April 3, 2020: Having quickly transitioned most support and logistic functions to remote work, the IT infrastructure was quickly strained to its breaking point (and beyond). Ensuring members had access to current (and accurate) information was important. Also important was to connect on a personal level.
Being in command is the most challenging and rewarding tour of a military career. My last US Coast Guard tour was as both Commander, Sector Columbia River and Commanding Officer, Air Station Astoria. I was in command from June 2018 to August 2021 and it was during this tour that the Covid-19 pandemic struck. As we all know it changed our lives in the most fundamental of ways. While many companies were able to adopt a remote work strategy, the Armed Forces and other response based organizations were required to continue to operate together while also trying to move non-mission critical activities to remote. As this meant we could no longer meet in person, I was forced to find a new way to connect with my over 500 unit members. Given members were as far as 300 miles away I knew it would be challenging. I took to the written word to not only communicate professional updates but also to connect with members on a personal level.
These thoughts were on my mind when I wrote the following to my unit.
April 3, 2020- To all who shall see these presents, greetings
To all who shall see these presents, greetings,
Know ye, that reposing special trust and confidence in the fidelity and abilities of CG C4IT, I know not how or when but eventually, it will carefully and diligently discharge the duties of its 1996 era grade to which supported by doing and performing all manner of things thereunto pertaining to the delivery of this message.
I have every confidence this email will, in due time and in a manner befitting its sending, find you. It is my sincerest hope that it finds you happy, healthy, and whole. These days if I’m looking at 2 of 3 I consider it a personal win. I’m putting a premium on healthy. If you’re wondering how healthy the rest of the country currently is, there is a website for that- https://covid19.healthdata.org/projections. As with all models, educate yourself on the assumptions because they’re important and not often discussed by the pundits. Don’t forget, too, that the peak date moving right is a good thing. It means we’re flattening the curve. If you’re curious about the current health of CG policy there is a website for that- www.uscg.mil/coronavirus. Make sure you’re sharing all this with your family because they love and care about you, too.
This week saw a few more modifications to what is now normal. From Home Schooling that seamlessly merged into Spring Break (wait, there was a difference?), and back into online learning … if anyone has any homeschooling tips I’d like to hear from you. I almost expelled one student and fired the teacher for drinking in the classroom. When colleges started to close my daughter decided to shelter here in Astoria, so now I have a 20 yr old college Sophomore daughter, 18 yr old high school Senior son, and a 15 yr old high school Freshman son in the house, which means we’re sharing 3 bedrooms and 1.5 baths. We’re learning to get along with each other again, and the other night at dinner I heard myself say, “There is going to have to be a lot less sarcasm in the next 6 months if we’re going to get through this.” Which is saying a lot coming from me.
But I’m grateful. Gratitude is something I’ve struggled with over the years. I can be singularly focused and forget to look around. Consumed by a 24 hr news cycle and constant information bombardment, what are you doing to be grateful? The other day a local business owner thanked me for a CG member who made a large purchase at his wife’s bookstore. He was grateful. Our communities supported us during the government shutdown and we were grateful. Our community is in need. What can we do to express our gratitude?
And, I do strictly charge and require DOS, Basic, and other IT systems of lesser grade to render obedience to appropriate orders. And C4IT is to observe and follow such orders and directions, eventually and when it feels it is able after the CG FixIt ticket has been properly submitted and assigned, as may be given from time to time by Users acting according to the rules and articles governing the Automated Information Systems User Acknowledgment Form (CG-5500A) of the Coast Guard of the United States of America.
Given under my hand at Warrenton, OR, this 3rd day of April, with gratitude and in the year twenty hundred and twenty,
CAPT Jeremy C. Smith
Sector Commander