Vice Admiral David P. Pekoske and iFORCECOM ready or not

An astute reader notified us today that their comment on iFORCECOM apparently didn’t pass muster for posting.  We haven’t paid much attention to this new site yet, but why not today.  Admiral Pekoske the current Pacific Area Commander and proposed first FORCECOM initiated the new Blog.  The new website says this about itself,

iFORCECOM: Your Window To The FORCECOM World

iFORCECOM is the website of the United States Coast Guard Force Readiness Command, which is part of the Modernization Effort.

The Force Readiness Command (FORCECOM) will become the Coast Guards first command solely responsible for preparing forces to perform missions and execute them properly.

FORCECOM will be charged with the current and future readiness of the Coast Guards workforce — Active Duty, Reserve, Auxiliary, Civilian and Contractor — to ensure they will be ready when called to execute their missions.

The comment policy is pretty simple and we won’t bore you with it here, but you can read it here.  So what kind of comment would not meet the publishing guidelines of iFORCECOM?  Well, it ties or tried to tie into the iFORCECOM post titled PACAREA has a new Deputy Commander.  On that post two individuals asked about the stand up of the new Two Star Deputy Commander.  The following is the official answer but maybe not the entire answer.

Thank you for sharing your interest about the Modernization effort. Last week VADM Pekoske shared in his All Hands address that RADM Sullivan’s appointment as the Deputy Commander of the Pacific Area was something that he had been contemplating for some time. VADM Pekoske felt that it was important to have a flag officer serve as the Deputy to provide a continued flag presence in decision-making in the Pacific Theatre during an absence by the Commander. Moreover, the VADM Commander and RADM Deputy leadership model would map directly to the Force Readiness Command structure of the future. Thanks for your thoughtful question and feel free to study the FORCECOM Business Plan (Appendix A-1) for more detail.

Very Respectfully,
LCDR Hosmer

The question our reader asked was essentially why PACAREA was moving ahead with YouTube video’s and iFORCECOM when both the House and Senate versions of the Coast Guard Authorization bill that create FORCECOM failed.  As of this writing, neither house of congress has reintroduced the bill.  What that means is that Coast Guard has been funded at zero to carry out modernization.  Additionally Coast Guard won’t see it’s Vice Commandant promoted to Four Star Admiral, and neither Atlantic or Pacific Area Commanders can deviate from their statutory responsibilites.

§ 50. Area commanders

How Current is This?

(b) An area commander shall, while so serving, have the grade of vice admiral with pay and allowances of that grade. The appointment and grade of an area commander shall be effective on the date the officer assumes that duty, and shall terminate on the date the officer is detached from that duty, except as provided in subsection ^[1] 51(d) of this title.

(a) The President may appoint, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, a Commander, Atlantic Area, and a Commander, Pacific Area, each of whom shall be an intermediate commander between the Commandant and the district commanders in his respective area and shall perform such duties as the Commandant may prescribe. The area commanders shall be appointed from officers on the active duty promotion list serving above the grade of captain. The Commandant shall make recommendations for such appointments.

Coast Guard cannot deviate the two area commanders from their statutory responsibilities.  What does that mean?  Neither can take on the duties of Force Readiness Command or Operations Command without congressional authorization.  As I said above, both the Senate and House Coast Guard Authorization bills died in the 110th Congress and have not been reissued in the 111th Congress.

What’s the back up plan in ensuring Admiral Allen retires next year having achieved some version of his modernization goal?   Presumably we’ll see Rear Admiral Sullivan stand up FORCECOM as a Two Star and likely see Rear Admiral Brice-O’Hara or another Two Star take on Operations Command.  That’s the straight forward and transparent answer our reader was looking for with his or her comment which went unpublished.

Pretty simple question wasn’t it?

Who will be the Next Commandant of the Coast Guard

As of Tuesday, 10 Feb 09, 0600

Our reader poll on the next Commandant of the Coast Guard has been pretty active since it opened Sunday, 8 February 2009.  This poll will remain this week and close on Saturday the 14th.

Voters are given three choices for the next Commandan; Vice Admiral’s Papp, Pekoske and Pearson or other.  1696 votes have been recorded since the poll opened on Sunday with 24% in support of Papp, 29% for Pekoske, 19% with Pearson and 28% believing another candidate would be best.

Is this poll scientific, no but it does give you an idea of what other readers are thinking.  Admiral Allen has well over another year in office.  We’ll see the nomination of new Vice Commandant soon, and that will place other senior officers in play for Commandant.