Guard Plans Course for Commanders Ashore

By PATRICIA KIME
Sea Power Correspondent

Building on the success of a course designed for prospective cutter commanders and executive officers, the Coast Guard is developing a leadership class for future commanders and executive officers of shore stations.

In March, the service will hold the inaugural shore station class, which is currently being developed by the Office of Performance Consulting at Coast Guard Headquarters in Washington, D.C.

Coast Guard officials said they are assessing goals and requirements of the course, and curriculum development will soon be underway. The work is likely to be challenging, said Lt. Tim Williamson, assistant chief of the Command and Operations School at the Coast Guard Leadership Development Center in New London, Conn., as the content must be relevant to personnel from all types of units, including boat stations, groups, aviation, marine safety, and integrated support.

"That's the question we have right now: is this going to be a skills-based course or more of a leadership situation?" Williamson said.

The afloat commanders' course focuses on maritime safety, collision avoidance, risk management, and team coordination training. Other classes offered by the Command and Operations School include a three-day course for mid-level enlisted personnel and junior officers aimed at mission analysis, risk management, situational awareness, decision-making under stress, communications, and assertiveness.

It's likely the new course will address many of the same issues, but on a broader tactical level, Williamson said.

The afloat commanders' course was created in response to several major cutter accidents that occurred in the late 1970s and early 1980s, killing at least 33 Coast Guardsmen. The Coast Guard, in analyzing several mishaps, concluded that human error, especially miscommunication or misjudgment, is responsible in most cases. It developed the Command and Operations School--first established as the Prospective Commanding Officer/Prospective Executive Officer School in 1986--to address a need for courses emphasizing damage control and critical decision-making.

"We teach situational awareness: 'what does it look like?' how to identify risk; decision-making. We emphasize assertiveness, empowering our people to say something if it's not safe or do something if it's not going the way it's originally planned," Williamson said.

It may not seem that such intangibles can be taught, but Williamson said such courses appear to make a difference.

"A lot of people ask: Can we teach common sense? It's a debate that could go on forever, but we believe you can teach a common language," giving students the tools to identify the implications of what they are doing, Williamson said.

The effectiveness of such courses is difficult to measure. Since 1986, when the afloat commanders' course began in New London, the Coast Guard has had no major cutter incidents involving loss of life. However, assessing a course based on what has not occurred is not a sound measurement criteria, Williamson said.

"We're trying to come up with some way to measure effectiveness. The best way would be to go out in the field and ask 'What does this mean?' We need to be asking people who have taken the course whether they've used what they've learned."

The Coast Guard Command and Operations School teaches 10 courses each year for future commanding officers and executive officers afloat. The school also offers 13 other classes in five courses, including an officer-in-charge course and an international maritime officers course.

The school has four personnel: three instructors, including Williamson, Cdr. Jeff Lee, who has served as commanding officer of three cutters, and Master Chief Boatswain's Mate John Downey, the service's 2003 Joshua James Keeper Award recipient. Yeoman Second Class Jason Davis is the school's administrative assistant.