Article/Column

September, 2007

MarineNews

Holding Future Coast Guard Officers to The Highest Standards

by Congressman Elijah E. Cummings

As Chairman of the Subcommittee on Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation, I believe it is my duty to be the leading supporter of the United States Coast Guard.

Part of this job entails fighting to ensure that the Coast Guard has the resources, personnel, and competence it needs to complete its critical missions, including effectively guarding our homeland security and ensuring marine safety on our nation’s waters.

However, this job also requires that I hold the Coast Guard to the highest standards of accountability. We should expect nothing less than the best from a service that is charged with such essential tasks, and these expectations are reflected daily as the media relay reports of success stories ranging from search and rescue missions to keeping our waters safe.

Unfortunately, we have recently discovered that some in the Coast Guard have fallen short of these standards – and indeed of the values of our nation – when we learned from news reports that nooses had been placed among the personal effects of an African-American student and then of a white female officer who was conducting race relations training in response to the discovery of the first noose. Such sheer racism and hatred is completely unacceptable—especially among those who are training to be leaders.

This type of incident occurs for no purpose other than to threaten and to intimidate. Those who commit such acts – and those who harbor the attitudes that give rise to such actions – are simply not fit to serve as officers in the Coast Guard, leading others in our nation’s service.

For this reason, upon learning of the placement of the nooses, I called upon the Coast Guard to launch a full investigation – which should have been conducted at the time the first act was committed in July.

I also called upon the Commandant of the Coast Guard, Admiral Thad Allen to address the entire academy. Knowing that his views on tolerance and diversity are consistent with my own, I urged him to make very clear that such actions simply will not be tolerated.

I am reassured that the Coast Guard responded immediately to my requests by announcing that the Coast Guard Investigative Service will examine what occurred and work to identify the perpetrator(s), and by announcing that the Commandant will address the full Academy. The Commandant and I have made plans to speak in New London on Thursday, October 4.

Although these are important steps, they are only the first steps. We must continue to strive not only for the expansion of diversity in the Coast Guard, but for the assurance that every single member of the service has the character comprised of respect for the dignity of every other human being. This type of character is crucial for anyone to effectively serve our nation.

A study was released earlier this year examining the quality of education that students are receiving at the Academy. Although the report highlighted the value of an academy education, it also found that diveristy at the Academy has fallen in recent years. In fact, the report found that minorities comprise only 13.5 percent of the Coast Guard’s student body today, compared to 16 percent in 1991. As a result of the small number of minorities graduating from the Academy and acceding to the officer corps through other avenues, as well as the attrition that naturally occurs in the officer corps, fewer than one percent of the Captains serving on active duty are African-American.

The study also found that there are troubling shortcomings specifically in those programs undertaken by the Academy to instill the service’s values in future officers. Minorities surveyed by the study team reported feeling marginalized in the Academy community, and minorities were found to be less likely than non-minority students to trust the Academy’s administration.

I know that the Coast Guard is working hard to address these issues and to ensure that the officer corps sees diversity not as a problem, but as a promise to be realized through the fair treatment of every single individual.

I will continue to work with them to support these efforts in any way that I can – and I will continue to expect evidence of change.

The Coast Guard is a service that is more than 200 years old and that has saved more than one million lives – including thousands of people rescued from the rising flood waters of Katrina. In so many ways, it already embodies the best of America – and we are working to ensure that it does so in every way.

- The Honorable Elijah E. Cummings represents the 7th Congressional District of Maryland in the United States House of Representatives. He is the Chairman of the House Subcommittee on Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation.