On Friday night I attended the Change of Watch dinner for U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary, Virginia Peninsula Division (054-06-07), at Training Center Yorktown. These are the folks that I really "grew up with" in the Coast Guard from 2007-2009, and it was great to return and spend the evening with them. Emily Johnson (pictured with me in the photo on the right), a 2009 graduate from the Auxiliary Detachment program at The College of William and Mary while I was an instructor there, made the trip down with me from the Washington, DC area. It has been really great to see her go from being a college student just starting out with the Coast Guard to now beginning a civilian career while continuing to serve, the two of us reunited, in Arlington, VA. She is a shining star in the Auxiliary, and I am very proud of the great work she is doing.
We also saw my great friend and mentor, Jim Clark. He has lived a wonderful life of service and continues to be an inspiration to many, and always welcome counsel to me. Todd Egnor, who relieved me in my post at William and Mary last year, and Don Mason, the Leadership and Management instructor in our college program there, were also in attendance with a positive report on our current students.
I was sad to see Gary Derby (pictured in photo at left with my girlfriend, Jen) end his run as Division Commander there on the Peninsula after two and a half years. He is relieved by Scott Ripley, who makes for an excellent replacement, but it was as Derby's Public Affairs Officer several years that I really came into my own in the Coast Guard Auxiliary and learned how to sift through frustration to find an organization's greatest strengths and then grow from them. The Division was a model to the nation, logging over 88,600 service hours to the Coast Guard and the American Public under his leadership since 2008. For his service he was quite rightly awarded the USCG Auxiliary Achievement Medal. I stayed right across the street from The College of William and Mary, my alma mater, in Williamsburg about 25 minutes down the road from Yorktown. Returning to Williamsburg and a night spent with the active duty and auxiliary Guardians who I served with from 2007-2009 made for a great 24 hours. Friends, mentors, shipmates, former students, former classmates -- Friday evening was, for me, a fine example of one of many reasons that we serve, and why we so often refer to ourselves as the "Coast Guard Family." Thank you for welcoming us home!
