[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 81 (Tuesday, June 2, 2009)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1278-E1279]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




    HONORING THE CAREER AND ACCOMPLISHMENTS OF REAR ADMIRAL JOEL R. 
                  WHITEHEAD, UNITED STATES COAST GUARD

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. HOWARD COBLE

                           of north carolina

                    in the house of representatives

                         Tuesday, June 2, 2009

  Mr. COBLE. Madam Speaker, I take this occasion to honor Rear Admiral 
Joel Whitehead of the United States Coast Guard for his service to the 
United States Congress and for his 38 years of service to our country.
  Admiral Whitehead presently serves as the Commander of the Eighth 
Coast Guard District in New Orleans where he is responsible for Coast 
Guard operations in 26 states, over 1,200 miles of Gulf of Mexico 
coastline and 10,300 miles of inland waterways including the entire 
lengths of the Mississippi, Ohio, Missouri, Illinois, and Tennessee 
River systems. As commander of the largest Coast Guard District, 
Admiral Whitehead leads over 9,000 active duty, reservists, civilian 
members and Coast Guard Auxiliary volunteers. From 2003 to 2005, then 
Captain Whitehead served as Chief of Congressional Affairs and as 
Acting Assistant Commandant for Governmental and Public Affairs. I am 
proud to have had the opportunity to work closely with him during this 
time. My staff and I have often relied on Admiral Whitehead's knowledge 
and understanding of the missions, challenges and responsibilities of 
the United States Coast Guard to help me in my leadership roles on the 
Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation Subcommittee and in numerous 
other venues where his great depth of experience was invaluable.
  Admiral Whitehead comes from a distinguished military family that has 
served this nation since before the American Revolution. His oldest 
known ancestor, Isaac Whitehead, served in the militia of the New Haven 
Colony in Connecticut as early as 1643. The Whitehead family moved 
westward in 1666 to become founders of the Elizabethtown, New Jersey 
Colony and again to Morristown, New Jersey where Onesimus Whitehead was 
a member of the New Jersey militia when George Washington encamped in 
Morristown the winter of 1779-80 and endured a winter as severe as that 
at Valley Forge where thousands died. His family having been awarded 
land for their service in the Revolutionary War, Isaac Whitehead IV 
moved to the Finger Lakes of New York about 1700 where the Whitehead 
family remained until they again traveled westward in 1826 after the 
opening of the Erie Canal. The Whitehead family remained in Ohio until 
the outbreak of World War II when Admiral Whitehead's father James 
entered the Army and served over 20 years, retiring as a Lieutenant 
Colonel. In 1968 Admiral Whitehead's brother Scott also answered the 
call to serve his Nation, joining the United States Marine Corps while 
in college and recently retiring as a Colonel in the Marine Corps 
Reserve.
  Admiral Whitehead has served at sea and ashore in a variety of 
operational and policy tours during his career. A native of Newport 
News, Virginia, he graduated from Walsingham Academy in Williamsburg, 
Virginia. He began his military career at the United States Coast Guard 
Academy in New London, Connecticut in 1971, where he was

[[Page E1279]]

elected Class President and served as a Regimental Commander in the 
year of his graduation in 1975. Ensign Whitehead first trained new 
Cadets of the Class of 1979 as a Summer Ensign at the Coast Guard 
Academy. He then went to Governor's Island, New York, to serving two 
years aboard the cutter MORGENTHAU as Anti-Submarine Officer, Weapons 
Officer and Deck Watch Officer. He later served as Executive Officer of 
Marine Safety Office, Albany, New York. There, for the first, but not 
last time in his career, he led the Coast Guard's response to an 
environmental crisis when he was second in command during the first 
``Superfund'' cleanup in the nation's history.
  After earning a Master's Degree in Public Administration at the State 
University of New York at Albany, Lieutenant Commander Whitehead and 
his family accepted their first tour in Washington, D.C., where they 
spent some 12 years during his career. There, he helped negotiate the 
worldwide implementation of international MARPOL Treaty at the 
International Maritime Organization in London and subsequently wrote 
the U.S. federal regulations to enforce them in the United States. When 
the EXXON VALDEZ disaster occurred in 1989, Lieutenant Commander 
Whitehead was assigned for two weeks to assist the Admiral in charge of 
the cleanup. He ultimately stayed for almost a year as an adviser to 
the Federal On-Scene Coordinator and later wrote the federal report 
detailing the government's response and recommendations that came from 
the lessons learned from this historic event. Following the EXXON 
VALDEZ response in Alaska, Lieutenant Commander Whitehead returned to 
Washington, D.C., to assist in implementing the newly passed Oil 
Pollution Act of 1990 and later served as a Program Reviewer for the 
Coast Guard's budget where he was responsible for program oversight and 
development for almost one-third of the Coast Guard's operating budget. 
He also led the Coast Guard's efforts with the new presidential 
administration's transition team in 1992.
  Again in the field from 1993 to 1996, Commander Whitehead was 
assigned as Deputy Group Commander of Group Woods Hole, Massachusetts, 
where his group responded to more than 4,000 law enforcement boardings 
and 5,400 search and rescue cases resulting in over 450 lives saved. In 
1996, Commander Whitehead was selected to study for a year with 17 
select military officers as a National Security Fellow at Harvard 
University's John F. Kennedy School of Government. From that elite 
educational experience he again found himself in Washington working for 
the Commandant of the Coast Guard as the Chief of Strategic Planning 
for the U.S. Coast Guard. There his team developed the Coast Guard's 
strategic vision, Coast Guard 2020 and pioneered a scenario-based 
planning process to develop long-range strategies to plot the Coast 
Guard's future.
  It was not long afterward that Captain Whitehead was in command in 
Boston as Commanding Officer of Marine Safety Office Boston. There he 
managed the explosive growth of Liquefied Natural Gas transits through 
the port, Sail Boston 2000 and led the federal response to the largest 
oil spill in Boston's history: the 2000 Tank Vessel POSAVINA spill, 
which put over 59,000 gallons of fuel oil in the harbor. Under his 
leadership the Coast Guard collected an unprecedented 89% of the oil 
from that near-pristine waterway that had just undergone a $4 billion, 
10-year water quality improvement project.
  In 2001, Captain Whitehead was transferred early to begin his close 
association with the Gulf of Mexico when he was selected as Chief of 
Staff of the Eighth Coast Guard District. There he managed the day-to-
day operations of a 200 person staff and 9,000 Coast Guard men and 
women located at sub-units throughout the heartland of America and the 
Gulf of Mexico. He was there only a few months when the attacks of 9/11 
occurred and, as acting District Commander, he personally led the 
federal maritime homeland security response on the inland waterways, 
Gulf of Mexico ports and offshore oil and gas fields. Recalling over 
800 Reservists to protect the Nation's busiest ports and the energy 
gateway to America, he reorganized the District staff to include the 
first Homeland Security staff element in the Coast Guard.
  Returning to Washington in 2003, Captain Whitehead assumed the reigns 
of the Coast Guard's relations with Capitol Hill as the Chief of 
Congressional Affairs. There he managed some 25 young Coast Guard men 
and women at DOT Headquarters, in the House of Representatives and the 
Senate, and organized over 100 Congressional and staff delegation 
visits to the field. It was there I met Captain Whitehead as he worked 
the many policy and budget issues including the growing Deepwater 
acquisition project, homeland security and port security issues.
  While Chief of Congressional Affairs, he was promoted to Rear Admiral 
in 2004 and officially became the Assistant Commandant for Governmental 
and Public Affairs. As the heartrending events of Hurricanes KATRINA 
and RITA unfolded in 2005, Admiral Whitehead ably represented the Coast 
Guard in Washington as a national spokesman alongside the Secretary of 
Homeland Security and provided numerous briefings to Members of 
Congress and Congressional committee staffs. In addition, he 
orchestrated an extraordinary and expansive media effort documenting 
the Coast Guard's historic response to that natural tragedy.
  In 2006, Admiral Whitehead volunteered to return to New Orleans, this 
time to lead the Eighth Coast Guard District. Faced with the rebuilding 
of many Coast Guard facilities destroyed or damaged during the 
hurricanes, he prepared the staff for more hurricanes and tropical 
storms, as well as the ubiquitous flooding from the inland river 
system. During his tenure, the Coast Guard responded flawlessly to over 
8,100 search and rescue cases. Then in 2008, during the fifth most 
active weather year since 1944, Admiral Whitehead led his Eighth 
District team through Tropical Storms EDOUARD, FAY and HANNAH, as well 
as Hurricanes DOLLY, GUSTAV and IKE in which 220 people were saved. In 
the largest oil spill in many years in New Orleans when the motor 
vessel TINTOMARA and the tug MEL OLIVER collided on the Mississippi 
river, Sector New Orleans and the Eighth District responded immediately 
and effectively, partially opening the port to traffic within days and 
fully opening it within two weeks to prevent a multi-billion dollar 
economic loss. The Midwest floods of Iowa and Missouri in 2008 also set 
records, only to be surpassed in 2009 by the flooding of the Red River 
of the North in which the Coast Guard rescued by helicopter and small 
boats over 105 people.
  Admiral Whitehead has earned numerous military decorations during his 
years of active duty, including the Legion of Merit, the Meritorious 
Service Medal, the Coast Guard Commendation medal, the 9/11 medal, as 
well as numerous unit commendations and team awards. He has also 
received a number of other honors, including being named the 
Distinguished Alumnus in Public Administration & Policy for 2007 at the 
State University of New York at Albany. He is also an Honorary Master 
Chief Petty Officer of the Coast Guard, a recognition which the Admiral 
is most proud of. Over the years, Admiral Whitehead has also been able 
to serve his alma maters as a Director of the U.S. Coast Guard Academy 
Alumni Association and from 1999-2003 as a member and Chairman of the 
Alumni Executive Council at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at 
Harvard University, which represents more than 20,000 alumni in 120 
nations.
  This week, Admiral Whitehead will leave his post in New Orleans and 
retire after 38 years of honorable service to the Coast Guard and the 
Nation. He will be missed as a military congressional affairs alumnus 
in the United States House of Representatives and Senate. It has been 
my pleasure to work with Admiral Whitehead over the years. On behalf of 
all who have also been able to work with him, we wish Admiral 
Whitehead, his wife Martha, whom I have had the pleasure of knowing for 
many years, and his two wonderful daughters Christine, a medical 
student at the Virginia College of Osteopathic Medicine in Blacksburg, 
Virginia and Katherine, a fine art photography major who will graduate 
this year from the Corcoran College of Art and Design here in 
Washington, the best in their future endeavors.

                          ____________________