By SHANNON HAUGLAND
Sentinel Staff Writer
The new commanding officer at U.S. Coast Guard Air Station Sitka is arriving with years of flying and leadership experience at posts throughout the U.S.
Cmdr. Vincent J. Jansen will assume his new duties at a ceremony 10 a.m. Friday at the Air Station hangar. It’s Jansen’s third assignment in Alaska, and his first in Sitka.
Jansen said the four days since he and his family arrived in Sitka have been a whirlwind of activity.
Cmdr. Vincent J. Jensen
Capt. Brian McLaughlin
“Everybody’s welcomed me onto their team, and introduced me to friends and family,” he said. “It didn’t take long to make you feel like you are part of something special here.”
He was glad he arrived in time to march with the air station unit in the Fourth of July Parade. The large size of the parade and crowd surprised his wife Ellie, who remarked, “I thought we were moving to a small town!”
The change of command ceremony is a longstanding military tradition marking the transfer of responsibility and authority from one individual to another. Invited guests will include members of the Coast Guard, family members and local officials.
Capt. Brian McLaughlin, who has been CO at Air Station Sitka since 2020, is going to Juneau, where he will be chief of incident management at Coast Guard District 17 headquarters.
Jansen comes to Sitka from Oregon, where he was operations and executive officer at Coast Guard Air Station Astoria. Previously he was logistics officer and commanding officer of enlisted personnel at Sector Columbia River in Warrenton, Oregon.
He is a 2002 graduate of the U.S. Coast Guard Academy with a degree in management, and served as deck watch officer aboard the Cutter Alex Haley in Kodiak. Following Naval flight training he flew Jayhawks at Coast Guard Sector San Diego and Air Station Kodiak.
Jansen earned his master of science degree at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Prescott, Arizona, and was liaison officer to the U.S. Naval Safety Center at Pensacola, Florida.
“During this tour in Pensacola, Florida, Cmdr. Jansen taught several generations of Navy, Marine Corps, Coast Guard, and international Flight Safety Officers at the Naval School of Aviation Safety, instructed student Naval aviators in the TH-57 JetRanger, and further traveled the globe to work with international partners in crew resource management, accident investigation, and aviation Safety program development,” the Coast Guard said.
Jansen has been a flight examiner with the Jayhawk helicopter and has logged 3,500 flight hours. He has specialties in advanced aviation safety, operational safety and human resources.
In 2012 he received the Order of Daedalians Coast Guard Exceptional Pilot award for rescues conducted in Alaska, and further was recognized in the United Kingdom with the Guild of Air Pilots and Air Navigators Master’s Medal.
He has received two Coast Guard Meritorious Service Medals, two Commendation Medals, and various individual, unit and team awards.
He’s also the 27th Double-Distinguished Marksman in Coast Guard history.
Jansen was born in Belgium, and raised in Connecticut and the Netherlands, and speaks fluent Dutch. He is married to his high school classmate, Ellie, of the United Kingdom. The Jansens have a son, Fraser, and the family enjoys spending time with their dog, Rolo. Fraser, 8, enjoys playing soccer and is currently on Book 4 of the Harry Potter series.
In his new position at 17th District headquarters McLaughlin will be in charge of Coast Guard search and rescue, and pollution response for whole the state of Alaska.
His time in Sitka has been “fantastic,” McLaughlin said.
“We had some pretty decent challenges in 2020 when we arrived, with COVID, and trying to manage the unit,” he told the Sentinel. “It was a pretty incredible team that kept everything going, we never missed a day, never missed a launch. And it took everyone.”
Besides the air station’s numerous responses for searches, rescues, medevacs and other emergencies, its food service staff earned Galley of the Year honors last year.
“It’s been a tremendously busy two years,” McLaughlin said. “It’s bittersweet to be leaving. I love the unit, love the mission, love the people. It’s time to hand it over to Vince Jansen, and I’m looking forward to taking part in the bigger picture at the district.”
McLaughlin has received numerous honors, including the Meritorious Service Medal, the Air Medal, three Coast Guard Commendation Medals, and many unit, team, and service awards.
He has a bachelor of science degree in government from the Coast Guard Academy, and a master of science degree in aviation safety systems management and adult education technology from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University.
He has logged over 4,000 flight hours – including about 300 in Sitka – and has been a designated flight examiner in the Jayhawk helicopter. He also has multiple fixed-wing and rotary wing FAA ratings.
He has held posts at Air Station Cape Cod, where he was executive officer, and at U.S. Coast Guard headquarters in Washington, D.C.
McLaughlin’s prior operational assignments include at the U.S. Coast Guard Aviation Training Center Mobile, Alabama, Air Stations Kodiak and Clearwater, Florida, and the Cutter Tahoma in New Bedford, Massachusetts.
His wife Amy and two high school age children, Sagan, 16, and Cole, 14, will remain in Sitka.
Friday’s change of command ceremony will be streamed live on the Air Station’s Facebook page.
The Air Station Sitka commander is responsible for an area encompassing about 180,000 square miles of water and land stretching across Southeast Alaska from the Dixon Entrance to Icy Bay and the Alaskan-Canadian border to the central Gulf of Alaska, described by the Coast Guard as “one of the most demanding flight environments that Coast Guard aircraft operate in.”
The Sitka air station commander also is a duty standing helicopter pilot, and after his last flight in that position on Wednesday, McLaughlin’s colleagues, following tradition, doused him with a bucket of ice water after he stepped down from the aircraft.
