PORT ANGELES — With an orange helicopter to the rear and his staff standing ready in front of him, Coast Guard Capt. William Peterson bid farewell to Group/Air Station Port Angeles on Wednesday.
“Everyone assigned to this unit has worked with passion and integrity,” said the group commanding officer, his voice wavering, as he looked at the men and women dressed in blue uniform.
“You’ve just done an awesome job.”
The formal change of command ceremony inside a sparklingly clean hangar at the Coast Guard’s Ediz Hook base marked the departure of Peterson — who ends his three-year tenure as commanding officer to head the guard’s Office of Aviation Forces in Washington, D.C. — and the arrival of Capt. Mark D’Andrea, who most recently was executive officer at the Coast Guard’s largest air station, in Clearwater, Fla.
D’Andrea now leads the approximately 275 men and women on staff at the group’s air station, three small boat stations and five cutters spread from LaPush to Bellingham.
“Admiral, things are outstanding in Group Port Angeles,” D’Andrea said to Rear Adm. Jeffrey Garrett, commander of Coast Guard District 13.
