July 16, 2014 — The mission is called "waterways management"… It's up to us to set that maritime highway. We need to keep those aids on position, lit at night, so the mariners can execute their mission, whether it's fisheries, oil, ferries.
On June 26, LCDR James L. Jarnac replaced LCDR Michael R. Sarnowski as Commanding Officer of the USCGC Sycamore. Sycamore's responsibilities include ATON (aids to navigation), maintaining the federal floating and fixed navigation aids in the Prince William Sound and the Gulf of Alaska, Maritime Law Enforcement and Maritime Environmental Protection. The vessel is a 225' Juniper class buoy tender launched in 2001. Sycamore was commissioned on July 2, 2002 in Cordova, replacing the Sweetbrier, which had been stationed in Cordova since 1976. Technically a warship as Jarnac is a commissioned officer, Sycamore also has an oil spill response system called SORS (Spilled Oil Recovery System) that deploys booms and skimmers to control spills. Sycamore's buoy deck has two cranes with a 40 and 10-ton capacity. In heavy seas, lifting buoys, some up to 18 tons, can be dangerous work, but Cmdr. Jarnac finds it rewarding. One thing he respects about his crew of 50 is that they're professional mariners doing an important job. An avid surfer and runner, LCDR Jarnac moved to Cordova with his wife, Jo Ann.
CT: What did you do before coming to Cordova?
JJ: I was at Coast Guard headquarters office of Defense Readiness and Counterterrorism. I was a strategic planner—for lack of a better title. The Coast Guard has statutory missions; defense readiness is one of those roles. Since our inception, in 1790, the Coast Guard has been involved in every armed conflict.
I'm from Miami Beach. I was born in the '60s, and grew up in south Florida. I enlisted in 1991, and received my commission in '99. My first tour was as an officer in Juneau. I worked in the office of Coast Guard Law Enforcement. In 2001, I transferred to Guam. I did four years of back-to-back tours there, doing ATON (aids to navigation) work. I did a tour in Los Angeles, where I met my wife, then had command of a patrol boat in Guam. After that, in 2010, I went to the naval college. Then Coast Guard headquarters.
CT: What are your expectations regarding law enforcement responsibilities?
JJ: We have a responsibility for enforcing living marine resources management. The Coast Guard hasn't done that in awhile because of sequestration, when we took a 25 percent cut in operational hours. Our primary mission is ATON. We work together with the state of Alaska on law enforcement, but further than three miles offshore is Federal water and entirely Coast Guard responsibility. That's not to say that the Coast Guard doesn't do [law enforcement]; it's just not the Sycamore's primary responsibility.
Read the full interview at The Cordova Times