Security Levels
USCGC NORTHLAND COMMAND
PHILOSOPHY
I consider
it an honor and a privilege to serve with you as your Commanding Officer.
The following basic principles will help you understand my priorities
and guide you in making day to day decisions:
Our Standard:
The standard for NORTHLAND is excellence.
This means striving to do everything we do the right way, the first
time. Remember that it takes
less time to do something right than it does to do it over.
I will accept honest mistakes from a person trying to do the right
thing. (Let’s try to learn from
the mistakes of others … it’s not necessary to do all our learning by making
mistakes!) Every crewmember
doing his best will have my complete backing and respect.
Doing the right thing:
This is a reflection of your personal integrity and honor.
This principle applies “24 and 7”, on duty and off.
Become both a mentor and a mentee, set a positive example for those
who work for and with you. Help
your shipmate make the right decision when you see him or her in a difficult
situation. Drug and alcohol
abuse brings discredit to you, the cutter and the Coast Guard and I will
hold you accountable for your choice to violate our policies.
Taking care of one another:
I am interested in the personal well being of each individual and
family assigned to NORTHLAND from the moment they receive orders to
NORTHLAND, I expect you to feel
the same way. We must treat each
other with the mutual respect and courtesy with which you want others to
treat you (the Golden Rule is alive and well on NORTHLAND).
Training:
To be ALWAYS READY we must ensure that we are trained and competent.
We will train so our actions are correct and second nature when
required to perform under stressful situations.
Don’t forget to develop yourself and your subordinates as
professionals and leaders.
Safety:
Real learning very rarely happens in a sterile and safe environment,
safety should always be in the
forefront of our minds. Do not
become paranoid about it, but do not take unnecessary chances.
When in doubt, think to yourself “How would this look on a
mishap report?”
Communications:
No one has all the answers, to be successful as a team we must be
comfortable passing information up, down, and across the chain of command.
Bad news does not get better with age and I would rather get it out
there and deal with it as early as possible.
My
ultimate goal is to prepare each of you to become the future leaders of the
Coast Guard and for the leadership challenges that you are going to face.
I will empower you to the level of your abilities and provide
opportunities to weigh risks, exercise independent judgment, and make
time-critical decisions. A
measure of that success will be that NORTHLAND continues to run effectively
when I am not present.
D.
V. SHEPARDSON