Quick Bio: Admiral Karl Schultz is the Commandant of the U.S. Coast Guard. He’s been a life long Coastie. A CGA graduate and has a degree in Public Administration. Clean cut, relatively fit and can actually wear his BDUs properly, unlike Thad Allen.
Recently the Coast Guard Commandant refused to testify before two separate Congressional Committees. Shortly thereafter, a Coast Guard Spokesperson, Lt. Cmdr. Scott McBride, stated that “the Coast Guard will continue to collaborate with the Congress…”
If you are confused by the contradicitng statements above, you are not alone. It is true that on December 11th, the Coast Guard’s newest Trump era Commandant, Admiral Schultz, denied the American public answers regarding the toxic culture of the United States Coast Guard. It is also true that the official statement of the Coast Guard is that it is working with the public on this matter. To over emphasize the point: The head honcho of the US Coast Guard was called on by America’s representatives to answer questions regarding harassment, hazing and hate within the CG and he refused to do so. The Coast Guard’s excuse (the Coast Guard taught me excuses are like assholes) is that it is already working with congress to ensure that the Coast Guard is a “military service where all people are respected, empowered, and valued.”
All of this is following incident after incident of prime examples of a toxic culture. The last public dive into the realm of Coast Guard culture exposed toxicity levels that exceeded those of any branch of the military, including the highest suicide rates, and elevated depression and addiction rates. That Coast Guard’s published report was in 2013. The list of disasters experienced by Coast Guard Officers, Enlisted, and civilian employees has grown tremendously since then. So why is the Coast Guard command refusing to openly discuss this? There are published theories out there: Mills and Steinmetz. There are people starting to standing up to this. And there are loved ones suing the Coast Guard, writing stories, and begging for acknowledgement all over the 50 states.
From my research, the media covers the socio-political characteristics of only two entities: CGH (Coast Guard Headquarters) and CGA (the Coast Guard Academy), but the media is not covering the Coast Guard Fleet. Better put, the media does not know to cover the Coast Guard fleet because CGH suppresses and manipulates the data coming from the field. CGH has obviously refused to do further research into the state of behavioral and social conditions of the 21st century Coastie. Coast Guard leadership refuses to talk when our government representatives ask them to. And as our shipmates continue to take the burden for CGH’s modus operandi, we all share the cost. The externalities flood the lives of everyone attached to a Coastie.
From my personal experience, albiet I was discharged in 2007, the Coast Guard makes problems disappear rather than solving them. There is a list of death in the active duty realm and the veteran realm which is not being explained, it is being excused. This list of death is an indicator of what’s below the water line (to be clear, the ice burg is larger under the water), in the form of depression, social anxiety, addiction, unrest, and moral indifference.
The Coast Guard community needs Schultz to speak on this issue. We need him to be a leader who publicly displays his values in a direct way. Otherwise we can only infer his values indirectly. And as a man in his position, refusing to answer the public’s concerns, we should be inferring a lot.
[I want to give a shout out to the Coast Guard Training Center Cape May. They produce men and women ready for the mission of the Coast Guard, full of the values Coastie’s are supposed to hold true to.]
This year, as I focus on the faces of the US Coast Guard, on active and veteran status, I want to make sure I get things right. My full time job is not this, so I often find myself in a position of exchanging quality for good enough. To compensate for this, I ask for feedback and discussion. My research into Commadant Schultz did not extend past a few hours online. My base fingings are that he is a politican, not a leader. I’d love to hear different. Feel free to comment publicly below, or send me an email.
Well put, and sadly I think the whole of the upper Coast Guard command, for some time now, has focused on the political side, rather than leadership. Politics and saving face have become the focus and the norm. They have lost track of their people, caring for them and about them. They have become a number, and indispensible, and it’s heartbreaking! Cover it up and make it go away, and hopefully no one will stand up and take notice or say anything. They’ve gotten away with it for too long and that’s why it’s running rampant.
Don’t get me wrong, there are still some of the Good Ones out there and I am grateful to them and for them! This is not the Coast Guard that my son thought he signed up for.