Coast Guards “Ambassador’s Program” Still Very Much a Mystery

One of our readers has been on-top of this story and did some research that suggests Coast Guards recipient of the 2009 Blacks in Government Meritorious Service Award may have been acting under the umbrella of NNOA. The National Naval Officers Association mission statements is:

The National Naval Officers Association (NNOA) actively supports the Sea Services in recruiting, retaining, and developing the careers of minority officers. The NNOA provides professional development and mentoring for its members. The NNOA continues to establish and maintain a positive image of the Sea Services in minority communities and educational institutions.

Lcdr. Wilborne Watson, assigned to Coast Guards Congressional Liaison staff is this years recipient of the BIG award.  Is it possible that Coast Guard crafted his nomination from his NNOA work?  That wouldn’t be a far stretch; in March 2008 Radm. Mary Landry who was Governmental and Public Affairs at the time, crafted and faked a first person account of a rescue on the Coast Guard Journal (since replaced by the COMPASS Blog).  Landry’s staff later admitted they had rewritten the actual account of a Coastie, but gave no apology for having done so.  Landry has since been promoted to a job of greater responsibility and public trust.

Coast Guard has been under immense pressure to show it’s committed to Civil Rights, Equal Opportunity and Diversity since this site uncovered in 2007 that  the Office of Civil Rights was not in compliance with Civil Rights Laws.  Coast Guard denied our accounts, called them fabricated and then allowed over dozen senior employees to resign under duress and reprisal from Coast  Guard Civil Rights Offices.  Congress took note of our site and started asking Coast Guard questions.  At least two members of the House Subcommittee on Coast Guard and Transportation didn’t buy what Coast Guard was saying.

In April 2008 Coast Guards embattled Director of the Office of Civil Rights asked for a third party review of her program at a coast to tax payers in the hundreds of thousands of dollars.  The Director, Ms. Terri Dickerson had been on the job for 3 years when the Booz Allen Hamilton report was released in February of this year.  That report confirmed what this site had been reporting since 2007, and a great deal more.  As congress noted, Dickerson had a 2002 report by the firm KPMG on her desk with the exact same finding reported by Booz Allen Hamilton.

Within days of the February 20th release of the Booz Allen Hamilton report, this site was contacted by congress, notified and provided an advance copy of the scathing letter to Admiral Thad Allen signed out by the Chairman of the Subcommittee on Coast Guard, Rep. Elijah E. Cummings.  At the first of two hearings on Coast Guards failed Civil Rights program Cummings noted that:

The proximate motivation for this request was the posting of derogatory blog entries on the web. However, as the Subcommittee has come to learn, there have long existed challenges far more central to the provision of effective civil rights services within the Coast Guard than those discussed in recent blog comments.

It was not lost on congress that the real intent of Coast Guards request for the Booz Allen Hamilton review was to for once and for all put this site to bed by proving we had been wrong all along.  That plan backfired and placed Coast Guard Civil Rights in the mainstream media with the release of Cummings letter to Allen in February 2009.  At the first congressional hearing in April, Radm. Jody Breckenridge was unable to answer basic questions on her diversity programs.  As Assistant Commandant for Human Resources at the time, Breckenridge was responsible for Coast Guards Diversity and Personnel programs.  When asked what her service was doing to reach out to Historically Black Colleges and Universities, Breckenridge didn’t have an answer.  At the time of the hearing she didn’t mention her own COMPASS program ran out of her Diversity office.  Breckenridge was backed up at this hearing by the Coast Guards Congressional Affairs Office where a young black officer by the name of Lcdr. Wilborne Watson works and yet no mention of his HBCU initiative was given either.

On June 19th the Coast Guard sent in its Chief of Staff, Vadm. Cliff Pearson to second hearing of the year called by Cummings to examine Coast Guard Civil Rights and Diversity.  It was at this hearing that the “Ambassadors” program is first mentioned in print. Pearson’s opening statement said that:

In FY2009, he re-directed an additional $1.7M to fund enhanced diversity initiatives. These additional resources have enabled us, among other things, to enhance outreach to Native Alaskans, send more minority officers to participate in national level affinity group conferences that are critical to career development and advancement, and increase outreach activities at Historically Black Colleges and Universities through our “Ambassador’s Program.”

By June 19th, Watson’s program had become the Coast Guards program.  A search of the Coast Guard domain for this program came up empty.  A search of the Coast Guards Diversity Office website also came up empty.  That said how effective can the “Ambassador’s Program” be if no one knows about it.

Coast Guard Report will ask Congress for an explanation from the Guard on this program, along with asking Blacks in Government to hold off on Watson’s award until such time as Coast Guard can better articulate this program and its success to the service.  Maybe a quick ALCOAST so all officers could be given an opportunity to participate would be a good idea … just thinking out of the box.