Lt. Christopher Clark relieved Lt. Bradford Long as commanding officer of Sentinel-class fast response cutter USCGC William Trump (WPC 1111), last Wednesday, during a change of command ceremony at Coast Guard Sector Key West.
Capt. Jason Ingram, Sector Key West commander, presided over the event.
Long, a native of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, enlisted in the Coast Guard in 1999. After earning the rank of senior chief petty officer, he commissioned as a chief warrant officer in 2016 and promoted to lieutenant in 2020.
Clark took command of the cutter after serving as the seamanship and navigation instructor at the U.S. Naval Academy where he trained over 250 future Navy and Marine Corps Officers in the fundamentals of navigation at sea.
“It is an honor and a privilege to serve you as your commanding officer,” said Clark to his new crew. “I look forward to sailing with all of you and will do whatever I can to best support you all the next two years.”
Cutter William Trump is one of six fast response cutters homeported in Key West, Florida, and reports to Sector Key West. The cutter patrols over 55,000 square nautical miles of Sector Key West’s area of responsibility within the Florida Straits and the Gulf of Mexico, as well as regularly forward deploying to the Caribbean Sea and other areas in support of the Coast Guard’s national security, law enforcement, and lifesaving missions.
The change of command ceremony is a time-honored tradition. It represents a total transfer of responsibility, authority and accountability from one individual to another. The event ensures the continuity of leadership and operations aboard the cutter.