The U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Waesche (WMSL 751) held a change-of-command ceremony Friday aboard the cutter while moored at Base Alameda.
Vice Adm. Andrew Tiongson, Coast Guard Pacific Area commander, presided over the ceremony in which Capt. Robert S. Mohr relieved Capt. Jason H. Ryan as Waesche’s commanding officer.
“The Waesche crew truly embodies their official motto of strength, endurance and service,” said Tiongson. “I am proud of this crew, led by Capt. Ryan, for their continuous pursuit of operational proficiency, consummate teamwork, and their strategic leadership to support rules-based maritime governance in the Indo-Pacific.”
Ryan served as Waesche’s commanding officer from June 2020 to July 2022 and supported Coast Guard operations from the shores of California, to the Western Pacific and Bering Sea.
After assuming command in June 2020, Waesche deployed to the Western Pacific to support the U.S. Navy’s 7th fleet and the nation’s strategic partnerships and interests in the region. While transiting to the area of operation, the cutter experienced a major machinery space fire more than 700 nautical miles off the coast of Japan. The crew responded, extinguishing the flames in 90 minutes.
Following an emergency dockside in Yokosuka, Japan after the fire and an 11-month maintenance period in Alameda, Waesche returned to operations in November 2021.
“It has been my distinct pleasure to see you grow personally and professionally and help you move on to bigger and better things in the Coast Guard,” Ryan said of his crew during the ceremony.
He closed by saying, “given the opportunity, I would go back and do it all again, especially if I could sail with a crew like this. Second to none!”
Ryan’s next assignment is at the Coast Guard’s Pacific Area Command, in Alameda, where he will serve as chief of operations.
Mohr reports to the Waesche with ten years of sea service, including serving as commanding officer aboard the Coast Guard Cutter Diligence (WMEC 616), in Wilmington, North Carolina. He recently completed Senior Service School at the National Defense University’s Eisenhower School, and holds a master’s degree in national resource strategy.
The change-of-command ceremony is a historic military tradition representing the formal transfer of authority and responsibility for a unit form one commanding officer to another. The event reinforces the continuity of command and provides an opportunity to celebrate the crew’s accomplishments.
Waesche is one of four Legend class national security cutters homeported in Alameda. National security cutters are 418-feet long, have a range of 12,000 nautical miles, endurance of up to 90 days and hold a crew of up to 170.
