Coast Guard Capt. Christopher Huberty replaced Capt. Thomas Cooper as the commanding officer of Coast Guard Air Station San Francisco during a change-of-command ceremony in San Francisco, Friday.
Coast Guard Rear Adm. Brian K. Penoyer presided over the ceremony, where Huberty took command of approximately 175 Air Station San Francisco personnel and eight MH-65 Dolphin helicopters, which conduct search and rescue, law enforcement, homeland security and maritime environmental protection missions throughout the San Francisco Bay Area, as well as similar operations in the greater Los Angeles region with aircraft and crews working from the unit’s Forward Operating Base Point Mugu.
Huberty recently completed an assignment as the Eleventh Coast Guard District Incident Management Branch Chief, where he oversaw all search and rescue and marine environmental responses in the district’s approximately 3 million-square-mile area of responsibility. Previously, Huberty was assigned to Air Station San Francisco from 2016 to 2019.
Cooper, who has served as Air Station San Francisco commanding officer since 2019, retired after 28 years of service in the Coast Guard.
Air Station San Francisco, along with Forward Operating Base Point Mugu, supports the Coast Guard’s statutory missions along 650 miles of coastline, including the ports of San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Long Beach.
