Rear Adm. Michael McAllister has seen through the years that it’s difficult to retain a sense of normalcy during transfers of power in the Coast Guard. Service men and women are transferred all over the world and the country, making for adjustment periods for many sectors.
“I always find it interesting that rarely is continuity present in our service,” McAllister said Friday. “In fact, things are changing at a pretty rapid rate.”
For Coast Guard Sector Juneau, however, the most recent change in command should be fairly seamless.
After three years at the helm, Capt. Shannan Greene relinquished command of the sector on Friday to Capt. Phillip Thorne, who has served in Alaska for 10 years. Since 2016, Thorne has been the Seventeenth District Chief of Response in Juneau where he has overseen search and rescue, ports and waterways security missions as well as intelligence support across the state.
“This assignment is a great honor to me,” Thorne said to a packed Elizabeth Peratrovich Hall on Friday, “as my family and I have long considered Southeast Alaska home. In the 10 years I’ve served here, what is most vivid to me is the direct and significant positive role the Coast Guard plays in supporting the region’s citizens every day.”
Since Greene was appointed to the position of commander in 2014, Juneau’s sector included more than 300 search-and-rescue cases and almost 2,000 safety inspections on commercial fishing vessels. Those search-and-rescue missions saved 122 lives, saved $10 million in property and assisted 530 others in non-life-threatening situations, McAllister recounted Friday.
McAllister also pointed out that Sector Juneau has been integral in containing major environmental scares over the years. When the tug boat Samson Mariner and a barge it was towing ran aground in the Tongass Narrows in February, Juneau and Ketchikan Coast Guard boats were dispatched. Even though 1,100 gallons of diesel leaked into the water, McAllister said, the rapid Coast Guard response prevented around 70,000 gallons of diesel from the tug and the barge from leaking.
Greene said that one of the main reasons for the unit’s success in recent years is the focus on keeping morale high.
“Life here is beautiful, but by no means is it easy to be stationed here, oftentimes so far from family support,” Greene said. “It can be physically, mentally and financially draining for many people. At Sector Juneau, we always put family and support of one another as a top priority.”
That challenge now awaits Thorne, who has served in Guam, San Diego, New Hampshire, Maine, Kodiak, Ketchikan and elsewhere. He has earned numerous awards, including the Meritorious Service Medal, the Coast Guard Commendation Medal and others.
Sector Juneau has also earned numerous honors, as more than 40 of the 350 men and women of the sector have been selected for various incident management positions. McAllister said this makes Sector Juneau one of the highest-qualified teams in the Coast Guard, and he trusts Thorne to uphold that same standard.
“In my judgment,” McAllister said, “Southeast Alaska is in good hands.”
• Contact reporter Alex McCarthy at alex.mccarthy@juneauempire.com.
