Commander Brian Smicklas, U.S. Coast Guard, is a career cutterman with more than ten years of sea duty. He is currently stationed in Honolulu and serves as executive officer of the USCGC Midgett (WMSL-757), the Coast Guard’s newest national security cutter. He is a Coast Guard Academy graduate and holds postgraduate degrees from the Naval Postgraduate School, the Naval War College, and Norwich University. He was selected as the 2015 Naval Institute Proceedings author of the year.