Washington D.C. – Congresswoman Strickland questioned Vice Commandant Thomas Allan on workforce growth, retention, and development, and on the 25 Coast Guard stations that have been closed or downgraded since 2024. Rep. Strickland offers condolences to the family and shipmates of Aviation Survival Technician Second Class Tyler Jaggers. Strickland’s remarks are transcribed below, and can be viewed here:
Chairman Mike Ezell: Chair recognizes Ms. Strickland for her 5 minutes of question.
Congresswoman Marilyn Strickland: Thank you very much, Chairman Ezell and Ranking Member Carbajal. Admiral Allen, thank you very much for being here today. I represent the South Puget Sound of Washington state, which is within the operational area of Sector Puget Sound.
I first want to extend my deep condolences to the family and shipmates of Aviation Survival Technician Second Class Tyler Jaggers, who was stationed at Air Station Astoria in Oregon. AST2 Jaggers passed away from injuries sustained during a rescue mission about 120 nautical miles off the Oregon Coast. My thoughts are with his family and crew of Air Station Astoria.
I’m going to move over to workforce growth.
Personnel are the foundation of Coast Guard operations. Force Design 2028 lays out an ambitious plan to address persistent workforce shortages and grow the enlisted workforce to meet escalating mission demands. I’m encouraged that the fiscal year 2025 data shows that the service exceeded its recruitment goals by more than 900 servicemembers through the accession of 5,200 active-duty enlisted servicemembers that fiscal year.
But I want to talk about too that, you know, the incident that happened with Secretary Noem. Her blanket firing someone, finding out that the aviator was the only one who was actually going to be able to fly her back. Can you talk about the culture that is needed with civilian personnel when it comes to how they deal with our enlisted members?
Vice Commandant Thomas Allan: Ma’am, I think civilian control of military is built on top of the Constitution and one that we welcome. We will continue to make sure that our crews are ready and able to respond and meet the missions of the nation.
Strickland: Thank you. Now I want to switch over to Coast Guard stations that were closed or downgraded as part of Force Alignment Annual Year 2024. As many of you know, workforce shortages forced the closure of more than 25 Coast Guard stations, many of which serve rescue missions, search and rescue missions, and they’re very important for our Maritime Communities.
As we strive to increase the size of the service by 33 percent, what are your plans to reconstitute the stations that were closed or downgraded during force realignment?
Allan: Ma’am, thank you first for recognizing how well we’re doing in our sessions, to bring in 5,200 new members. We’re starting to close that gap of people that we lost and we’ll be able to kind of return them to the places that they need to be. We’re not intending to close any of the FAI stations, the stations that we degraded. And, we’re looking at how best to increase our staffing at those and get them back on a regular footing.
Strickland: Great, thank you very much. And, for some of my colleagues, the Department of Homeland Security not being funded could be solved if we’re able to take ICE and CBP out of the DHS funding. The good news is that there’s a discharge petition coming soon to separate ICE from DHS funding, so I encourage all my colleagues to vote yes for the discharge petition, and we can fund DHS. I yield back, Mr. Chair.
Ezell: Gentlelady yields.