Coast Guard Capt. Rick Wester and Capt. Kevin Carroll salute one another during a change-of-command ceremony on Base Portsmouth, June 12, 2018. (U.S. Coast Guard photo by Auxiliarist Trey Clifton)
PORTSMOUTH, Va. — Coast Guard Capt. Kevin Carroll relieved Capt. Rick Wester as commander of Coast Guard Sector Hampton Roads during a change-of-command ceremony Tuesday on Base Portsmouth.
Rear Adm. Meredith Austin, commander, 5th Coast Guard District, presided over the ceremony.
Wester will report to the Coast Guard Academy in New London, Connecticut, and serve as the commandant of cadets.
Carroll has served as the deputy commander of Sector Hampton Roads since June 2016. Prior to that, he served three years as the sector’s chief of prevention. He entered the Coast Guard in 1994 through the Maritime Graduate Direct Commission Program and has served in multiple marine safety billets throughout his career.
Sector Hampton Roads is an operational unit whose area of responsibility encompasses the Atlantic coast along the entire state of Virginia and all navigable waters including the Chesapeake Bay, the Elizabeth, James, and Rappahannock Rivers, the Intracoastal Waterway, and several inland lakes, and the Port of Virginia.
The team at Sector Hampton Roads is comprised of nearly 480 active duty and civilian personnel, 130 reservists and 1,300 Auxiliary members. The sector’s sub-units include six small boat stations, five 87-foot patrol boats, three aids to navigation teams and one sector field office.
