Webster Smith – Former U.S. Coast Guard Academy Cadet Blocked Inside Coast Guard Domain

We were notified today that Webster Smith, the first cadet to ever be courts-martialed at the U.S. Coast Guard Academy has had his site blocked by the U.S. Coast Guard.  Smiths website “Friends of Webster” is not accessible inside the Coast Guard domain.  We reviewed the site and couldn’t find anything in our cursory review that would warrant being blocked.

Coasties won't be reading this Blog

Does Coast Guard Have a Double Standard for Senior Accountability

We had a powerful comment left today on our rehashed and bumped up post on Coast Guard Commander Howard Shaw Relieved for Loss of Confidence. The comment essentially poses a question, does our Coast Guard have one standard when whites complain and another with people of color complain.  Apparently so is the answer based on documented acts inside the Office of Civil Rights.

Submitted on 2009/06/11 at 10:29am

CG should have left this captain on his ship. Why are sailors on a ship any different from employees working in the office of civil rights? Sailors become disillusioned due to bad treatment/climate … and CG immediately swoops in and takes out the captain. Yet, they have allowed ridiculous behaviors to continue in OCR to the point that even the administrative staff are bailing out. I’d like to see the demographics of this crew because it looks to me like there’s racial issues here. White employees squeak … CG acts …. Minority employees squeak … they deserve mis-treatment. Right.

Coast Guard Civil Rights Office Did Not Understand Vision, Goals or Success Indicators

Paragraph 2.3 on page 2-3 of the Booz Allen Hamilton Report on Coast Guards Office of Civil Rights says that:

Only a small number of interviewees indicated that they understand the vision, business goals and key success indicators of OCR. However, a plan is in place to brief managers and Field personnel on the current Strategic Plan.

Coast Guards Office of Civil Rights is a small 22 person staff comprised of mostly GS-9 and above, yet nearly three years after the current Director assumed the helm, the majority of the staff didn’t understand her vision, goals or success indicators.  Employees interviewed included those in the field who are mostly at the GS-12 and above grade.  Employees who spoke with Coast Guard Report tell us the reason they didn’t understand was that the Director had not published anything for them to understand or refer to.

A review of the OCR Website today came up empty for a Strategic Vision, Business Goals or Key Success Indicators.  Seven days from now the Director heads back to Capital Hill to appear before the House Subcommittee on Coast Guard. This will be her second trip this year to update them on her progress.  But back at the office, other than a few trips to the field that follow no organized or cost effective travel pattern, there are no visible signs to the workforce that anything has been accomplished.

The Nation is currently in one of the most dire financial era’s of our time, and yet the Director is traveling back and forth across the country in an extremely un-cost effective manner.  She recently traveled to Portsmouth Virginia to brief EO Staff there, arrived late and then returned to DC.  She’s scheduled to return to Elizabeth City which is just an hours drive south of Portsmouth in July for the same briefing and to announce the stand up of a new Field Office.  A Mr. Reginal Diggins at Atlantic Area has announced he will lead the new office in Elizabeth City.

Coast Guards District 13 Achieve Blogophile Status

It’s another exciting day for Coast Guard, District 13 and the Office of Civil Rights which apparently serves as the “Office of Labels,” at Headquarters.  Back in February 2008, Coast Guards Director, Office of Civil Rights signed out a Coast Guard DIGEST to her Boss Admiral Thad Allen in which she describes Blogophiles (those fascinated with the medium)  and Blogoholics (those addicted to it).   [You can find a copy of the DIGEST at Appendix C to the Booz Allen Hamilton report.]  The Directors definitions differ somewhat from the actual ones, but we’ll go with it.

blogophile (plural blogophiles)

1. A person who is fond of or obsessed with blogs or blogging.

blogoholic (plural blogoholics)

The DIGEST is actually referring to this site, however we’re not so sure we fit the bill.  We don’t use Twitter, Facebook, and MySpace the way the Commandant of the Coast Guard does in his family of social media.  Allen in fact prides himself in the mainstream media as the innovator among military branches in this area.  Allen clearly qualifies as both a Blogophile and Blogoholic by the Directors label.  Clearly, District 13 now qualifies too.  The post below from D13 shows the power of the medium and possibly with the Commandant has embraced it.

As for this site, we’re still not sure we’re deserving of the label just yet.  Coast Guard Report has not been enamored with Twitter, Facebook and MySpace.

Social Media and Coast Guard cases

Posted by Paul Roszkowski

Well, we had an interesting morning, not that every morning isn’t interesting but this one will stand out as the day that things changed. I don’t like to write stories about myself and don’t believe that public affairs should be part of the story we tell, but in this case it is the story.

I got a call from KOMO News, one of our local tv stations, asking about a report of a man overboard from the Washington State Ferry Wenatchee. The duty PA was out covering another event so I took the call and told the person on the other end that I’d have to check with the command center. Indeed, there was a report of a man overboard from the ferry. A passenger reported seeing someone in the water between Bainbridge Island and Seattle in Elliott Bay. I called KOMO back with the details and went into public affairs mode. I double checked with Sector Seattle, confirmed the information and opened our website to start a release. Then the phones started ringing off the hook.

Coast Guard Commander Howard Shaw Relieved for Loss of Confidence

Commander Howard R. Shaw

Bumped Up:  Comments have recently started to hit again for this story, so we’re moving it back to the front page today.

Portsmouth, Va. – Vice Adm. Robert J. Papp, Jr., commander of the Coast Guard’s Atlantic Area here, has temporarily relieved the commanding officer of a Boston-based cutter citing a loss in confidence in the officer’s ability to command.

Cmdr. Howard R. Shaw, the commanding officer of the 270-foot medium endurance cutter Escanaba that is currently on patrol in the Caribbean, has been temporarily reassigned to the Coast Guard’s First District staff in Boston pending the final results of the administrative investigation.

Capt. John Davis, the commanding officer of the Charleston, S.C.-based Coast Guard Cutter Gallatin, met the ship in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, today, and has assumed temporary command to ensure continuity of command, unit readiness, conduct training, and operate the ship during its return to homeport in Boston.

Coast Guard operations have not been impacted.

The Coast Guard Cutter Escanaba is a multi-mission ship that enforces federal and international fishing regulations in the waters off New England, conducts illegal migration and drug interdiction patrols in the Caribbean and carries out search and rescue and homeland security missions.