Cutter Bids Farewell to Commanding Officer
The crew of the Coast Guard cutter Tampa will conduct a change of command ceremony at the Coast Guard Integrated Support Center Portsmouth pier Thursday. During the ceremony, Cmdr. Steven A. Banks will relieve Capt. Charles A. Mathieu. Chief of staff for the Coast Guard’s Atlantic Area, Capt. Christopher C. Colvin, will preside. Capt. Mathieu is a 1982 graduate of the Coast Guard Academy, having earned his commission and a degree in electrical engineering. He assumed command of Tampa in June 2003, following a shore assignment as chief, Engineering Division at the Coast Guard Command and Control Engineering Center in Portsmouth. His next assignment will be as chief, Office of Command and Control Architecture at Coast Guard Headquarters in Washington, D.C. Cmdr.
New Vessel Traffic Control Tower Completed
A new $1.1m Vessel Traffic Control Tower was recently completed at Mile Marker 99 of the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway adjacent to Jesse Fontenot Memorial Boat Landing in Berwick, La. The purpose of the tower is to provide additional camera vantage points looking westward along the Intracoastal Waterway, southward along the Lower Atchafalaya River and northward toward Berwick Bay. In addition, the tower will be equipped with a TERMA radar and Automatic Identification System (AIS) transceiver to update and improve the overall Ports and Waterways Safety System in order to provide increased situational awareness for the U. S. Coast Guard vessel traffic controllers at Vessel Traffic Service (VTS) Berwick Bay. Captain Terry Gilbreath, the Commanding Officer of U.
