WILMINGTON, N.C. — Coast Guard Cmdr. Matthew Baer relieved Capt. Bion Stewart as commander of Coast Guard Sector North Carolina during a change of command ceremony at Sector Field Office Fort Macon in Atlantic Beach, Friday morning.
Rear Adm. Keith Smith, commander of the Fifth Coast Guard District, presided over the ceremony. Stewart is assuming the position of Chief of Staff, Fifth Coast Guard District, headquartered in Portsmouth, Virginia.
Baer has served as the response department head of Coast Guard Sector Charleston since July 2018. Previous assignments include executive officer of Coast Guard Special Missions Training Center and commanding officer of Maritime Safety and Security Team Kings Bay.
He graduated from the Coast Guard Academy in New London, Connecticut, in 1998, with a Bachelor of Science in management, and received his Masters in Public Administration from Harvard Kennedy School of Government in 2008.
Sector North Carolina is comprised of 624 active duty and civilian personnel, 161 reservists, and 997 auxiliary members. The sector’s sub-units include nine multi-mission boat stations, an inland buoy tender, three aids to navigation teams, and two sector field offices.
The sector’s area of responsibility encompasses North Carolina’s 3,500 miles of coastline, rivers, sounds and inlets, which includes the Ports of Wilmington and Morehead City and the famed “Graveyard of the Atlantic.”
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