Seek to Become a Better Leader

Coast Guard new reports are handed stacks of personnel qualification sheets and unit-specific documents that explain asset locations and capabilities. The documents are rich in knowledge, but the only way to fully understand the overall mission is through hands-on experiences with a wider variety of units. Shadowing units such as command center, small boat station, cutters, District Headquarters, and Joint Interagency Task Force South Headquarters developed my understanding of the mission and prepared me for midnight calls such as this one:

“Sir/Ma’am we currently have a migrant yola with 75 persons on board stranded in the Mona Passage, a target of interest 30 nautical miles off the north coast of Loiza with suspicious packages on board, and several assets are out of vector because they are responding to a search-and-rescue [SAR] call off the coast of Cabo Rojo. How would you like to target these cases?”

As I processed facts about the case, the manuals were not the first thing to come to mind. Instead, I recalled the image of a crowd of survivors once stranded at sea for six days who now stood on the deck of a cutter. It was the adrenaline rush I felt while underway at night as a crew member at the small boat station when I heard “Pan-Pan, Pan-Pan, Pan-Pan! All stations, all stations, all stations,” for a SAR case on Channel 16. It was the earlier conversation I had with a lieutenant at District Seven, who explained why assets were pulled from our operating area and sent to another to manage responses across multiple crises. It was the memory of previously successful cases I helped run while standing watch in the command center. These experiences painted a broader picture of how all segments of a mission take place simultaneously.

Furthermore, they showed me the weight of the consequences of my decisions as a leader. The manuals guided me and kept me within policy, but the hands-on experiences led me to the right decisions. In theory, an officer could have none of these experiences, follow the manual completely, and perform their job satisfactorily. However, the notion that officers need to learn only their jobs does not produce fully developed decision-makers. This minimalist approach prevents junior officers from stepping outside their roles to learn from others and dampens the hunger to seek out learning opportunities.

To become the leader the Coast Guard needs, an officer must constantly seek opportunities to learn, grow professional networks, and take the initiative to resolve problems.

Seek to Extend a Hand

Experience develops junior officers into future senior officers, but great networking skills are essential throughout an officer’s entire career. The first morning I reported to the Enforcement Division, Sector San Juan, Puerto Rico, my supervisor said to me, “Let’s go take a walk.” We walked to one of the cutters to join its officers for breakfast. That meal offered the chance to meet peers and create ties that outlasted our tours—and are present to this day. The relationships we grew off duty translated into mission success. I had countless phone calls with cutter junior officers (JOs) to explain the rationale behind difficult decisions and listen to their concerns.

Open lines of communication often prevent a leader from making poor decisions. JOs should take the initiative to cultivate relationships that produce networks and trust. My supervisor’s actions were contagious. “Taking a walk” to another unit for breakfast is a choice all officers can make, and this decision will enable them to create professional networks that encourage teamwork.

JOs should not limit their networks to their branch. Puerto Rico has more than 360 miles of coastline and a 360-degree threat vector. The Enforcement Division could not afford to limit its relationships only to Coast Guard units. Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) and the Coast Guard share the same goal regarding illegal migration and counterdrug missions, but there often is a culture of autonomy. Communications and assistance between agencies were limited.

In an operating environment of almost limitless borders and limited assets, it was imperative for each agency’s leaders to come together. Our deputy enforcement chief, a lieutenant, started to organize daily deconfliction briefs, site visits, and command meetings to revitalize the partnerships. Physical visits between stations transformed words on paper into actionable assets and voices over the phone into real-life agents. Over time, the agencies performed more joint operations and resulted in deployment of Coast Guard members on board Caribbean Air & Marine Branch CBP assets during drug interdictions.

My supervisor’s deliberate networking paid off for the mission. During an influx of Haitian migrants, when we asked our Border Patrol (BP) partners to synchronize rescue efforts for 348 lives stranded on Isla de Mona across a six-month window, they answered the call. The mass movement of Haitian migrants to Mona Island was staggering; human smugglers made trips with 50 people to the coasts of remote islands and forced victims to swim to shore.¹ This dangerous tactic allowed smugglers to avoid landfall and gain a head start back to Hispaniola to avert interdiction.

During normal operations, we only encountered Dominican migrants who would voyage all the way to mainland Puerto Rico, where the Coast Guard would interdict at sea or BP would interdict ashore. The smugglers’ new tactic created difficult logistical challenges for federal law enforcement agencies with no standard joint operating procedures to perform these mass rescues. In response, BP agents deployed onboard Coast Guard cutters to help process and transport the migrants off the island, the Coast Guard provided medical attention, and other Homeland Security agencies supplied vehicles to drive migrants to processing centers with shelter and food. Coordination at this level would have been near impossible without previously established relationships built from face-to-face meetings. Even junior officers are capable of growing networks that have a direct impact on the mission.

Seek Opportunities to Solve Problems

Junior officers do not have the luxury of sitting idle, but too often they are held back by the belief that lack of experience disqualifies them from solving problems. When this happens, drastic consequences can result.

With bureaucracy often comes a lack of ownership, allowing unassigned problems to fall through cracks between and within government agencies. Far too often, this can bleed onto the deckplates, eroding mission readiness. On Thanksgiving Day 2021, I received this call while the Law Enforcement duty officer:

“Sir, we have information on an abnormal case. Currently, there are about 30 Haitian migrants abandoned on the remote island, Isla de Monito, Puerto Rico. The seas are 8 to 10 feet, and the island has no pier, so we are unable to deploy a cutter’s small boat. Additionally, the island is a bird sanctuary, preventing any helicopters from responding. They have no means of communication, water, food, or supplies. How should we proceed?”

The migrants were safe on land, which should have shifted the recovery responsibility from the Coast Guard to the Border Patrol. But BP had no surface assets capable of an extraction of this size. There was no clear direction on what to do in this situation, so I signaled to the command that our unit should take responsibility. Forecast storms guided us to the decision that we should employ our attached HC-144 aircraft to drop a supply package onto the three-mile-long island.

The first attempt failed—20-plus knot surface winds carried the package into the ocean. With terrible weather and few additional supplies to drop, we asked agents from Border Patrol for supplies to attempt another drop. My unit and the air station agreed to make this attempt without affixing parachutes to the supplies. The pilots and crew agreed to protect the packages with cardboard and bubble wrap and to attach neon-colored streamers for visibility. Thanks to an eagerness to perform the mission, the second drop was successful, providing the migrants valuable time. Once the weather subsided, our cutters rescued the survivors using life jackets, life rings, and heaving lines.² This dynamic mission taught me that, to increase the chances of success, junior officers sometimes need to take charge during confusing situations. JOs can keep the mission moving forward during times of uncertainty.

Volunteering for additional experiences early in a career helps prepare an officer for the more complex challenges faced as a senior officer. JOs, regardless of rank, branch, or community, can excel in their positions, however limited in experience they are. Each opportunity to learn, network, and problem-solve will help them grow into the leaders of tomorrow. Support from senior officers will prepare military leaders to navigate future crises, wars, and disasters, but only if the junior officers seek out opportunities to grow.