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The adm. Linda Fagan was sworn in Wednesday by President Biden as the 27th commander of the U.S. Coast Guard, becoming the first woman to lead the service.
With her appointment, Fagan also becomes the first female head of service in U.S. history.
At a change of command ceremony at the U.S. Coast Guard headquarters in Washington, Biden noted the historic nature of Fagan’s promotion.
“There is no one more qualified to lead the proud women and men of the Coast Guard, and she will also be the first woman to serve as the commander of the Coast Guard, the first woman to lead any branch of the United States Armed Forces. “. said Biden. “And it was time.”
Fagan thanked his parents for “their courage in allowing me to begin this journey 41 years ago.”
“She was 16 years old. I announced my intention to attend the academy, full of righteousness as only a 16-year-old can be. And, like all good parents, they said, “Oh, he’ll get over it,” Fagan said, laughing in the crowd of about 1,800 uniformed Coast Guard members and guests.
“I didn’t,” he added.
Fagan, 58, succeeds adm. Karl L. Schultz, who is retiring.
Fagan was previously a deputy commander, a role he took on last summer. Her decades of Coast Guard service include a visit to the heavy icebreaker Polar Star, the only woman on board the ship, as well as chores on every continent. He is also the Coast Guard’s first antique gold trident, meaning he is the officer with the longest service record in the field of maritime security.
In his remarks on Wednesday, Fagan made a symbolic gesture with the adm. Owen W. Siler, the former Coast Guard commander who played a key role in integrating women into the service from the 1970s onwards. He told the crowd that the shoulders he wore, which showed the rank of an officer, were the same ones Siler wore while directing the service.
“If it weren’t for Owen Siler’s courage, I don’t think he would be here today,” Fagan said.
Biden’s Fagan nomination in April followed the president’s promise to diversify the government’s leadership ranks and administration. He noted Wednesday that Fagan joined the Coast Guard just five years after the first women graduated from the academy.
Women were 8 percent in the graduating class of the Fagan Coast Guard Academy in 1985, Biden said. By contrast, about 40 percent of the cadets in the current academy are women.
“We need to ensure that women have the opportunity to succeed and thrive throughout their careers, and that means providing support and resources so that women can compete fairly and fully to get promotions and make sure that women are not penalized in their careers for having children, “Biden said. dit. “It also means creating an environment where all members of the armed forces feel safe in the ranks, including in the face of sexual assault and harassment, where their contributions are respected.. ”
During an event last year for a local chapter of the Coast Guard Women’s Leadership Initiative, Fagan appeared with his daughter, Lt. Aileen Fagan, herself a 2016 graduate of the Academy. Coast Guard.
“That’s the point, it’s to have that representation,” Aileen Fagan said. “I’ve had it all my life, knowing that I could be successful in the Coast Guard because I saw that my mother was successful in the Coast Guard. I think we all want to be able to look up and down the chain, through positions, and to see people who look like us or think like us and be able to see that representation and know that we can do the same. “