New Coast Guard commander in Alaska says mission remains much the same amidst wave of changes
- Mark Sabbatini
- Jul 12
- 5 min read
Updated: Jul 12
Icebreaker set to arrive in Juneau next month "a great example of a kind of an early milestone in that transformation"
There’s a new name, commander, funding boost and icebreaker for U.S. Coast Guard operations based in Juneau. But the new district leader said after taking command Friday the strong winds of change blowing from the nation’s capital aren’t going to shift Alaska’s operations greatly off their historical course.
"If you were to kind of look at historic operational mission space for the Arctic District — and when I say historic, I mean even going back to the to the late 1800s when we first arrived here — I don't envision drastic changes to the way we carry out our operations, to the nature and or types of missions that we do," Rear Adm. Ralph “Bob” Little told reporters after the change-of-command ceremony at the Air National Guard Hangar at Juneau International Airport.
Cited foremost by Little among those missions were military-related border security issues along Alaska’s border with Russia, followed by "protection of our ports and our maritime transportation system to continue the economic lifeblood of Alaska in the Arctic."
"And of course, across and throughout all of that, search and rescue, protecting the lives of those at sea will remain paramount," he said.
The Arctic District has a total of 2,500 active duty, reserve, civilian and auxiliary personnel, who employ 15 cutters, 52 boats, and 17 aircraft, according to the Coast Guard’s website.
The most visible of the changes that are coming to Juneau is the Storis icebreaker scheduled to make its first appearance for a commissioning ceremony next month before an initial limited deployment further north.
The 360-foot-long ship built in 2012 was purchased last year from a private company is set to be homeported in Juneau with an eventual crew of 190. But Coast Guard officials say an initial crew of about 60 is expected to be initially assigned since it will be several years before the ship and support infrastructure in Juneau are ready for full mission deployment.
A controversial budget bill signed by President Donald Trump last week contains $300 million for new Coast Guard facilities in Juneau. Little, on Friday, said the initial deployment of the Storis, while limited, is part of a transformation of the Coast Guard that includes "accelerating our acquisitions to get operational capability faster to where it's needed."
"The Storis is a great example of a kind of an early milestone in that transformation, adjusting our acquisitions, look at things and getting a capable asset earlier rather than later," he said. "What will it do? Just the basic requirement of a polar icebreaker is access to otherwise ice-denied regions and presence."
"She'll be transitioning from kind of an initial operating capability into what we'll eventually consider full operational capability. But that doesn't diminish the fact that we'll have a US Coast Guard Cutter painted red with a Coast Guard stripe, operating in the region this summer. So we'll step into that operational space as the crew and the team and the ship learn the capabilities."
The Storis is essentially intended as a stopgap vessel while the Coast Guard works to bring full-scale new Polar Security Cutters online, which have suffered years of delays due to cost and construction issues. The first of three PSCs was originally scheduled for deployment in 2024, but that is now expected to be 2030 or later. Also, while the Coast Guard originally sought three new PSCs as part of an eventual nine-icebreaker fleet, Trump has stated he wants the U.S. to have a 40-icebreaker fleet — the reality of which is questioned by some officials.
National-level changes made and planned for the Coast Guard are vast under Trump, beginning on the first day of his second term by firing Adm. Linda Fagan who was the first woman to serve as commandant. The administration is directing the Coast Guard to focus on immigration-enforcement duties including deportation flights, cutting flag officer positions by 25% this year, and adding 15,000 personnel as part of a "Force Design 2028" plan the service says will "deliver the decisive and transformational change needed to empower the Coast Guard to protect the American people and the homeland."
Little’s operational career, according to his official bio, "has been focused on securing the U.S. maritime border, conducting alien migrant and narcotics interdiction, defense operations, combating criminal networks, and safeguarding U.S. maritime commerce."
Before taking command of the Arctic Sector that encompasses Alaska (known as District 17 until a renaming of all districts July 3) he was the director of the Joint Interagency Task Force West (JIATF West). An official description states the standing task force "coordinates with the U.S. interagency and international partners to identify, monitor, and target illicit and malign activities that enable cartels and Transnational Criminal Organizations (TCOs) to produce and traffic deadly narcotics that harm U.S. citizens" in the Indo-Asia-Pacific region.
Little, during Friday’s ceremony, relieved Rear Adm. Megan Dean as commander of the Alaska district. She assumed those duties in June of 2023 after 20 years of prior assignments worldwide, most recently as the Coast Guard’s director of governmental and public affairs "where she was responsible for external engagement with Congress," according to her official bio. She has been reassigned to return to the Coast Guard’s headquarters in Washington, D.C., as the assistant commandant for operations integration and response policy.
In Alaska she oversaw operations such as confronting a joint Chinese Coast Guard/Russian Border Guard patrol in Bering Sea, responding to a cargo ship that sank while carrying 3,000 cars in seas 300 miles southwest of Adak and search-and-rescue efforts such as a fishing vessel that overturned with five crew members in Lynn Canal last December.
"Admittedly, I'm way late in my Coast Guard career in discovering all the excitement that Alaska has to offer, but better late than never," Dean told the audience during Friday’s ceremony. "Upon reporting two years ago, I quickly came to appreciate that many things in Alaska get multiplied by an added factor of complexity, but also by an added factor of simplicity."
Dean, as an example of those contrasts, shared the details of a response last month when a skiff with three seal hunters capsized in the Aleutians. The closest Coast Guard asset was a helicopter 330 nautical miles away in Kodiak that was immediately sent to the scene, while help was also sought from other agencies such as the Alaska Air National Guard and Alaska State Troopers.
One of the three people was found after swimming safely to shore, one was found deceased and the third not located, Dean said.
"This response is just one of many I could share to illustrate, one, the complexity of Coast Guard operations in Alaska and the U.S. Arctic," she said. "Two, that aviators do more than just launch and fly between rainbows. And three, the Coast Guard would not be successful in our mission execution without the support and collaboration of our partners and stakeholders, tribal, local, state, federal and international."
• Contact Mark Sabbatini at editor@juneauindependent.com or (907) 957-2306.
