Every member of a crew has a responsibility to the others. Every time we begin a Coast Guard mission, crew members go through a risk assessment process where they honestly evaluate each other and their operational environment. When we experience a mishap, we investigate it and candidly evaluate what went wrong. Then we fix the problem.

Similarly, following the release of the Operation Fouled Anchor (OFA) investigation, Commandant Adm. Linda Fagan initiated the Accountability and Transparency Review (ATR) to evaluate the Coast Guard’s culture, policies and processes. Following the ATR, she initiated 33 initial actions focused on strengthening the Coast Guard’s culture and ensuring a workplace climate that is intolerant of sexual assault and other harmful behavior. To date, 18 of these mandated actions have been completed.

It is important that every member of the Coast Guard understands their role in this endeavor. As we strengthen our culture of service, we focus not only on duty to the mission, but also duty to each other. We have difficult conversations and initiate corrective actions by strengthening policies, expanding training and reaffirming our expectations of leaders at every level.

You can read more about the Coast Guard’s progress and how you can contribute here. You’ll see even more work on these issues as we continue to improve the Coast Guard work environment we – and our nation – deserve.

Cultural change rarely happens quickly, but we’re off to a good start. There’s already some progress, like the new mandatory sexual assault/harassment training we introduced this year and leadership proactively bringing their teams together to have difficult conversations about how we treat each other.

To drive this change forward, every member must help shape it. Here are some examples:

These are all things you can do at the moment to drive change in our service. For more ways to get involved – and all the latest announcements about new policies, initiatives and programs – visit the new Strengthening Service Culture website.

You can also help simply by staying “in the know.” Help dispel misinformation by reading FAQs about Coast Guard efforts. (New FAQs are added frequently!)

And there’s more to come!

The culture of an organization must be continually nurtured and strengthened to ensure that all employees embody and represent the values ​​and principles of the organization. This takes time and the involvement of every member of Team Coast Guard. But we have made great progress and are laying the foundation for lasting change.

The Commandant recently said: “We are a better Coast Guard today than we were a year ago, and a year from now we will be even better.”

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