USCG Commandant Admiral Thad Allen at NPS

On March 27th the Commandant for the United States Coast Guard, Admiral Thad Allen, came to Monterey to deliver the mid year graduation address at the Naval Postgraduate School.  While in Monterey, he visited USCG Station Monterey where he presented a summary of his ‘State of the Coast Guard’ address delivered earlier in the year in Washington D.C.  The NLUS Monterey Peninsula Council President John Sanders and Vice President Susan McLaughlin were honored to have an invitation to the meeting from the station CO, Lt. Mike Kahle. Navy League member and US Coast Guard Auxiliary Flotilla Commander Tony Budlong and US Coast Guard Auxiliary Division Commander Mark McLaughlin also attended.

We learned that the Commandant was tasking the Coast Guard to no longer do ‘more with less’, but to “do your best with what you’ve got”. He talked about the reorganization of the service, and the Cutter acquisition program currently underway, and answered questions from the Station.  He also discussed the importance of social networking in today’s military and informed the audience he has set up a blog, and a Facebook account to help communicate more widely with his command and the public. 

Admiral Allen’s State of the Coast Guard Address can be found at
http://www.uscg.mil/comdt/speeches/docs/Transcript_SOTCG_3-3-09.pdf

His blog , icommandant can be found at http://www.uscg.mil/comdt/blog/

You can search for his Facebook account using thad.w.allen@gmail.com.