Hold fast: reservist celebrates four decades of service Story by Anastasia Devlin, Reservist Magazine Many service members worry about getting in their 20 years of service in order to collect a retirement check, but Capt. John R. Settle has now served enough years to have earned his pension twice over. Settle recently completed his 40th year of service to the Coast Guard, making him the longest-serving drilling reservist still in uniform. He’s been on active duty for the last few years, most recently serving as a project officer with the fast response cutter transition at Coast Guard Atlantic Area in Portsmouth, Virginia. As the son of a World War II veteran, Settle knew his would be a life of service. He may not have realized just how much, however. Not only has Settle dedicated four decades to the Coast Guard, but he’s also given three more to the state of Virginia, where he’s served in various departments of the state’s government. He joined the Coast Guard 1982 as a reservist “for pocket change” while he was making his way through college, but as the need for reservists grew in the late ‘80s and early ‘90s, he found himself able to contribute more and more. As a boatswain’s mate and coxswain stationed at Coast Guard units along the Virginia coast, he loved running search and rescue cases, but in 1995, he made the transition to the officer corps. He’s slated to hang up his uniform toward the end of this year, but not before passing on a few sea stories and words of advice. Q. What was your favorite part of being in the Coast Guard? A. Being a search and rescue coxswain is what prolonged my enlisted tenure. I didn’t want to give it up, because I really enjoyed what I was doing. Not strictly because of personal enjoyment, but also because of the responsibility that the Coast Guard entrusted me with, the seriousness of it. There were several times when we had to rescue people whose boats were overturned or sinking, but one time we had to rescue a general from Fort Eustis whose boat was taking on water. When we found him around 2 a.m. or so, all that training came together and it was an accomplishment; it was pretty memorable. When you physically touch someone’s hand and pull them on board, and they’ve been in the Chesapeake Bay for three or four hours, it’s pretty special. Q. What’s the best change you’ve seen in the Coast Guard? A. The integration of reservists to relieve full-time, active-duty personnel has been the most immense change that I’ve encountered. This serves two crucial purposes- it allows for active-duty Coast Guard members to spend much-needed time with their loved ones, while also engaging and reengaging reservists in active-duty roles on a limited basis. The development of this system was so masterful that it is now seamless. At any given station, it is impossible to easily discern reservists from active-duty service members. I first noticed this integration in the mid-1990s when reservists began to report at Reserve Unit York River (now Training Center Yorktown). Since this time, Sector Virginia has noticeably augmented the number of reservists who have been integrated and has assigned an increasing volume of duties and responsibilities. Q. What has stayed the same over the last 40 years? A. The honor and privilege of serving in the Coast Guard. It was initially my intention to follow in my father’s footsteps and enlist in the Air Force. However, when I was an adolescent, I would overhear my father’s conversations with his fellow servicemen, where they all had nothing but the highest regard for the Coast Guard. By the time I was old enough to enlist, it was my father who first convinced me to consider the Coast Guard. Although he and his fellow servicemen have all passed on, I encounter the same overheard conversations concerning the Coast Guard in the present day. The reputation of the Coast Guard is just as stellar today as it was in 1982. Q. Why did you continue to serve? A. Because there continues to be a need. My desire to serve my country and fellow service members remains my primary source of inspiration. This desire is sustained in large part by the pleasure I Capt. John R. Settle recently completed his 40th year of service to the Coast Guard, making him the longest-serving drilling reservist still in uniform. take in satisfying a need. When I completed thirty years of service to the Coast Guard, someone asked me how long I intended to stay in. My answer was, “As long as I am needed!” Q. What are your four pillars for a successful Coast Guard career? A. A Coast Guard member must welcome mentorship, advance kindness, practice flexibility, and embrace change. First, at all stages of a Coast Guard career, mentors are present in the form of higher-level and senior personnel. The advice can prove indispensable, but (depending on the circumstances) it can also be difficult to digest. Once you have been provided with valuable guidance, it is selfish to retain it for your sole benefit. By becoming a mentor to lower-level or junior personnel, you demonstrate an act of professional kindness that serves as a textbook example of “paying it forward.” Without flexibility, it is difficult to suggest that any professional undertaking would be fruitful. In the Coast Guard, it is not uncommon for assignments to completely rearrange your life. As frustrating as this may be, your ability to adapt and reinvent yourself will demonstrate your calmness and tactfulness to those around you. To this end, the mastery of flexibility bolsters your professional desirability and will eventually make you impervious to the woes of change. � Issue 3 • 2022 � RESERVIST 27
