Thad Allen bequeaths a new tradition

Admiral Thad Allen, the commandant of the US Coast Guard, was made available to the media on the last morning of this year’s CMA conference, ostensibly to talk about the success of the Long Range Identification and Tracking System and provide an update on the Haiti response.

However, this was to be one of Admiral Allen’s last set-piece encounters with the fourth estate, as he approaches retirement on May 25 after completing his four-year term. So assembled reporters mixed bread-and-butter questions equally with those of the valedictory sort.

Admiral Allen fielded the first variety of questions capably, particularly while talking about the federal agency’s budget dilemma. In his State of the Coast Guard address at the National Press Club in Washington last month, he supported the budget cuts imposed on the agency. But this support had a catch.

The Admiral said the USCG was accepting a scaling back of its day-to-day operations only at the price of being allowed to continue overhauling its ageing fleet. Without state-of-the-art equipment, the agency would end up as a “hollow force”, he said.

The speech appeared to have become available in advance to a major national newspaper in the US capital, whose report appeared just before it was delivered. Intentional or not, this apparent “leak” only added to Admiral Allen’s finesse that day.

Lloyd’s List has had a similar experience. In February 2008, Admiral Allen shared with this newspaper the announcements he was going to make about the USCG modernisation in that year’s State of the Coast Guard at the NPC, on condition that they remained embargoed until the morning of the speech.

According to some observers, the modernisation that started on Admiral Allen’s watch is the biggest internal overhaul at the federal agency in half a century.

The fact that such big announcements appeared in newspapers simultaneously with the speeches testifies, perhaps, to Admiral Allen’s “modern” way of functioning. That no one got into trouble for such “mishaps” speaks to his consummate diplomatic skills.

Truly, Admiral Allen is one of the most unconventional commandants to lead the USCG.

These thoughts flashed through the mind as the Admiral in Stamford this week fielded questions about his “legacy”.

Typically, he replied that talk of a “legacy” in only four years is meaningless, in an organisation with a much larger life cycle.

We are inclined to believe this is not so. Admiral Allen came to head the USCG in May 2006 at a time when the agency was riding high, thanks to its rescue efforts in the hurricanes that struck the US Gulf in the summer of 2005. He was the leader of that effort. As the public face of the USCG in the months after the hurricane, he became known for calmly powerful media appearances, which were stacked up against fumbling, bickering or bombastic politicians; or bumbling federal agencies.

Admiral Allen’s work on the agency’s modernisation has been similarly energetic and confident. He may depart claiming the modernisation had germinated as an idea before his arrival, and would have a life of its own after he is gone.

But the incoming commandant, the extremely capable Admiral Robert Papp, indeed has massive boots to fill.