When 

gales blow and others seek safe harbor, Coast Guard crews get underway to save lives; our cutter, 

aviation and deployable forces interdict smugglers on the high seas; our marine inspectors crawl through 

hot, filthy ballast tanks to ensure commercial ships’ safety; our boarding teams climb aboard wavelashed trawlers to protect our marine resources from foreign encroachment and depletion. We stand with 

U.S and allied Services in defense of freedom. 

We succeed by delegating responsibility and empowering our people to act. Our superb enlisted 

Officers in Charge and junior officers command operational stations and patrol boats. Junior members 

of our Service confidently interact with the public, media and our interagency partners. When a crisis 

strikes, we get underway without the need for additional guidance. 

We honor the long line of Coast Guard men and women who have distinguished themselves 

continuously since the establishment of the Lighthouse Service in 1789 and the Revenue Marine in 

1790. Today, our heritage remains one of selfless and courageous service; at sea, along the coasts and 

throughout our inland waterways. 

This is our chosen profession. This is our way. 

We are the men and women of the Coast Guard.

Commandant’s Direction 6

Our Value and Role

The United States is a maritime nation; maritime interests are national security interests. Coast Guard 

missions and actions foster economic prosperity and national security by ensuring that the marine 

transportation system supplying food, energy, raw materials, consumer goods and technology is safe, 

secure, and reliable. The Coast Guard: 

• Is a maritime law enforcement, regulatory, environmental and humanitarian agency

• Is one of America’s five Armed Services and maintains joint interoperability

• Is the maritime operating arm of the Department of Homeland Security

• Is a 24/7 maritime first responder - Always Ready - first on scene when crises strike

• Has provided a persistent presence from inland/inshore waters through the littorals to offshore 

waters for over 220 years 

• Is locally based, nationally deployed, and globally connected 

• Builds and maintains robust partnerships to ensure unity of effort at all levels 

• Influences global maritime organizations and industry to benefit U. S. economic, safety, security 

and environmental interests 

• Projects presence around the globe in support of national objectives

We do all of this with the same people and assets, ready and agile to shift among missions as needed. 

We have the impact of many agencies in one. We are a unique, effective and efficient instrument of 

national security. No one else can do all that we do. 

This is what we do. We are the United States Coast Guard.

• We protect those on the sea...

• We protect the nation from 

threats delivered by sea...

• We protect the sea itself.

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Future Operating Environment

Tomorrow’s world will be increasingly reliant on the maritime domain. Expanding global populations, 

particularly throughout the Pacific Rim, will drive further increases in commercial shipping, energy 

exploration, fisheries harvesting, and recreational boating. Pressure will increase to access maritime 

natural resources, especially energy and food, including in the U.S. Exclusive Economic Zone. Both 

legitimate and illicit activities will expand further offshore and into remote areas such as the Arctic and 

undersea environment. 

Future Maritime Threats:

Constrained state and local resources may further increase demand for federal emergency response, 

management and recovery capacity and capability. Climate change could lead to stronger hurricanes and 

increased coastal and inland flooding. Regional instabilities may foster mass migrations by sea, piracy 

and terror attacks against shipping and maritime infrastructure. Semi- or fully-submersible vessels that 

smuggle drugs now, may bring illegal aliens, criminals and terrorists in the future. Continued overfishing 

and ocean temperature rise could further stress fish stocks. Cyber attacks may further threaten the 

security and resilience of our maritime transportation system. 

U. S. engagement abroad will continue to be vital to our national interest. The Coast Guard’s global 

engagement will be increasingly valuable in advancing U.S. national security interests. 

There will be a continued critical need for a strong, capable, agile Coast Guard with highly trained 

professionals willing and ready to put themselves in harm’s way to Protect those on the sea, Protect 

America from threats delivered by sea, and Protect the sea itself. 

This is our operating environment. 

“Our findings reinforced the value of a multi-missioned Coast Guard with regulatory, law 

enforcement, and humanitarian-focused emergency response authority, and military capability 

that offer this and future Administrations a highly motivated, cost-effective service with the 

demonstrated competence to meet changing national priorities.” 

- A Coast Guard for the Twenty First Century - Report of the Interagency Task Force on U. S. Coast Guard Roles and 

Missions, December 1999.

Commandant’s Direction 10

Our Strength - Our People

Semper Paratus – Always Ready

is much more than our motto. It is a standard of excellence to which we hold ourselves with pride. 

Every member of the Coast Guard contributes to readiness. Every member of the Coast Guard owns the 

mission. Every member must be Semper Paratus. 

Honor, Respect and Devotion to Duty

These Core Values guide our actions, and define our character.

Core Competencies

create the unique value that the Coast Guard brings to the Nation: 

• Multi-mission agility, adaptability, and 24/7 readiness

• Maritime safety and security expertise

• Marine industry leadership, expertise and global influence

• Crisis leadership, management, and command and control

• Joint interoperability as one of the America’s five Armed Services

• Federal law enforcement authorities 

• Maritime interdiction and boarding expertise

• Maritime domain awareness 

• Global Search and Rescue expertise and leadership

• Seamanship and airmanship

• Interagency coordination

Commandant’s Direction 12

Our Strength - Our People

We Grow Leaders

The Coast Guard has a dedicated corps of enlisted, officer and civilian leaders with years of 

experience weighing risk, exercising independent judgment, and making time-critical on-scene 

decisions, often with life or death consequences. When we deploy a logistics specialist to support 

a disaster relief operation, chances are that logistician has served in operational commands and 

understands both staff work and crisis response. This ability to continuously develop and rotate leaders 

through the Service is a force multiplier.

Principles of Operations

These are fundamental and doctrinal and have evolved through hard-earned experiences throughout 

our history: stopping coastal saboteurs; landing Marines in the Pacific and soldiers on Normandy during 

World War II; conducting countless heroic rescues in hurricanes, blizzards, and gales like the 2008 

Alaska Ranger sinking in the Bering Sea; and mounting large scale response operations as in the 1980 

and 1994 Cuban mass migrations, Hurricane Katrina, and the 2010 Haiti earthquake and Deepwater 

Horizon oil spill. 

• Clear Objective 

• Effective Presence

• Unity of Effort

• On-Scene Initiative

• Flexibility

• Managed Risk

• Restraint 

The Commandant’s Guiding Principles

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My Guiding Principles provide focus to be ready today... and prepared for tomorrow. I charge every 

Coast Guard member, military and civilian, to use these Principles as guideposts as they implement my 

Priorities and Objectives. 

Steady the Service

We must bolster the fundamentals that underlie our readiness. Doctrine, training, resourcing, and 

policies must catch up to current mission demand and organizational structures. We must renew 

capabilities and capacity to meet our missions, and maintain balance among priorities. We must 

complete planned organizational changes. We will carefully weigh the costs and benefits of new 

initiatives, only proceeding with a clear trackline and destination. 

Honor Our Profession

We are a military service; we are a maritime service. We perform vital, dangerous work which 

demands superior expertise, accountability, pride and experience, built on a foundation of clear doctrine 

and training. I expect our leaders to be knowledgeable in domestic and global maritime affairs while 

maintaining a focus on our attributes as a military service. We honor professional competence and 

excellence. 

Strengthen Our Partnerships

We are unique in our ability to bring together local, state, federal, military, tribal, and private sector 

agencies, maritime industry and non-governmental organizations to advance mutual interests and 

enhance effectiveness. From Alaska to Guam and American Samoa; from New York to the Western 

Rivers and the Caribbean Basin; and around the world, our partnerships are force multipliers.

Respect Our Shipmates

We must keep faith with our Active, Reserve, Civilian, and Auxiliary shipmates and their families. 

I am committed to a climate which values, cares for and respects every member of the Coast Guard, 

including past members. We will focus on leadership, diversity, and positive command climate as 

a system. We will be a profession of choice for all Americans. We will provide a 

rewarding, safe, collaborative and productive work environment


Commandant’s Priorities and Objectives

My Priorities:

• Sustain Mission Excellence 

• Recapitalize and Build Capacity

• Enhance Crisis Response and Management 

• Prepare for the Future 

The American people gain two benefits when they invest in the Coast Guard: Readiness and Mission Execution. 

By all measures, the Coast Guard provides an exceptional 

return on that investment. 

Successes in organizational modernization are making 

operations and support more effective. We have many 

outstanding new tools coming on line, including: the Response 

Boat – Medium (RBM), National Security Cutter (NSC), Fast 

Response Cutter (FRC), Rescue 21, and HC-144 Maritime Patrol 

Aircraft (MPA). 

At the same time, 

gaps have developed 

over years of high 

operational and 

personnel tempos 

putting wear and 

tear on our assets, 

our support systems, 

and our people 

–fundamentals 

that underlie our 

readiness. I am 

committed to closing 

these gaps. 

My four Guiding 

Principles provide 

the framework. 

These Priorities 

and Objectives are 

derived from the 

four Principles 

and provide the 

blueprint.
Commandant’s Direction 18

Sustain Mission Excellence:

This is my #1 priority! Our operating environment requires that 

front-line personnel maintain true proficiency in their specialty 

skills. We will provide clear policy and doctrine, and superb training, 

equipment, tactics, techniques and procedures, and leadership 

for all mission areas. We will not operate without these essential 

foundations. We will be consummate maritime professionals. 

➤ Proficiency is our Standard. “Proficiency” is “a thorough 

competence derived from training and practice” (Webster’s). “Qualified” 

is the first step to proficiency, but repeated experience and practice are 

necessary to ensure it, particularly with highly perishable operational 

skills. Our personnel system, doctrine and policies must support the 

development and honing of proficiency in specialty.

➤ Optimize effectiveness of Deployable Specialized Forces (DSF).

Conduct stem to stern review and develop Concept of Operations, to include Short Notice Maritime 

Response for Advanced Interdiction and the role of the Deployable Operations Group. Ensure a systems 

approach to requirements, resourcing, training, support and sustainable personnel policies for highend missions, providing robust DSF capabilities to the Department of Homeland Security to prevent 

terrorism and secure the homeland, as well as respond to oil spills and other crises.

➤ Reshape our military and civilian personnel systems and policies to meet current and future 

requirements. Develop a plan to improve advancement, rotation, and specialization policies, especially 

as they relate to deployable forces and unique fields such as intelligence and polar operations, and to 

improve tools for managing workforce size and competency mix. 

➤ Refresh leadership competency 

requirements. Focus accession programs 

and the upcoming Coast Guard Academy 

Curriculum Review to produce future leaders 

broadly educated in the military and nautical 

arts, domestic and global maritime environment, 

leadership, management, economics and politics 

as well as critical technical specialties. 

➤ Prioritize and implement the 

recommendations of recent mishap analyses and 

reviews, including the Aviation Safety Assessment, 

to sustain professionalism, specialty expertise and 

safety. 
➤ Refresh and implement the Marine Safety 

Enhancement Plan to meet emerging requirements and 

keep pace with the maritime industry, recognizing the 

critical linkage between America’s economic prosperity and 

the safety and security of the Marine Transportation System.

Recapitalize and Build Capacity: 

Fleet and shore infrastructure recapitalization timelines lag 

Service need. We must achieve a balanced and executable 

recapitalization program for deteriorating offshore, coastal and 

inland assets and infrastructure. We must have adequate capacity 

and depth in our assets to account for anticipated surge operations, 

and the loss of operational assets. 

➤ Refine and refresh the Concept of Operations for the 

employment of the National Security Cutter (NSC), Fast 

Response Cutter (FRC), and Offshore Patrol Cutter (OPC), as 

well as aviation, shore, and command, control, communications, 

computers, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (C4ISR) 

assets as central components of an integrated and 

layered maritime safety and security 

regime to prevent terrorist attacks, 

secure maritime borders from illegal 

drugs and migrants, safeguard lawful 

maritime commerce, and protect 

mariners at sea.

➤ Pursue replacement of our Medium 

Endurance Cutter fleet with an 

executable OPC acquisition.

 

➤ Identify needs and develop a 

comprehensive plan for recapitalization 

of shore infrastructure, prioritizing to 

meet mission demands and to care for our 

people.

➤ Fully support new initiatives. Clearly define and obtain the full operational and support costs 

of executing new initiatives; our approach will be disciplined and practical to ensure we provide for 

effective, safe and professional execution of all mission responsibilities. 
20

 Enhance Crisis Response and Management 

Capability: 

Crisis leadership, management, and command and control is 

a Coast Guard Core Competency. Every member is a First 

Responder – including those in support positions; we will 

ensure an adequate mix of crisis response skills throughout 

the organization. We will enhance our ability to manage 

complex, interagency operations, and systematically 

incorporate the lessons learned from Deepwater Horizon, 

the Haiti Earthquake, Hurricane Katrina, and other large 

scale crises and exercises. 

➤ Implement an adaptive, responsive Force Construct. 

Identify the Active, Reserve, Civilian and Auxiliary forces and competencies 

required to enable response for anticipated levels and numbers of crises while also meeting 

persistent daily demand and maintaining readiness for the next big event. Build the operational and 

logistics depth and capacity to meet periodic large-scale surge operations.

• Deployable logistics capabilities for large scale events. Fully develop the deployable base concept 

scalable to meet emergent support needs of deployed forces. 

• Deployable C4ISR capabilities and competencies. Enhance ability to integrate communications 

and multiple information sources in complex, dynamic environments to inform decision-making and 

support record keeping requirements. Take a leadership role in leveraging and fielding expanded ISR 

capabilities in the maritime domain. 
 

 

Prepare for the Future: 

We will thoughtfully anticipate and shape our 

future. We will identify requirements and 

build our workforce, assets, capabilities and 

competencies with a keen eye on the horizon. 

We will identify institutional barriers and 

challenges to accomplishing the following 

objectives.

➤ Grow a Diverse Workforce. We have 

progressed towards our diversity goals, but 

we still have gaps. Our Service must reflect 

the public we serve. With that goal in mind, 

continue to execute and refine our Diversity 

Strategic Plan. Develop tools to manage Diversity, 

Leadership, and Command Climate as a system.

➤ Elevate Knowledge Management as a critical capability. Decision-makers require better, 

more accessible information including readiness, risk and other metrics as part of an integrated risk 

management framework. Improve our ability to correlate resources with requirements and performance. 

Institute processes for incorporating lessons learned. Establish discipline in information systems to 

identify gaps and redundancies, and align requirements with affordable, effective systems. 

➤ Innovate and Exploit Technology, Research and Development, and Modeling and Simulation

to remain agile and increase operational reach, flexibility and efficiency across all missions, especially 

those that are asset and personnel intensive. 

➤ Lead our Nation’s maritime engagement 

in the Arctic. Identify requirements for 

meeting national maritime safety, security and 

stewardship needs in the Arctic, and develop a 

phased strategy for building needed capabilities 

and competencies.

➤ Develop capabilities to resist and 

respond to cyber threats. In addition to 

our own forces, the vast port and maritime 

transportation systems we protect are 

vulnerable to cyber attack. Work with our 

partners to develop resiliency to cyber 

threats. 
➤ Become a Green Coast Guard. 

Lead green initiatives focusing on 

energy efficiency as well as on 

reducing asset and infrastructure 

carbon footprints. 

➤ Complete ongoing 

organizational changes to 

achieve the most operationally 

effective Coast Guard. 

• Field Organization. Close 

resource and policy gaps to allow 

Sectors to reach full operating 

capability; implement the DCO 

and DCMS “Finishing Sectors” 

plan. 

Complete DCMS V2.0 Implementation including 

standing up base commands and finalizing the Director 

of Logistics. Align logistics functions for base 

commands co-located with a Sector, and complete 

the move of FORCECOM to DCMS. 

Complete DCO V3.0 

Implementation, including 

vertically aligning Prevention and 

Response functions from the Sector 

through Headquarters levels.

➤ Support our Military Families: 

employ innovative programs to improve 

the quality of life for military members 

and their families. Improve access to high 

quality housing and affordable, quality 

child care. 

Commandant’s Direction 22