eckplate Master Chief Petty Officer Tim Beard Master Chief Petty Officer of the Coast Guard Reserve In 2005, I didn’t realize it, but I’d just met some friends I was going to know my whole life. That was the year I went through the Coast Guard’s Chief Petty Officer Academy (CPOACAD). When I attended, I was a new chief and a seasoned police officer, and I was used to doing things on my own. I was proud to be a chief—the chiefs are a critical part of advancing the Coast Guard’s mission set; they encounter many challenges, and they shoulder heavy responsibility. But they don’t do it alone. And that’s what I started to learn at CPOACAD. The school’s mission is to transition new chiefs from the technical experts they are to the organizational leaders of the world’s best Coast Guard. In the past, Chiefs’ Academy was seen as something needed to advance to master chief. But our leaders are realizing the importance of attending early on in order to obtain the tools for success: professionalism, teamwork, leadership, and communication, among others. But as any chief who’s been through it will tell you, there’s also a networking piece that happens organically —the list of friends and experts you can call on when you hit a snag, whether it’s with policy, personnel or proficiency. The peer mentorship and team-building lays the groundwork, forging together new links in the backbone of the Service. For this reason, ensuring attendance at CPOACAD has been one of my goals during my tenure. As part of the commandant’s intent, and in alignment with the Reserve Component Action Plan, we’re focused on getting our leaders the training they need, right from the start. The first move was clearing the backlog of students that piled up due to the pandemic. I’m happy to report that the Leadership Development Center added another CPOACAD class for reservists this year—a huge win. We’ve also added CPOACAD as a position-based competency to all E7, E8 and E9 billets. In the past, people had gone years without getting to the Chiefs’ Academy due to conflicting qualification priorities or lack of funding. Now, don’t get me wrong—attendance doesn’t have to be in the first year; I realize our reservists have lives outside the Service, but they should be able to attend in the first three years of being a chief. That gives our new chiefs almost a dozen opportunities to get to class. We’re also now able to use Other Training Duty money to be able to maintain unit qualifications AND go to CPOA. Win-win. This is important; these are our first-level strategic leaders, and they affect so many of our junior personnel and new officers. When I attended CPOACAD Class 19, I made a lot of friends that I have to this day—Bill Princiotta, Rashaun Morris, and Janine Tshantz-Hahn, all gold badge master chiefs, were in that same class—and they were friends I could call on when I hit a wall on a problem. By the end of class, my fellow chiefs and I became more confident in our knowledge and leadership, and we all had a surer understanding of the Coast Guard. Our leaders are beginning to prioritize CPOACAD—in fact, I see attendance at the Chiefs’ Academy as having career implications down the road for advancement panels as we bring the senior chief advancement panel online a year or two from now. “Ask the chief” isn’t just a motto; it’s a fact of life at every ship, sector, air station and training center. When you become a chief, people look up to you for the answers and advice on how to get the job done and done right the first time—regardless of how junior you may be. In a small, powerful Service, we need each of those links to be in top form, and that starts at the CPOACAD. Semper Paratus. Deckplate Sounding WINTER 2024 — 3
