100th Blog post

Captains,

Over 70% of the world's surface is potentially navigable water. Last year, I decided to use this media to communicate with the seagoing people who we trust and depend on day in, and day out, but rarely ever speak to first hand - the captains of ships, boats, and rigs.

The USCG flag corps is small compared to to the seagoing community we serve. As Admiral Papp explains below, we must be flexible - whether it's recovering oil, fighting piracy, eliminating emissions, responding to a mayday call, or communicating with one another. I hope my use of this relatively new media honors the tradition of service between the Coast Guard and maritime professionals. RADM W

Excerpt from Admiral Papp's June 6, 2010 remarks to Seaman's Church Institute's maritime industry gathering in New York.....

"There will be good days and bad days. We will have to endure trial and

error. We must remain flexible, we must adjust and employ every strategy

and all appropriate resources to capture as much oil as possible at the source

and on the sea – until the well is capped. But know that we are in this for

the long haul – even once the well is capped and the flow has stopped, our

campaign will not. It will just be the beginning of the end. This response

will continue until all the oil is cleaned up.

Now, more than ever the CG needs the support of all of its partners – while

we can take the lead on this response, we cannot do it alone. Now is the

time to strengthen our resolve – and strengthen our partnerships."