Capt. Bill Peterson sees his duty as meeting every one of his staff members’ needs, from housing to services to personal well-being.
As commanding officer of U.S. Coast Guard Group/Air Station Port Angeles, Peterson oversees the approximately 275 men and women who patrol the waterways of the Pacific Ocean and Strait of Juan de Fuca off the North Olympic Peninsula.
The command stretches from LaPush on the west to Port Townsend on the east, and recently has grown to include a cutter in Bellingham.
But the skipper, who stoops to pick up the occasional empty pop can or paper cup discarded on the grounds of the Ediz Hook base, runs his ship with a responsibility to every individual in the unit.
“My job, the way I see it, is to work for them,” Peterson said in an interview.
That philosophy has been reflected in his tenure as commanding officer of Port Angeles for the past two years as Peterson has maneuvered through nationwide Coast Guard changes since Sept. 11, 2001, and forced the Port Angeles community to confront discrimination on a much smaller scale.
On Wednesday, Peterson will formally hand over the command to Capt. Mark D’Andrea, most recently executive officer at Air Station Clearwater, Fla., while Peterson moves on to Washington, D.C., as head of Coast Guard aviation.
Following two years in that post, he will take a mandatory retirement from the Coast Guard with 30 years as an officer and 34 years of service.
“I hate to go, I really do,” Peterson, 49, said. “It was a dream to come here.”
