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National Incident News

13 May 2019

Thad Allen Joins HudsonAnalytix

Admiral Thad Allen, U.S. Coast Guard retired

HudsonAnalytix, announced that Admiral Thad Allen, U.S. Coast Guard retired, has joined their operation as a Senior Executive Advisor.Admiral Allen served as the 23rd Commandant of the Coast Guard from 2006 to 2010. He will be focusing on risk management for the global maritime transportation sector served by Hudson. Focus areas include regulatory and policy issues, crisis response and disaster management, environmental compliance, and cyber risk to shipping, ports, and supply chains.

20 Oct 2017

Rob Nakama: From USCG to Foss Maritime

Rob Nakama (Photo: Saltchuk)

Just two weeks after accepting the U.S. Coast Guard’s congratulations on a military career spanning almost three decades, Rob Nakama drove from Washington D.C. to Seattle to join Foss Maritime as the company’s Manager of Contingency Planning and Emergency Response. “I’ve been in the military for the majority of my life; the transition has been surreal,” he said. Nakama was born in Hawaii, growing up on the island of Maui as the son of a taro farmer who worked for the Aloha Poi Factory.

09 Jun 2015

Insights: Capt. Novotny, Commanding Officer, USCG National Maritime Center

Captain Jeffrey P. Novotny is Commanding Officer of the U.S. Coast Guard’s National Maritime Center in Martinsburg, WV. He is responsible for all activities related to professional credentialing, training and assessments of the nation’s 215,000 merchant mariners. He graduated from the U.S. Coast Guard Academy with a degree in Mathematics and Computer Science. Prior to commanding the NMC, he was the Deputy Commander at the Coast Guard’s Deployable Operations Group. His duties included the oversight and responsibility for all personnel…

25 Mar 2015

Resilience & the Maritime Industry

Dennis L. Bryan

Resilience is defined generally as the ability to recover quickly from setbacks. Setbacks are inevitable. Individuals and entities are best judged by their resilience – their ability to get back on track after experiencing a reversal. The best way to recover from a setback is to anticipate the setback in advance and plan a recovery strategy. At the most basic level, this is something we do all the time. We keep spare batteries in the house so that when the flashlight or television controller dies, we can quickly bring it back into operation.

20 May 2014

Vice Adm. Neffenger Becomes Vice Commandant

Vice Adm. Peter Neffenger speaks during the vice commandant change of watch ceremony at Coast Guard Headquarters in Washington, D.C., Tuesday, May 20, 2014. Neffenger became the 29th vice commandant of the Coast Guard during the event. (U.S. Coast Guard photo Petty Officer 2nd Class Patrick Kelley)

U.S. Coast Guard Vice Adm. Peter Neffenger relieved Vice Adm. John Currier as Vice Commandant of the Coast Guard during a change of watch ceremony at U.S. Coast Guard Headquarters, Washington, D.C., Tuesday. Coast Guard Commandant Adm. Bob Papp presided over the ceremony and U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson attended. “It has been my honor to serve our nation as the vice commandant,” said Currier. The change-of-watch ceremony is a time-honored event preserved by rich heritage of naval tradition.

18 Mar 2014

Thad Allen at the Helm

President Obama talks with Coast Guard Admiral Thad Allen, who was also the National Incident Commander for the Deepwater Horizon oil spill (center), and Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal aboard Marine One as they fly along the coastline from Venice, La., to New Orleans on May 2, 2010. White House Photo by Pete Souza

Former USCG Admiral Thad Allen is a transformational leader in the history of the service, a rock through thick and thin. Today he talks about resource allocation, risk management and homeland security. As part of Booz Allen Hamilton’s Justice and Homeland Security business group, Executive Vice President and former U.S. Coast Guard Admiral Thad Allen leads the development of thought leadership and client engagements regarding the future direction of law enforcement and homeland security. The Coast Guard is under pressure to either pare its mission mix or downscale what it does.

06 Aug 2013

Coast Guard Establishes Incident Management Assistance Team

USCG photo

The Coast Guard formally established the Incident Management Assistance Team during a ceremony held at Base Portsmouth Thursday morning. The IMAT is the first full-time, national incident management team comprised of 41 active and reserve military and civilian personnel. The IMAT supports the operational commander in complex incident crisis management for all-hazard, all-threat incidents and events. The team is a rapidly deployable, scalable resource that addresses capability gaps within an incident management organization wherever required.

20 Sep 2012

Insights: Andrew Altendorf President, SCAA

Andrew Altendorf is the CEO and majority owner of Acme Environmental Inc. Acme’s history spans almost 50 years and the firm is recognized as a pioneer in the manufacture of oil spill containment booms and other oil spill recovery items. A U.S. Coast Guard classified OSRO, Acme and Altendorf support numerous customers in Oklahoma and the Midwest with their emergency response. He has been the President of the Spill Control Association of America since November of 2010. Prior to taking the reins as President, he served on the SCAA Board of Directors for 5 years.

09 Nov 2011

Hankins Joins Donjon as VP

Donjon Marine said that Paul Hankins, formerly President of Donjon-SMIT, LLC, has joined Donjon as Vice President of Operations-Salvage & Engineering Division. Hankins’ primary duties will involve Donjon’s U.S. Navy Salvage Services Contract, as well as its U.S. Coast Guard Basic Ordering Agreement (BOA). “Donjon is pleased to welcome Paul to the Donjon team and we look forward to his expertise and management experience to help bolster our marine salvage activities,” said John A. Witte, Jr., Executive Vice President, Donjon Marine Co., Inc. A native of Washington, DC, Mr.

13 Jul 2011

Captain Brendan Gray Appointed President of HMDS

Paul C. Jensen, CEO of HALO Maritime Defense Systems (HMDS), announced the appointment of Captain Brendan Gray USN (ret) as President. Gray, a graduate of the US Naval Academy, served with distinction for thirty years as a Naval Aviator, spending his last five years as the Deputy Commander and Chief Operating Officer for Navy Region Europe. Captain Gray was responsible for the day-to-day operations, security, and force protection of nine Navy bases across five countries in Europe, including the operation of seven ports and six airfields.

14 Jan 2011

Nat’l Commission Says: Jones Act No Hinderance to Spill Clean Up

The January 11, 2011 report from the non-partisan National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling confirmed the Jones Act did not prevent foreign vessels from assisting with the clean-up effort during the Deep Water Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico last year. “Deep Water: The Gulf Oil Disaster and the Future of Offshore Drilling” was prepared by the independent entity at the request of President Barack Obama. “While decision makers did decline to purchase some foreign equipment for operational reasons ‒ for example, Dutch vessels that would have taken weeks to outfit and sail to the region, and a Taiwanese super-skimmer that was expensive and highly inefficient in the Gulf ‒ they did not reject foreign ships because of Jones Act restrictions…

04 Oct 2010

Admiral Thad Allen Join RAND as Senior Fellow

Adm. Thad W. Allen announced that after completing his service as national incident commander of the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, he will join the RAND Corporation as a senior fellow, effective Oct. “Thad Allen has served the U.S. government and U.S. Coast Guard with great distinction,” said RAND President and CEO James A. Thomson. “We are delighted he will continue to take on the most difficult policy challenges as a RAND senior fellow. Allen was scheduled to join RAND in May 2010, shortly after he retired as commandant of the U.S. Coast Guard. But his transition was delayed when he was asked by President Obama to manage the oil spill emergency response and clean-up, for which his leadership has been widely praised.

21 Sep 2010

Bottom Kill of Macondo Well Completed

Roughnecks maneuver a section of drill collar into position on the drilling floor of Development Driller III, which drilled the relief well and pumped the cement to seal the Macondo well off the southern coast of Louisiana on Saturday, September 18, 2010. U.S. Coast Guard photo by Petty Officer 1st Class Thomas McKenzie

The National Incident Command (NIC) stated that the cementing of the Macondo 252 well from the bottom, through the recently completed relief well, has been successful. The so-called “bottom kill” was declared final after completion of pressure tests. The NIC remains committed to continue aggressive efforts to clean up the oil that was discharged from the well and has not yet dissipated or been recovered. (Source: Bryant’s Maritime News)

20 Sep 2010

Admiral Allen Statement on Completion of Relief Well

"After months of extensive operations planning and execution under the direction and authority of the U.S. government science and engineering teams, BP has successfully completed the relief well by intersecting and cementing the well nearly 18,000 feet below the surface. With this development, which has been confirmed by the Department of the Interior's Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, we can finally announce that the Macondo 252 well is effectively dead. Additional regulatory steps will be undertaken but we can now state, definitively, that the Macondo well poses no continuing threat to the Gulf of Mexico. From the beginning, this response has been driven by the best science and engineering available.

17 Sep 2010

Statement on Macondo Relief Well Intercept

"I have received extensive briefings over the last 24 hours regarding the final effort to intercept the Macondo well. Through a combination of sensors embedded in the drilling equipment and sophisticated instrumentation that is capable of sensing distance to the well casing, BP engineers and the federal science team have concluded that the Development Driller III relief well has intersected the Macondo well. This determination was made based on a loss of drilling fluids that indicated communication had been established beyond the relief well, the pressure exerted against the drill bit as it came in contact with the well casing and, finally, an increase in pressure in the choke line of the Macondo well blow out preventer.

07 Sep 2010

Damaged Blow Out Preventer Removed

Photo by Petty Officer 1st Class Thomas Blue, U.S. Coast Guard

National Incident Commander Admiral Thad Allen, said Sept. 4, 2010, "The damaged Blow Out Preventer (BOP), along with the Lower Marine Riser Package (LMRP) Cap, have been removed from the Gulf of Mexico and are currently on board the Q4000. The BOP is considered evidentiary material, and is now under the supervision of the Deepwater Horizon Criminal Investigation Team and FBI Evidence Recovery Team."

05 Aug 2010

Statement by NIC Admiral Thad Allen

Admiral Thad Allen, National Incident Commander, made the following statement on August 4: "Based on the successful completion of the static kill procedure and a positive evaluation of the test results, I have authorized BP to cement its damaged well. I made it clear that implementation of this procedure shall in no way delay the completion of the relief well."

04 Aug 2010

Adm. Allen Reports on Static Kill Ops

Personnel aboard the Q4000 proceed with a static kill by conducting pressure tests prior to starting the flow of mud through the temporary cap into the well Aug. 3, 2010. The Q4000 is maintianing station within one meter of its current position to facilitate the operations over 5,000 feet below. U.S. Coast Guard photo by Petty Officer 1st Class Sara Francis.

On August 3, National Incident Commander Admiral Thad Allen provided a briefing to inform the American public and answer questions on the administration-wide response to the BP oil spill. Admiral Allen reported on preparations for the static diagnostics test, or “static kill,” which BP has since conducted. While the static diagnostics test will provide more information about well integrity and improves the probability of success for the relief well, Allen stressed the importance of the relief well to ultimately kill the well.

16 Jun 2010

NIC Interactive Map of Spill Response

The National Incident Command (NIC) has developed an Interactive Map of the response to the Gulf of Mexico oil spill. It provides near-real time data on trajectory estimates for the oil slick and locations of deployed research vessels, oiled shorelines, wildlife data, and fishery area closures. View the map at: http://www.geoplatform.gov/gulfresponse/ (Source: Bryant’s Maritime News)

17 Jun 2010

New Improved Estimate of Oil Spill Flow Rate

Based on updated information and scientific assessments, Secretary of Energy Steven Chu, Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar, and Chair of the National Incident Command’s Flow Rate Technical Group (FRTG) Dr. Marcia McNutt (Director of the U.S. Geological Survey) today announced an improved estimate of how much oil is flowing from the leaking BP well. Secretary Chu, Secretary Salazar, and Dr. McNutt convened a group of federal and independent scientists on Monday to discuss new analyses and data points obtained over the weekend to produce updated flow rate estimates. Working together, U.S. government and independent scientists estimate that the most likely flow rate of oil today is between 35,000 and 60,000 barrels per day.

24 Jun 2010

NIC: Jones Act Has Not Interfered with Spill Cleanup

“Currently 15 foreign-flagged vessels are involved in the largest response to an oil spill in U.S. history. No Jones Act waivers have been granted because none of these vessels have required such a waiver to conduct their operations as part of the response in the Gulf of Mexico. “While we have not seen any need to waive the Jones Act as part of this historic response, we continue to prepare for all possible scenarios, and that's why Admiral Allen provided guidance to process necessary waivers as quickly as possible to allow vital spill response activities being undertaken by foreign-flagged vessels to continue without delay should that be necessary.

28 Jun 2010

Task Force Opposes Repeal of Jones Act

The Maritime Cabotage Task Force stated that it opposes legislation to repeal the Jones Act, saying that all the McCain bill would do is put more Americans out of work. “The McCain bill proposes to eliminate the very American industry that is helping to clean up the spill - an industry that supports 500,000 U.S. jobs - and outsource that work to foreign workers and foreign companies registered in nations like Liberia and the Marshall Islands that operate outside of American law. Using a spill caused by foreign companies as a pretext to bring in more foreign companies is a backward approach. It makes as much sense as replacing the American workers currently cleaning up the Gulf beaches with foreign companies and foreign workers.

14 Jul 2010

MCTF: False Jones Act Criticism Distracts from Clean-up

The Maritime Cabotage Task Force (MCTF) said that recent Jones Act criticism is false and is only distracting from the job of cleaning up the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. Responding to these misleading and inaccurate claims, those leading and coordinating the response as well as independent news organizations have said that the Jones Act is not preventing or delaying foreign vessels’ ability to assist with cleaning the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. The Jones Act mandates the use of American vessels and American workers in U.S. domestic maritime trade. However, it does not impede foreign oil skimmers, which are already being used in the clean-up effort. Retired U.S.