From Guest Correspondent, Norm Paulhus -
For those of you who don't know me, I work for the Department's Research and Special Programs Administration. I'm a real fan of the folks in USCG, and spend a good chunk of my summers going to Changes of Command, visiting field units, and generally enjoying an adoptive membership in the "Coast Guard Family."
And what am I doing writing this column? Well, last summer I went up to the USCG Academy Change of Command. Whenever I'm on the campus I make a point of trying to link up with my friend John Odell, the Academy legal officer. Well, John introduced me to Vince Wilczynski and a whole bunch of other friends on the faculty and staff - all in key positions, and all '83's! I took a bunch of group pictures, and we found that I had a fair number of your classmates as friends. Vince thought it might be fun to see how you folks looked to an outside.Note: Norm is known as a "Friend of the CG" although no one
really knows what he does...he just shows-up...everywhere.
The answer - pretty darn good, folks! But then, I'm biased, since I share a history with a bunch of fine '83's now.
One of the '83s who I see quite often is Alan Marsilio, since he's right in my own building. He's got a sixth floor office in DOT Headquarters that directly overlooks the fire station on Sixth Street. (Fortunately, the sirens aren't TOO loud when the fire trucks go out.) I first met him when he was XO at MSO Charleston, and got to know him better when he came to DC to be a Coast Guard "traveling inspector." Today Alan's Chief of the Hull Division of the Marine Safety Center, He's almost always ready to offer a cup of coffee and some insightful conversation. He, wife Paula, and their sons Nicholas and Christopher live out in Manassas, VA.
Alan's heavily involved in design reviews for new cruise ships, which means he typically gets a lot of trips to Florida. In addition, he and the family have taken advantage of the assignment to DC by taking a fair number of weekend trips. The Marsilios try to get up to Lancaster, PA, each year, and they plan to repeat a visit to Philadelphia which proved particularly enjoyable.
Alan and Sarah Shores of the Future Force 21 staff are two of the most regular participants in the USCG Headquarters "Monthly Round Table Discussions" run by Pat Philbin and Brad Kidwell. (Well, Mark Johnson, '76, is pretty heavily involved in getting speakers, too!) For $5, first come-first served every month, 28 people get pizza, soda, and the chance to throw ideas around with some "heavy hitters" like former Clinton National Security Advisor Tony Lake, or Washington Post correspondent David Broder. The sessions are intellectually stimulating, and lots of fun.
Pat and Brad work well together, and it doesn't hurt that their offices are right next to each other on the 2nd floor at CGHQ. In addition to his work helping sketch out the future of the Coast Guard, Pat's working on his doctorate, exploring how executives account for the behavior of stakeholders in their strategic decision-making. His four kids are athletically inclined, and very successful at it, so he and wife Erin spend a lot of time accompanying them around the country to soccer tournaments, lacrosse games, and other events.
While talking with Brad to put this together, he reminded me that your class motto was "Leaders for Change." Brad takes that line seriously. He was one of the key forces setting up last year's Innovation Expo at the Academy, and he's going great guns getting ready for the next one, scheduled for April 29 through May 1 in Baltimore. In addition to everything else he's doing, he's also serving as mentor to Company Quebec 161 up at Cape May. It takes a bit of time running up there during the seven weeks that his Company spends there, but he finds it really rewarding.
Again following up on your motto, you '83's seem to have had a lock on setting the directions for this country's future radionavigation systems! For two years I worked with John Macaluso, while he was assigned here at DOT. John combined a keen understanding of Departmental politics with an ability to translate technical issues into regular English. One of his achievements was developing a short, glossy document on the Global Positioning System (GPS) for use with the Congress. His wife gave him the nickname "Pamphlet Guy" after that, and it still gets trotted out on occasions. John and family headed out to ESU St. Louis after that, where he's now the Commanding Officer. To put it mildly, he loves his job.
John, wife Betsy and their daughters Laura, Giuliana and Emma live across the river from St. Louis in O'Fallon, IL, in a housing development that had just been carved out of one of the local cornfields. Betsy found the place "virtual house hunting" on the Internet. John's oldest two daughters have started school and are doing great, and between mothering, coaching basketball and doing things with a bunch of good friends. Betsy's staying pretty busy, too.
When he left, John's radionav work was then left in the capable hands of Bart Blue. Bart is currently up on the tenth floor of DOT Headquarters in the Policy shop. Last year he was heavily involved in an assessment of the vulnerability of the GPS, culminating in a Department-wide briefing for the Deputy Secretary. Bart's now involved in a follow-on study of radionavigation system capabilities now, and I see him literally every week at the working group meetings.
I get to see a bit of the '83 field contingent, too. In mid-February I tagged along with former USCGC Sweetgum skipper, and good friend, Mike Lapinski, '78, to watch the ship get decommissioned down in Mobile, AL. As soon as we got down there, our first stop was the office of our buddy Terry Gilbreath, who's XO at MSO Mobile. Terry gave us a great tour of the Mobile waterfront, with a stop at Mobile's "Original Oyster House." Later that evening we ended up in the Gilbreath kitchen over in Daphne, AL, as he and wife Sally traded "How are your transfer preparations going" status reports with Mike - Terry's heading north to be CO of MSO Louisville, and Mike's heading south to be CO of ISC Miami. It was one of those nice, relaxed evenings that stays with you a long, long time.
Terry notes that with his arrival in Louisville, most of the Ohio river will be under the tutelage of '83ers: Steve Hudson's CO at MSO Pittsburgh; Lincoln Stroh's in charge at MSO Huntington (WV), and Terry at MSO Louisville. Is it just coincidence, or does somebody know something they're not able to talk about? The only non-'83 MSO CO on the Ohio will be Pat Keane at MSO Paducah (a longtime friend and great guy, even if he isn't an '83er).
The next day I ran into Terry again at the decommissioning, where he was joined by Todd Gentile. Todd is really enjoying the New Orleans area, where he's currently assigned as the 8th District's Assistant Chief of Aids to Navigation. I understand he's slated to take over Planning for the District this summer.
My most recent trip to the field was in mid-February to hear former President Bush's Hedrick address to the Academy cadets. At the dinner afterwards I found myself sitting between old buddy John Odell (again!) and Karl Calvo. Karl is now the Academy's Facilities Engineer, so in a very real way he's responsible for keeping the campus running. He's proud of that, and deservedly so. Needless to say, the major topic of conversation was mutual friends, many of them '83's.
If I can make one generalization, '83's have a knack for putting things into perspective. Let's close with this e-mail sent by Rod Smith to the '83 Washington contingent on March 1:
"FYI. If you have about 70 days leave on the books this time next year - one year from today could be your last day in the office. 443 days today to retirement eligibility (May 18). 456 days today to the first day you can retire (June 1). But I'm not counting …"Can't get more basic than that, folks! Thanks for the chance to contribute.