TWO RIVERS, Wis. — The United States Coast Guard established Aids to Navigation Team Two Rivers in conjunction with a change of command ceremony held at Coast Guard Station Two Rivers, Friday morning.
This unit will operate, establish, and maintain 290 floating and fixed navigational aids along the entire western shore of Lake Michigan, from Chicago to the upper peninsula of Michigan.
Chief Petty Officer Eric Olson will serve as the inaugural officer in charge of the team.
Olson is coming to Lake Michigan from Aids to Navigation Team Puget Sound in Seattle where he served as executive petty officer.
“Aids to Navigation Team Two Rivers will have the largest area of responsibly in Sector Lake Michigan," said Captain Amy B. Cocanour, commander of Coast Guard Sector Lake Michigan. “This crew will be charged with providing Great Lakes mariners with safe and efficiently marked waterways, and will continue to focus on our exceptional service to the public.”
During the ceremony, Senior Chief Petty Officer Chris Zahn was relieved as officer in charge by Chief Petty Officer Justin Alley during a change of command as Cocanour, presided.
Zahn had been the officer in charge of the station and aids to navigation team since June of 2012 and is moving on to Aids to Navigation Team Portland, Maine.
Chief Alley is reporting from the Coast Guard Cutter Sea Fox in Silverdale, Washington, where he served as executive petty officer.
The change of command ceremony is a time-honored tradition, which formally restates that the continuity of command will be maintained. It is a formal ritual conducted before the assembled station’s crew. It conveys to the officers, enlisted personnel, civilian employees, and auxiliarists of the Coast Guard that, although the authority of command is relinquished by one person and is assumed by another, it is still maintained without interruption.