NEW ORLEANS — Capt. Peter W. Gautier relieved Capt. Edwin M. Stanton as commander of Coast Guard Sector New Orleans in an official change-of-command ceremony, Monday.
Capt. Stanton assumed command of Sector New Orleans in May 2009, and will retire as both the sector commander and as an active duty officer in the U.S. Coast Guard. As sector commander, Stanton was in charge of 900 Coast Guard personnel and 250 members of the Coast Guard Auxiliary in an area of responsibility extending from mile marker 303 on the Lower Mississippi River to 200 nautical miles offshore and from the Louisiana-Mississippi border to the western boundaries of Vermillion, Acadia and Evangeline Parishes.
Capt. Gautier is coming from Coast Guard Headquarters in Washington, D.C., where he was chief of the Deepwater Horizon Action Office. Previously, he served as chief of Operations for the Deployable Operations Group, which provides deployable specialized forces from 27 Coast Guard units to Coast Guard, Department of Homeland Security, Department of Defense and interagency operational commanders. In response to the terrorist events in September 2001, Gautier served as a deputy to the Disaster Coordinator Emergency Support Function-10 for the first two weeks of the World Trade Center response.
Gautier, who is a native of Ridgewood, N.J., is a 1987 graduate of the U.S. Coast Guard Academy. Gautier holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Marine Engineering. He holds a master’s degree in chemical engineering from the University of Michigan and a master’s of National Security Strategy from the National War College.
The change-of-command ceremony is a time-honored tradition and deeply rooted in Coast Guard and Naval history. The event signifies a total transfer of responsibility, authority and accountability for the command.
