PORT ANGELES — Command was passed Friday morning between the out-going and the incoming skipper of the Coast Guard cutter Adelie.
In between the pomp and circumstance of the event, the outgoing commander, Senior Chief Boatswain’s Mate Kurt Rugenius, led his successor, Senior Chief Boatswain’s Mate Chad Curth, on a brisk inspection of the crew he will be commanding before the official transfer of authority.
Curth, a 19-year veteran of the Coast Guard, said he expects good things from both the crew and the people of his new hometown.
“You have big shoes to fill,” said Capt. Mark D’Andrea, commander of Coast Guard Group/Air Station Port Angeles.
D’Andrea noted that he expected Curth would fill them well.
“Or you wouldn’t be here,” he said.
Rugenius, who will report for reassignment, told the assembled audience his views on the elements of leadership: honor, respect, devotion to duty, optimism, attention to detail and maintaining a sense of humor.
“Humor brings you back down to Earth,” Rugenius said. “Today’s problems really are not that big as you think they are.”
Bamboo analogy
He drew an analogy between fostering leadership in young people and growing bamboo.
Over the course of years, one can water, fertilize and nurture the plant without seeing any immediate results.
“Without knowing it, something is going on underground,” he said, noting that the plant can then sprout and grow 90 feet in the course of a year.
To his former crew, which he led as officer in charge for about two years, he offered simple advice:
“My leaving today is not the end of your journey, but the beginning of a new one.”