[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 155 (2009), Part 13]
[Senate]
[Page 17541]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                 COMMENDING CAPTAIN B. HARL ROMINE JR.

  Mrs. HUTCHISON. Mr. President, on behalf of myself and Senators 
Snowe, Ensign, DeMint, Thune, Wicker, Isakson, Vitter, Brownback, 
Martinez, and Johanns, we would like to thank Captain Harl Romine for 
his service to the Nation and the U.S. Coast Guard.
  Captain Romine has a long and distinguished career with the Coast 
Guard. From his enrollment in the U.S. Coast Guard Academy though his 
retirement later this month, Captain Romine has spent the better part 
of the last three decades serving his countrymen and protecting our 
Nation in the U.S. Coast Guard. During his service in the Coast Guard 
Captain Romine has exhibited the best characteristics of a Coast Guard 
officer: a deep dedication to duty, unsurpassed professionalism, 
superior technical and operational expertise, and compassion as a 
pilot, leader, mentor, and friend.
  Captain Romine has a distinguished career that is worthy of 
recognition by this Senate. Harl Romine--the son of a career Coast 
Guard officer--attended high school in Chantilly, VA, and graduated 
from the U.S. Coast Guard Academy in 1985 with a bachelor of science 
degree in government. Immediately following graduation he joined the 
fleet and served as a deck watch officer, law enforcement boarding 
officer, and weapons officer aboard the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter 
CHEROKEE. Upon completing his tour on the CHEROKEE, Captain Romine 
attended Navy Flight School to begin his career as a Coast Guard 
aviator a role in which he would truly distinguish himself. Upon 
receiving his ``wings of gold'' at flight school in Pensacola, Captain 
Romine began a career of service that would take him from the warm 
waters of the Gulf of Mexico to frigid seas of the Gulf of Alaska.
  His first aviation assignment was to the Coast Guard's largest and 
busiest air station--Air Station Clearwater, FL, where he served as a 
duty standing pilot in the HH-3F ``Pelican'' helicopter performing a 
wide range of missions in the Atlantic and Caribbean regions, including 
Search and Rescue and drug enforcement operations.
  In 1991 he was assigned to Air Station Kodiak where he continued to 
fly the HH-3F and then transitioned to the HH-60J ``Jayhawk.'' Four 
years later, he was transferred to Coast Guard Group Astoria, OR, where 
he served as the administration officer, supervising the administrative 
and personnel support for over 300 Coast Guard personnel.
  In 1998, Captain Romine was assigned as the HH-60J standardization 
branch chief at the Coast Guard's Aviation Training Center in Mobile, 
AL. The young pilots trained under the tutelage of Captain Romine were 
a large part of the impressive Coast Guard Team that performed so 
heroically in the aftermath of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.
  In 2001, Captain Romine qualified in the HC-130H ``Hercules'' and 
returned to Kodiak, AK, where he served as the operations officer for 
Coast Guard Air Station Kodiak. During this tour he maintained a 
qualification in both the HH-60J ``Jayhawk'' and the HC-130 
``Hercules'' airframes and has the unique distinction of standing duty 
in both airframes during the same week and successfully executing a 
search and rescue case in both airframes during that week.
  In 2004, Captain Romine received the ultimate honor and demonstration 
of the Coast Guard's trust in his abilities, when he received orders to 
serve as the commanding officer of Coast Guard Air Station Sitka, AK.
  At the heart of his career of distinguished service is commitment to 
rescuing those in distress. Over his career Captain Romine has 
personally flown, coordinated or supervised over 800 search and rescue 
cases resulting in over 600 lives saved. When Americans watch with 
pride as an orange helicopter plucks shipwrecked mariners from an icy 
sea or pulls stranded men and women off of roof tops in a flooded city, 
they should all know that it is men and women like Harl Romine who are 
piloting the aircraft risking their lives to save someone else's.
  Captain Romine's service has not gone unrecognized by his commanders. 
For his distinguished and heroic service, he has been awarded the 
Meritorious Service Medal, the Air Medal, four Coast Guard Commendation 
Medals and three Coast Guard Achievement Medals.
  Finally, for the last 3 years, Captain Romine has distinguished 
himself while serving as a Coast Guard fellow on the Senate Commerce 
Committee's Oceans, Atmosphere, Fisheries and Coast Guard Subcommittee. 
With the same technical expertise and devotion to duty demonstrated 
throughout his career as an aviator, Captain Romine earned the respect 
of all who have worked with him and has been an invaluable member of 
the Commerce Committee staff and will be sorely missed.
  On July 17, Captain Romine will be retiring from the Coast Guard and 
will be bringing his impressive and distinguished career in the Coast 
Guard to an end. We would be remiss if we did not thank his family for 
``loaning'' Harl to the Coast Guard for so many years. Life in the 
Coast Guard places great stress on families as well as servicemen. We 
want to thank Harl's wife Laura, and his sons Hank, Carson, and Sonny 
for all the sacrifices they have made.
  Throughout his service to our Nation, whether standing the watch, 
teaching the next generation of pilots who now stand the watch, or 
commanding those who protected our Nation's mariners, Captain Romine 
has upheld the highest traditions of the Coast Guard. We would like to 
take this opportunity to personally commend Captain Romine for his 
service to our Nation, the Coast Guard and the Senate and thank him for 
all he has done in service to his country.

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