New leader takes Coast Guard helm
Service heightens drug, immigration presence on seas.
WASHINGTON — Adm. Karl L. Schultz was named the 26th commandant of the Coast Guard on Friday, taking over a military service that is in the midst of a fleet modernization as it juggles homeland security priorities like intercepting drugs and migrants and responding to disasters.
Schultz’s change of command ceremony was held on the first day of the annual hurricane season.
“I envision our heading remaining generally steady,” Schultz said.
It was a compliment to his predecessor Adm. Paul F. Zukunft, who had directed the fleet-modernizing effort and steered the first budget increase in years to the Coast Guard, the 227-year-old military branch that is overseen by the Department of Homeland Security.
Schultz had commanded the Coast Guard’s Atlantic area and last year oversaw the fleet’s response to Hurricanes Irma, Maria and Harvey. The service rescued nearly 12,000 people along the East Coast and in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands during the deadly 2017 hurricane season.
Schultz had also previously served as director of operations for U.S. Southern Command, where he directed joint military operations in the Caribbean and Central and South America. The Coast Guard plays a crucial role in protecting the southwest border by intercepting drugs and migrants before they can reach the United States.
In 2017, the Coast Guard seized a record 455,000 pounds of cocaine, some by patrolling waters off the coasts of Colombia and Peru, worth over $7.2 billion wholesale. It also arrested more than 600 drug traffickers and captured nearly 3,500 people trying to enter the United States illegally.
President Donald Trump attended the ceremony and praised Schultz and the Coast Guard for “keeping drugs and criminals out of our country.”
“I have complete confidence that Karl will carry out his new mission with the talents and devotion that has characterized his entire career,” Trump said. The president also briefly boasted about a new Labor Department jobs report that showed record low unemployment.
A number of Cabinet members, including Vice President Mike Pence and Kirstjen Nielsen, the homeland security secretary, also attended the change of command ceremony.
Zukunft, the Coast Guard’s top official since 2014, called Schultz a “franchise player” and said he would be able to build on the recent successes of the service.
Zukunft had led the Coast Guard through a gradual modernization of its aging fleet of ships and its greater role in combating international drug trafficking. After years of cuts, the service received a budget increase.