By Geoff Fein
Former Coast Guard Commandant Adm. Thad Allen officially retired yesterday from the service he led though several changes including a review of the acquisition management structure.
Allen had been at the helm of the Coast Guard since spring 2006. He succeeded Commandant Adm. Thomas Collins, taking over several months after Hurricane Katrina ravaged the Gulf states. Allen had been put in charge of the federal response to the Gulf hurricanes (Defense Daily, March 13, 2006).
Allen was relieved by Adm. Robert Papp as commandant on May 25. Since then Allen has been the National Incident Commander of the BP [BP] oil spill, where he will remain for the time being, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said yesterday in a statement.
“Throughout his career, our nation has turned to Thad Allen for leadership at times of great crisis, and this is one of those times. Thad Allen has provided excellent leadership as the national commander of our massive response to the largest environmental disaster in our nation’s history, and he will continue to leverage his decades of experience in civilian duty as the National Incident Commander for this spill,” she said.
During his tenure at the Coast Guard, Allen led a review to make sure the command and control, logistics and maintenance systems “optimally” support the Coast Guard’s field operations (Defense Daily, March 13, 2006).
Besides his efforts in the Gulf in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and the recent BP oil spill, Allen may best be known for his decision to sever the Coast Guard’s ties with the Integrated Coast Guard Systems, a Lockheed Martin [LMT] and Northrop Grumman [NOC] joint venture to recapitalize the Deepwater effort (Defense Daily, April 18, 2007). That decision put the Coast Guard in charge of acquisition of future ships, aircraft, and command, control, computers, communications and intelligence systems.