SAN FRANCISCO — Capt. Kent W. Everingham relieved Cmdr. Michael E. Campbell as the commanding officer of Coast Guard Air Station San Francisco during a change-of-command ceremony in San Francisco, Friday.
Everingham takes command of approximately 125 Air Station San Francisco personnel and six MH-65 Dolphin helicopters which conduct search and rescue, law enforcement, homeland security, and maritime environmental protection missions throughout the San Francisco Bay area as well as similar operations in the greater Los Angeles region with aircraft and crews working from the Air Stations Forward Operating Base at Naval Base Ventura County. Air station personnel also periodically stand up aviation detachments aboard Coast Guard cutters that deploy worldwide.
Everingham previously served as the Coast Guard Pacific Area’s chief of preparedness in Alameda, Calif., where he was responsible for establishing, setting and maintaining operational plans for all Coast Guard missions, international engagements and incident response objectives within half of the world that ranges from the Rocky Mountains to the waters off the east coast of Africa.
Campbell is enrolled in the Naval Post Graduate School Center for Homeland Defense and Security Executive Leaders Program and will be attending the Eisenhower School of National Security and Resource Strategy beginning in August, in Fort McNair, D.C.
The change of command ceremony is a time-honored tradition and formal ritual conducted before the assembled company of a command to confirm to the men and women of the unit that the authority of command is maintained. The ceremony is a transfer of total responsibility, authority and accountability from one individual to another.