Address at the World Trade Center of New Orleans

at a luncheon honoring him as the recipient of the

Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen!

I must say that it is a very humbling experience to receive such a prestigious award named in honor of a great man. And I thank my friends from the World Trade Center and the Selecting Committee Organizations for giving me this tremendous honor!

But I am also humbled this was presented by a great person in his own right - Senator Hank Lauricella.

It’s not often one receives an award from a former State Senator, a World Trade Center president, a previous Bertel Award recipient himself, and a real live All-American college football player, whom many say should have taken the Heismann Trophy. And from what I hear, he was just a vote away from winning it. But I’ll leave the recount jokes to someone else.

Aside from his impressive titles, it’s an honor to receive this award from his hands because I’ve truly admired him for the special person he is and his way with people. I have observed firsthand, his great leadership style in our Transportation Committee meetings, as he cut through a myriad of issues, like a pro running back does on the football field.

Senator, thanks for reaching out to me from the very beginning, and for making me feel truly welcomed in the port.

I also want to thank a long time, close friend of the family (since I was a kid), Fr. Jerome Ledoux, for his very touching invocation. There’s no better way than to start and conclude with a blessing. And he certainly is a fitting representative of the One I owe my ultimate gratitude to - The Almighty Father. Thank you, Padre!

And I want to sincerely express my appreciation to my family and friends, for sharing this moment with me in this beautiful club, overlooking this fine city and this great Port of New Orleans.

But those who know me well enough understand that there are a couple of very special women in my life. I would be remiss if I didn’t acknowledge, obviously, the first woman in my life, my wonderful mother, for bringing me into this world and providing me her love and guidance. Thanks, Mom!

And of course, I must say thanks to my beautiful wife for her loving companionship and dedication, and for always being in my corner. We may not physically be in the same place at all times because of our temporary geographic situations. But she’s always been there when I needed her, like now, and she’s with me in spirit all other times. I love you for this and more. We should own stock in the airlines and phone companies because we’ve certainly helped their bottom line.

And thanks to everyone else for your part in making this day special with your presence – my brother and his wife, my dear Aunt Mimi, my uncle and aunt, my many cousins, my adopted grandmother and all my close friends. And I regret that my son, stepchildren, and other brother could not come from up North to be here today.

If you study the great people in life, you’ll find that they can always point to someone who has made a difference in their lives. Although I have not yet reached greatness, I still can point to people (many in this room), who have complimented my life.

Les Brown, a great motivational speaker referred to an article in one of his speeches titled, "The Right Ingredient." He said, "Anyone who has ever done anything in life of any special significance, had people in their lives who encouraged them, and were behind the scenes saying, "You can do it!"

When I look around at the numbers in this room I can’t help but be encouraged to press on. And I chuckle when I hear my friend Bill Grusich (sitting over there), saying that there was once a time you would have to pay someone $40 to show up at lunch for a Coast Guard officer. But times have changed Bill, that is, unless you paid all these people and didn’t tell me.

Almost two years ago when I received my choice orders to command the busiest Marine Safety Office in the country, the Coast Guard unknowingly gave me a little something extra. Down here we call it lagniappe.

This lagniappe was the fact that they gave me a home court or home field advantage. Sports studies indicate that when a team is on the road they lose more games than at home. And the reason why they win at home is because they have fans rooting for them.

Even when they’re down by points, there are some that are always cheering them on. It gives them a certain adrenaline flow and the winner’s edge to enable them to go beyond. I certainly have experienced the home field advantage being here. And this Award, like the Heismann Trophy, reflects the support I’ve enjoyed from my coaches, my team and my fans at home.

But when I received a call over a month ago from Gene Schrieber and the Senator, telling me that I had been selected, I admit that I didn’t realize then, the significance of being the recipient of the Bertel Award. I questioned in my mind why the World Trade Center would include me on the same roster with former governors, mayors, congressmen, judges, and numerous other icons in the marine industry.

How did I rate to be on this list of Who’s Who in the Port? Many of these past recipients I work with regularly and admire. And as I look around this room I see many others who should be honorees.

Ladies and gentlemen, the answer I arrived at that best explains why I’m standing before you to accept this coveted award is that I realize none of us do great things alone. In some way, all of you helped me get here.

So I share this prized trophy with my superb staff at the Marine Safety Office. I would like to ask all of my staff here to please stand and be recognized for your greatness and what you do for this port. (Applause) Thank you, crew!

I also share this Award with my partners within the marine industry, and the Eighth Coast Guard District office, and the other governmental agencies at the city, parish, state and federal levels, and our congressional delegation and others. You all have played a significant role in my success!

And I want to share this award with the most supportive boss in my nearly 31 years of Coast Guard service, who I hate to see leave this Spring.

Admiral Pluta set the tone for me in his office the first day I arrived in town, just before I took over as one of his new Commanding Officers. He spoke of his two symbolic ships he christened as "partnership and stewardship."

The Admiral pressed upon me the importance of partnering with industry and listening to my customers. To put it another way, he told me that he would not grade me on how much I regulate the marine industry, but he would measure my effectiveness on well I work with industry. This was easy for me to take to heart because I’m naturally accustomed to doing business this way.

I guess the Admiral felt that I took him seriously, because he and his lovely wife Jane have been there to cheer me on ever since. Thank you, Admiral for the three other ships you’ve given me - your leadership, mentorship and friendship! As mom says, "That’s the nicest man!"

I’m indebted to all of you as I reflect back on all that we have done together as a team over the past year and a half. Although quite challenging at times, you’ve made this job very enjoyable.

My job here as Captain of the Port and Officer in Charge of Marine Inspection is a tremendous responsibility that I don't take lightly. It’s often a 24/7 job with little rest. My pager batteries last as long as a Plum Street snowball in hell. But I don’t complain because I love what I do, I love the Adrenaline rush, and I love to work with people.

I also owe much of my success to knowing how to value others and what they bring to the table. I’ve learned to leverage my resources by caring about other people’s points of view, and respecting the knowledge and expertise of those around me. And having strong work ethics is a must.

On this complex and unforgiving Lower Mississippi River system, if I approached my job any differently I would miss the boat. I’m also smart enough to know that if I didn’t include industry in the equation, I may have been offered a little tin cup to help me in next career, rather than receive this beautiful brass bowl.

So let me share with you some of what we’ve accomplished together. Many of you have already heard the statistics that tell how busy we are between the Gulf of Mexico and the Arkansas State line. But for those who have not, let me offer you a few examples of why it’s important for us to have a philosophy of partnering with the industry we serve.

Everyday on our treasured waters including the Mississippi River and all the other rivers, lakes, bays, and bayous in this zone, we experience one or more marine-related incidents. This past year, even without high river, there were 38 collisions, 51 allisions, 37 groundings, 22 fires, 17 sinkings, 78 power losses, 21 steering losses, 14 barge breakaways, 16 marine related-deaths, and over 1400 oil & chemical spills. Many of these were minor incidents. Most Marine Safety Offices don’t see this much activity in a 5-year period.

Comparatively speaking, this isn’t a bad record at all, when we consider there were almost 300 million tons of cargo, which passed through our ports in my area of responsibility this past year. The same year there were more than 6,000 foreign flag vessel arrivals, and nearly 800 U.S. flag vessel arrivals, resulting in 44,000 deep-draft vessel movements in the river. And these numbers don’t even include over 400,000 tug and barge transits up and down the river, and thousands of fishing vessels, recreational boats, small passenger vessels, and offshore supply vessel movements.

With this amount of activity, the potential for more accidents is high. But thanks to the expertise of the mariners in this area – the deep-draft pilots, tug, towboat and passenger vessel masters, all who I consider the best in the world, they move commerce on the Lower Mississippi River very safely.

There’s always room to improve and together we’re working on that everyday through many industry-led organizations too numerous to mention

But the stats I mentioned earlier also reflect a few large incidents, like the 37,000-gallon oil spill near Grand Isle during the 1999 Thanksgiving holiday. But quick action by Coast Guard and industry, protected several ecologically sensitive areas along the Louisiana coastline. This was a very successful effort.

A few months before the Grand Isle spill was the successful $1.1 million dollar oil cleanup operation in August 1999 from the Taiwanese vessel, Union Faith, which exploded, burned and sank to the bottom of the river, 30 years ago right below these windows.

My pollution responders and vessel traffic controllers, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and Bisso Marine divers, conducted surveys and numerous dangerous underwater salvage operations, and the safe movement of 1,000 deep draft vessels during this evolution. The coordination and cooperation with the waterway users made this another success story.

I had the distinction of inviting the surviving adult children of CAPT Scarborough (the river pilot who went down with the Union Faith along with 24 Chinese crewmen), to ride out to the site to help them come to closure with there father’s death. This was a very touching moment.

We made a commitment to them not to disturb CAPT Scarborough’s watery grave as we removed 400 of the 4200 barrels of old crude oil that had been steadily leaking into the river for years.

His descendants are with us today as well as the two heroes, CAPT Chris Reider, and CAPT Douglas Grubbs, who rescued 26 crewmen on that fateful night. Let’s give them a round of applause.

And within 3 days in August of 2000, we responded to 3 major marine incidents - the capsizing of the Falcon 55 drilling platform outside Main Pass where heavy weather conditions made salvage operations extremely difficult. Then two days later a $10 million dollar collision occurred between the motor vessels Anangel Endeavor and Ivan Susannah outside Southwest Pass. And the same day the Saraband, allided with the Corps of Engineers' dock near Venice, causing $1.1 million dollars damage.

I also think of our new, world class, state-of-the-art Vessel Traffic Center at the top of One Canal Place and what it will do to ensure safe navigation on the Mississippi River, once it’s fully operational. What’s significant about this automated Vessel Traffic Service, unlike any other VTS in the world, the marine industry played an integral part to make sure we met their requirements for an effective system, which is based on AIS technology.

And the new Joint Emergency Services Training Center (JESTC) being developed in Baton Rouge as regional training for industry and government, is being spearheaded by the Louisiana State Police. Soon I will sign a Memorandum of Understanding as partners with the State Police to lend local Coast Guard support for this project.

And let’s not forget the national and international attention the City of New Orleans received during the opening of the National D-Day Museum. Much of this resulted from the efforts of one of my reservists, LCDR (select) Jimmy Duckworth, with him building a replica of the famous WWII Higgins Boats, driven by Coast Guardsmen during the war. Thanks, Jimmy!

Last but not least, was the phenomenal response to the tank vessel Westchester spilling 567,000 gallons of crude oil in the river in November 2000. The Coast Guard, and other local, state, and federal government agencies, and industry recovered over 500,000 gallons of emulsified oil, which impacted a 27-mile area between Port Sulfur and Venice. Fifty-nine percent of pure product was recovered - well exceeding the 15 percent industry average.

Sixty thousand feet of containment boom, hundreds of workboats, vacuum trucks, skimmers, and barges were deployed in record time. Over 450 workers, environmental experts and my Unified Command and Forward Command Post staff, worked tirelessly to mitigate one of the largest crude oil spills since the 1989 Exxon Valdez spill in Alaska.

In the end, and $15 million dollars later, our team effort saved over 500,000 migratory birds from harm in the Delta National Wildlife Refuge – only 7 died. And we were able get commerce moving safely within 48 hours. Over 460 vessels were allowed to transit within 6 days with the help of our pilot organizations, shipping agents, and our new Vessel Traffic Service.

As the Federal On Scene Coordinator, it was my ultimate responsibility to see this operation through successfully. But it was folks like Jim O’Brien, Roland Guidry and CDR Frank Paskewich at my side and others behind the scenes who got things rolling. And CDR Rob Holzman, Ben Benson, Robert George and the other cleanup contractors, and numerous others on site, did all the hard work.

It also involved a lot of behind the scenes support from Admiral Pluta’s staff, the Strike Teams, Public Affairs, Logistics, Plaquemines Parish, and a host of others to produce what some would say was a textbook response. This spill could have been catastrophic, considering 20 million gallons of Nigerian sweet crude oil was on board – almost twice the amount of oil that was spilled from the Exxon Valdez.

But we can’t get wrapped up into celebrating too much and too long. We have to start preparing for the next time it happens. My Executive Officer, CDR Paskewich, phrased it perfectly when he came to me after it was all over and said, "Captain, remember you’re only one spill away from being fired." That’s enough for me to keep one eye open at night. Thanks, Frank, for the subtle reminder!

And folks, this doesn’t even include the numerous routine things we do everyday. For example, last year we also processed over 6200 mariner licenses and documents, inspected over 2900 U.S. and foreign flag vessels, and investigated over 1400 personnel action cases in one year, 25 percent of the entire Coast Guard’s marine safety workload. And now we’re dealing with fast and dangerous currents, brought on by a very high river.

Ladies and gentlemen, if I seem excited and passionate about all of this partnering stuff, it’s because I am. But I wish we had the same relationship on the Hill. I’m disappointed that my and your Coast Guard - with all the lives we save, and the property we protect on our nation’s waters; and the tons of drugs we stop from coming into this country; we continue to have to fight for a budget to keep our cutters sailing and our aircraft flying.

These deepwater assets which are in need of replacement, should convince our elected officials to fund us at the levels needed to do our jobs, but they don’t. Senators Breaux and Landrieu, and Congressmen’s Jefferson, Tauzin, and Vitter are fighting for us, but others still need convincing.

But as a field commander, I’m concerned when I have to fight every year to purchase a $2000 dollar laptop computer, or a $500 dollar updated set of federal regulations, or fuel for my vehicles, or money to train my inspectors, responders and investigators to do their jobs, effectively.

Contrary to a negative Wall Street Journal article on March 1st, we’re not yelling "Budget Overboard" to Congress and OMB. We are only requesting what we need to serve our public at the levels they expect and deserve. Always doing more with less has to change. I hope to see this change before I leave this great organization some day.

And speaking of change, allow me to close with some very personal observations that I would like to share with all of you as I walk away with a lasting memory of a very overwhelming day.

I’ve always been proud to say I’m from New Orleans. But since returning home less than two years ago, being proud of my heritage has taken on new meaning. Sure it’s great to be from a city known for its food, music and Mardi Gras. But the people make the difference.

My grandfather use to have a lot of sayings that many of us in the family still quote daily. And some of them I can’t repeat in public. But one of them I remember is when one of his friends would ask him, "Hey Emile, how’s the world treating you?" His response with a grin on his face was, "The world’s fine, it’s the damn people in it that’s the problem!"

Well, my grandfather would be very pleased if he were living now to see that the world has changed for the better. Of course there’s room to improve even more? But I like to focus on the good changes that already have been made and are still being made. What would he say if he were sitting here looking up at me in the Plimsoll Club? Lord, I can only imagine what would come out of his mouth, but I know he would be proud.

I see changes everyday. It’s like night and day from the time I left home at 20 years old to enlist in the Coast Guard as a seaman recruit, and then to return 30 years later as the Captain of the Port. What a humbling thought.

I’ve seen many changes since my young days in 1968 as a 18-year old camp counselor in Bay St. Louis, Mississippi when a cross was burned in my honor just for being the first Black counselor at the camp. Yes, times have changed. Rather than become a bitter person, I became a better person.

And it’s no secret that I am the first person of color to become the Captain of the Port of New Orleans. But that’s because you all have recognized me for what I bring to the table, rather than the color of my skin.

And I experienced another first this past Tuesday evening when I was warmly welcomed into the Southern Yacht Club, the first African American to be accepted in the Club’s 150 year history. It’s because of people like CAPT Bill Grusich, Commodore Fritz Fromherz, Vice Commodore Bill Wright, Jim Smith, Dwight LeBlanc, Erston Reich and others that said, "Its time for change." They rolled out the red carpet and I gladly accepted it.

I’ll leave you with one more first that I may never live down, but you have to make a promise. So repeat after me. I promise, never to repeat, that Steve Rochon, is the first Captain of the Port, to live with his mother.

You may laugh, but there are some tremendous advantages to this for both my mom and me. Namely, it helps me while my wife tries to sell our house in Maryland, and it gives my mother company and financial support in the Uptown home where we was raised.

The downside is when someone in industry asks me where I live? I try to avoid saying, "With my mama!" Or when I’m in the office sometimes as late as 9 at night? She gets worried and calls my office and asks, "Where’s my son?" This is a little embarrassing, Mom!

I tell her, "Mom, you can’t check up on me like this. For God sake, I’m 51 years old and I’m the Captain of the Port." She just says, "I don’t care, you’re my son. Get your behind home!" You gotta love her! I know I do.

Ladies and Gentlemen, I’m proud to be here with you. I’m proud to be in the Coast Guard. I’m proud to be a part of your marine industry. And I’m most proud to accept this fantastic award, on your behalf!