The Coast Guard 14th District held a change of command ceremony bidding farewell to Rear Adm. Brian K. Penoyer and welcoming Rear Adm. Kevin E. Lunday at Coast Guard Base Honolulu on Thursday.
Vice Adm. Linda L. Fagan, commander, Coast Guard Pacific Area presided over the ceremony.
Lunday is arriving from Coast Guard Cyber Command where he served as commander, reporting to the commandant and a joint Service Cyber Component of U.S. Cyber Command. In that role, he directed the operation and aggressive defense of Coast Guard networks, the delivery of operational effects in and through cyberspace to enable Coast Guard operations in all domains, and directed activities in cyberspace to protect critical maritime infrastructure. During that time, he also served as the assistant commandant for C4IT, responsible for policy, management and oversight of Coast Guard C4IT operational, business, and infrastructure assets.
From 2014 to 2016, Lunday served as the director of Exercises and Training (J7), U.S. Cyber Command, where he was responsible for the joint training of the Cyber Mission Force and delivery of trained and ready cyberspace forces for the Department of Defense. Other prior assignments include commanding officer of Coast Guard Maritime Intelligence Fusion Center Atlantic and the executive assistant to the 24th Commandant. Lunday has served in a variety of operational, intelligence and legal assignments in the Coast Guard and joint community, including command afloat and ashore.
He is a distinguished graduate of the National War College with a Master of Science in national security strategy and a graduate of the Naval War College’s College of Command and Staff. He holds a Juris Doctor from George Washington University Law School and Bachelor of Science in marine engineering from the U.S. Coast Guard Academy.
Penoyer served as chief of staff in the 14th District from 2016 to 2018 before taking the interim helm as the district commander for all Coast Guard missions conducted in the central and south Pacific. He is a 2015 recipient of the Coast Guard’s Type I Incident Commander qualification, a native of Chicago, and a University of Chicago graduate.
Penoyer previously served as the commander of Sector Houston-Galveston, at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, and as the deputy chief of Coast Guard Congressional Affairs, where he led the Service’s nationwide congressional engagement strategy. He was the liaison in the office of the Deputy Secretary of Homeland Security during the Deepwater Horizon incident and also deployed in support of Hurricanes Katrina and Sandy. A specialist in coastal operations, Penoyer served at Sector Maryland/National Capital Region with responsibility for the Chesapeake Bay and at Sector Jacksonville, where he formulated and led the Coast Guard’s regional response to the events of Sept. 11, 2001. In other operational assignments, he inspected foreign and U.S. merchant vessels led to oil spill response teams and conducted investigations in Alaska during a period of many cruise ship groundings and significant, fatal commercial fishing vessel accidents. In his first assignment, he deployed throughout Europe and the Middle East during the 1991 Gulf War.
Penoyer is off to Coast Guard Force Readiness Command in Norfolk, Virginia, responsible for the readiness of the Service’s more than 88,000 active duty, reserve, civil service and auxiliary members.
