The first Master Chief Maritime Enforcement Specialists
Shipmates
History was made at Coast Guard Headquarters today, when we announced the selection of the first Master Chief Maritime Enforcement Specialists (MECM).
I approved the establishment of the rating in June of this year.
01 January 2010 is the full implementation date for the rating. This is the first milestone in the creation and implementation of the Maritime Enforcement Specialist rating.
The first members of the new rating are:
MECM Gordon Muse: Rating Force Manager
MECM Steven Lowry: Senior SWE/Non-Resident Course Writer
MECM Randy Krahn: ME A School Chief
MECM Sam Allred: PS Rating Force Manager
The new MECMs will now join the ME Implementation Team and play an instrumental role as we move to the 2010 milestone. I approved last week the addition of PSCM Sam Allred to the previous announced list. As the current PS Rating Force Manager he will continue in that capacity and following the 2010 active duty implementation will assist the ME RFMC in ensuring a smooth transition of those Port Security Specialists changing ratings to ME.
I extend my personal thanks to all who worked so hard to make this day possible including Master Chief Bowen, Master Chief Jeff Smith, Master Chief George Ingraham, and RADM Tim Riker for whom this was a true labor of love.
The New Year will usher in 2009 and will also mark the 30th Anniversary of a seminal event in Coast Guard history. In 1979, the Coast Guard in response to the implementation of the Fisheries Conservation Management Act (200 mile limit) and an increase in drug trafficking issued a directive that created a standard use of force policy and mandated that all boardings would henceforth be armed. This continued the evolution of the post World War II/Cold War law enforcement mission which began with our international and domestic fisheries enforcement efforts in the 1950s and 60s.
It has been a thirty-year journey of evolution and adaptation as we saw immediately in the Mariel Boatlift of 1980, the shift from bulk smuggling of marijuana to cocaine, the entry of DOD in the counter-drug mission in 1989 (leading the stand up of JIATF-South), mass migration responses in the mid 1990s, continual migrant interdiction operations in the Straits of Florida, and domestic and international fisheries enforcement.
During that same period we disestablished the old Boating Safety Detachments (BOSDET) that conducted recreational vessels boardings, we created Tactical Law Enforcement Teams (TACLET) and Law Enforcement Detachments (LEDET), and we implemented airborne use of force against non-compliant surface vessels.
As a Lieutenant and Group Commander at Atlantic City (the old black shoe group) I was a field commander faced with implementing a policy that not all service members supported. In fact, some members chose to leave the service rather than become involved in law enforcement. In retrospect, I cannot imagine where this Nation would be had we not adapted to a changing external environment by creating new competencies and capabilities.
I have asked both Master Chief Bowen and Master Chief Smith to add comments and additional context from where they sit.
Let us celebrate this important milestone as further organizational adaptation to our external environment. Effective organizational response to changing demands is the service wide competency we are seeking in modernization...a change centric Coast Guard.
ADM A
History was made at Coast Guard Headquarters today, when we announced the selection of the first Master Chief Maritime Enforcement Specialists (MECM).
I approved the establishment of the rating in June of this year.
01 January 2010 is the full implementation date for the rating. This is the first milestone in the creation and implementation of the Maritime Enforcement Specialist rating.
The first members of the new rating are:
MECM Gordon Muse: Rating Force Manager
MECM Steven Lowry: Senior SWE/Non-Resident Course Writer
MECM Randy Krahn: ME A School Chief
MECM Sam Allred: PS Rating Force Manager
The new MECMs will now join the ME Implementation Team and play an instrumental role as we move to the 2010 milestone. I approved last week the addition of PSCM Sam Allred to the previous announced list. As the current PS Rating Force Manager he will continue in that capacity and following the 2010 active duty implementation will assist the ME RFMC in ensuring a smooth transition of those Port Security Specialists changing ratings to ME.
I extend my personal thanks to all who worked so hard to make this day possible including Master Chief Bowen, Master Chief Jeff Smith, Master Chief George Ingraham, and RADM Tim Riker for whom this was a true labor of love.
The New Year will usher in 2009 and will also mark the 30th Anniversary of a seminal event in Coast Guard history. In 1979, the Coast Guard in response to the implementation of the Fisheries Conservation Management Act (200 mile limit) and an increase in drug trafficking issued a directive that created a standard use of force policy and mandated that all boardings would henceforth be armed. This continued the evolution of the post World War II/Cold War law enforcement mission which began with our international and domestic fisheries enforcement efforts in the 1950s and 60s.
It has been a thirty-year journey of evolution and adaptation as we saw immediately in the Mariel Boatlift of 1980, the shift from bulk smuggling of marijuana to cocaine, the entry of DOD in the counter-drug mission in 1989 (leading the stand up of JIATF-South), mass migration responses in the mid 1990s, continual migrant interdiction operations in the Straits of Florida, and domestic and international fisheries enforcement.
During that same period we disestablished the old Boating Safety Detachments (BOSDET) that conducted recreational vessels boardings, we created Tactical Law Enforcement Teams (TACLET) and Law Enforcement Detachments (LEDET), and we implemented airborne use of force against non-compliant surface vessels.
As a Lieutenant and Group Commander at Atlantic City (the old black shoe group) I was a field commander faced with implementing a policy that not all service members supported. In fact, some members chose to leave the service rather than become involved in law enforcement. In retrospect, I cannot imagine where this Nation would be had we not adapted to a changing external environment by creating new competencies and capabilities.
I have asked both Master Chief Bowen and Master Chief Smith to add comments and additional context from where they sit.
Let us celebrate this important milestone as further organizational adaptation to our external environment. Effective organizational response to changing demands is the service wide competency we are seeking in modernization...a change centric Coast Guard.
ADM A
Posted at
12:39 PM
5 Comments:
This is a huge step forward for the Coast Guard. After 9/11 we developed units with some pretty high end tactical capability. Maintaining this capability is very difficult and the constant need to retrain replacements in this type of environment is a recipe for accidents. We manage the bulk of our people through ratings, and our existing personnel system could not effectively support this capability without one. I believe the creation of this rating is the single most important action the Coast Guard needed to take to maintain expertise and operate these units safely.
Congrats to MECM Muse, MECM Lowry, and MECM Krahn! This was an important step toward full implementation of the new rating. Some of the next steps are completion of the Manpower Requirements Determination which is another survey that is currently being fielded (the reason this one is important is that it will determine which specific billets, at which units will change to ME billets), A-school location decision, ME selection process (Summer to Fall 2009), and the rating standup (mass lateral) during January 2010.
One question that is frequently asked is, ?Will ME?s take over most of the Coast Guard boarding activities?? The answer is absolutely not. Most boardings will always be done by the same people who are doing them now? MKs, BMs, GMs, DCs, etc. There will be many ME billets located outside of DOG units, but I doubt that even a large law enforcement focused station would have any more than one. We will be very careful deciding which billets to convert. Any billet whose occupant currently spends almost 100 percent of their time actually conducting law enforcement activities, running the unit law enforcement program, or running the unit?s law enforcement training would be a ripe billet to convert.
MCPOCG Bowen
This is truly a historic day for the Coast Guard and the Port Security Specialist (PS) rating. As a PS who joined the CG in 1976 as a then Port Securityman Third Class, I have witnessed and personally experienced the countless and often radical world-of-work swings the PS rating has been subjected to due to its Reserve-only status.
Merging the current PS workforce into the newly created ME rating will improve the training and readiness of the Reserve component and enhance the Coast Guard?s ability to execute its mission sets.
Bravo Zulu to the ME Implementation Team and congratualtions to the rating's first four Master Chiefs.
MCPOCGRF Jeff Smith
Congrats to the new MC's!!
MCPOCG, thanks for the post. Much of what you said about how the billets will play out, and the continued LE mission by the current rates answered a lot of questions. The ones in my office anyways.
It IS a great time to be in the CG.
My apologies to MECM Sam Allred for failing to name him in my comment above. We have been so focused on establishing, selecting and installing the active duty MECMs that I was not thinking. As Admiral Allen noted, Sam was already in place as the PS RFMC and has been doing a great job.
Traditionally Coast Guard ratings have only one RFMC. Due to the Reserve intensive nature of this rating and the unique challenges associated with transitioning the PS force, a Reserve RFMC will partner with the active duty RFMC until 2012. At that time the billet, (which is a Reserve program funded full time support billet) will be reallocated to other uses.
16 December was certainly an historic moment for the Coast Guard. I was honored to be among this dedicated cadre of law enforcement and security professionals, and excited at what the future holds for the ME rating, and our Service. The ME Implementation Team has made great progress since ADM Allen's decision to stand up the Law Enforcement and Security Rating last June. Yet, while much has been done, much remains to be accomplished in order to meet the 01 January 2010 full implementation date.
The focus of effort now shifts away from the Implementation Team to you, the nearly 22,000 enlisted men and women performing law enforcement and security duties across the Coast Guard, in cutters, at stations, DSF units and sectors. We need your help in capturing the time you spend executing law enforcement and security tasks. Many of you will have already participated in the LETSGO II survey. We turn to you again, and ask a wider Coast Guard active and reserve audience, to take 30 or so minutes to complete the ME Rating Manpower Requirements Analysis Survey.
I am counting on Coast Guard leaders to spread the word, encourage widest participation, and carve out the time necessary from busy operational schedules. I can't overemphasize the importance of careful completion and accurate responses to the survey questions. Your diligence will enable us to clarify workload requirements and make the right decisions concerning the size of the ME rating and the distribution of ME personnel. Look for details in a forthcoming All Hands message from ADM Allen and please complete the survey as soon as possible.
RADM Sally Brice-O'Hara
Deputy Commandant for Operations
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