Cmdr. Matthew Kolodica is now the commanding officer of U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Alert and its crew following a change of command ceremony earlier this month.
Kolodica takes the 210-foot medium endurance cutter from Cmdr. Tyson Scofield, who will report to the Eisenhower School of National Security and Resource Strategy in Washington, D.C.
“It has been a privilege to lead the Alert crew over the last two years,” said Scofield. “Despite the challenges of the COVID pandemic, maintenance on a 52-year-old cutter, or the stormy conditions of the Pacific Northwest, this crew continuously rose to occasion to safely and successfully execute our missions.”
The change of command ceremony took place outside of the Columbia River Maritime Museum in Astoria, Oregon, where Alert is homeported. Presiding over the ceremony was Rear Admiral Peter Gautier, deputy commander of the U.S. Coast Guard Pacific Area.
Cutter Alert, which was commissioned in 1969, has been part of a number of search and rescue and counter-drug missions, as well as law enforcement of marine-related legislation. Crew members regularly patrol the Maritime Boundary Line in the North Pacific between the U.S. and Russia and the Eastern Pacific Ocean.