Let me warn you that if you don’t want to read about how great DeMatha is in another long essay then avert your eyes. Go back under the security blanket of delusion and unfounded denial that DeMatha is just an ordinary school.

Ordinary schools have ordinary people in them. Exceptional schools not only have exceptional people in them, they are usually led by an exceptional person, or persons. DeMatha, being subject to this rule, has been even more blessed in the department of exceptional people. When one looks at the successes of the school, be them in the arts, academia, or athletics it is easy to point at the religious order, particular teacher, moderator, or coach as the reason for that success.

Boots on the ground and hands on leadership are sure fire ways to gain success in the short term but the business world shows us that the roots of long term achievement can often be found in an orchestrator. Fortune 500 companies have CEO’s. Dynamic sports franchises have owners. Most times they aren’t involved in the small decisions that will ultimately control their triumph or failure, but the very best of them seem to guarantee victory with their presence. A careful examination of such leadership in high schools in the Washington DC, Maryland, and Virginia areas yields one man that is heads and shoulders above anyone else: John Moylan, principal at DeMatha from 1968-2000.

John Moylan (pictured) is the greatest principal that the Washington Catholic area schools have ever seen. From the moment that John Moylan started as a teacher in 1956 at the small, unknown, ten year old school the Stags started winning: the baseball team won the first title of any kind in 1957. While affiliated with DeMatha, John Moylan would see league championship banners raised 115 more times, in every single sport, over a 44 year career. Quite simply, Moylan presided over greatness and he built a legacy that would stretch into the next tenure as well as give a small school of barely 1000 boys a national name. It is not a surprise that DeMatha Catholic High School became household knowledge under his careful watch.

What is surprising is that John Moylan was the first lay principal operating in a Catholic school in the Washington DC metropolitan area when he took the reigns in 1968. The Washington Archdiocese needed the new infusion, even if they were reluctant at first. Somehow, by the grace of God, the Trinitarians saw the light first and gave the unassuming, hands-on guy a chance during rapidly changing times. As far as principal or headmaster picks are concerned, this was the equivalent of the First Congress selecting George Washington to lead the Continental Army. Most likely no other man could have done such a magnificent job at the time but it was probably difficult to see that a magnificent job could, in fact, be done at the time as well.

Nobody had high hopes for DeMatha in 1956 when Moylan started, except for the Trinitarians and a few Stags. By the time that he became principal the perennial underdogs of the newly forming WMCA, or “Metro” league were trying to carve out a niche amongst Washington DC mainstays Gonzaga and St. Johns College. What Moylan did was to effectively poise the Stags to invade claimed territory as well as provide areas of excellence that hadn’t been previously established in Washington Catholic schools. John Moylan was the first principal in the Washington metropolitan area to win the Blue Ribbon for Academic Excellence in secondary education twice. There was no area too small for him to pay attention to as a principal or as the kicker and special teams coach on the football team, and his diligence paid off in the arts and extracurricular activities as well. (In one of the many hats that John Moylan wore, he even coached an All American kicker or two.) He would be offended if you didn’t mention the fact that academics always came first for him and DeMatha, but that also didn’t stop him from wanting to shine in all areas in order to better educate the whole student.

A high school principal at DeMatha is an educator, philosopher king, fund raiser, art patron and multiple sport franchise owner in large part because Moylan stretched the limits of the job description. In fact if you didn’t know better, when you saw him in all of his glory he was wandering around the campus seemingly milling about and picking up bits of trash. (I personally thought he was on the janitorial staff during my first few weeks at the school because my interview was with the former Rector, William Sullivan.) I couldn’t fathom then that Moylan, the shiny-headed guy in the nondescript DeMatha windbreaker, could be a mastermind the likes of Yoda. And yes, I’m implying that John Moylan might have been utilizing The Force to guide and shape young men to do feats of Jedi proportions.

Perhaps the most supernatural talent that Moylan had going for him was his ability to set people up for success. Moylan recognized that a school is a fragile ecosystem, and he was DeMatha’s greatest environmental activist. Aside from giving legends like Dr. Charles "Buck" Offutt (pictured) and Ray Smith room to work their own magic, Moylan tended a meticulous garden. When the basketball team was about to face Power Memorial and Lew Alcindor, it was Moylan as the assistant coach who gave the idea to Hall of Fame basketball coach Morgan Wootten to practice with tennis rackets to mimic the excessive reach of a prolific shot blocker. When the music program began winning awards and recognition in the 70’s, it was Moylan that scrambled to find the dollars to build the facilities befitting the best high school concert bands in the country. John Moylan knew he wasn’t going to be able to carry on forever and it seems that in the 70’s, 80’s and 90’s he embarked on a campaign to stock up the coffers.

John Moylan hired DeMatha wrestling Coach Dick Messier who has won titles in every year since 1986. The current athletic director Ed King was also a hire of John Moylan. The current basketball coach (Mike Jones) and principal (Dan McMahon, Ph.D) at DeMatha can claim to not only be his protégés but also former students of John Moylan. And his reach doesn’t just stop at the end of DeMatha halls. John Moylan has had a significant influence at other schools in the area because excellence has a way of being emulated. McNamara principal Marco Clark got his start as a guidance counselor under Moylan at the same time that the Mustangs’ head football coach was a student. Indeed, his awards from the Department of Education speak volumes about his ability to gain the attention of broader audiences that would not do so if he were like everybody else.

There is often a debate as to who is the best sports franchise owner of all time on the DC Sports Fan website. Another question is who is the best manager or coach of all time? We dedicate a significant amount of thought as to who is the best at everything in the high school sports arena, from athletes to venues, but not enough attention is paid to the master planners that make the whole thing “do what it do.” To me there is no question that the best happened to be a high school principal that took something with a lot of potential and made it exponentially better than he found it. DeMatha is almost finished with the third largest construction project in school history, which is the akin to the Yankees building a new stadium. Legendary DeMatha Basketball Coach Morgan Wootten (pictured) was just named the most influential sports figure from the area according to DC Sports Fan and ESPN still consults him for their articles.  The grindstone that John Moylan turned for forty-four years milled out thousands of productive young men and even set up the method by which even more would be created. And if there is one thing you need to know about John Moylan, he took the time with every one of them.

John Moylan wasn’t really a fan of his office. I got into enough trouble when I was at DeMatha from 1989-1992 to know that you couldn’t find him sitting at any desk. Instead, if you were a discipline problem or having a difficulty the bald guy with glasses would somehow find you at your weakest moment. As for me, I was a jiver. I didn’t know what a jiver was at the time, or even that I knew how to jive, but John Moylan had a category for me after careful observation. He would catch me in the staircases or in the Antler Room and say, “I’ve seen you Cooper: high fiving and low fiving… jiving around.” It wasn’t so much of an admonishment as it was his way of recognition. To Moylan, one of the worst things you could be was someone that didn’t live up to his full potential. It didn’t seem like a kind way to do it at the time, but I for one, am thankful that he took the time to aid in my self discovery.

It would dawn on me after some time in Moylan’s care that no one was obligated to give me anything unless I had the ability to work for it. Moylan gave me an important lesson that I never forgot, even though I would spend hours pretending that I was hardly working in school. (You know there is something to be said for a new brand of Black Conservatism, Bill Cosby’s impression of the youth of today, and their lack of respect for those young black men that have the audacity to want to do well in school.) The other great lesson that I got from Moylan was that perception is often reality. You can’t exactly serve two masters, and the decision has to be made by responsible folks to take their destiny into their own hands. Looking and acting cool is often at odds with the decision making process of a 14-year-old, and Moylan recognized this with amazing clarity. When it came to academics, sports or otherwise, John Moylan had the uncanny ability to get pubescent, teenage, boys to focus on achieving goals often in the face of unfavorable odds.

Saint Johns College was the football powerhouse that would not be moved or usurped. John Moylan’s hire, football coach Bill McGregor, is making a serious crack at that title for the Washington metropolitan area. Today the Principal Emeritus can still often be seen watching from the sidelines or bleachers at some of his finest work. It must be really satisfying to see the people that you put in place reap the benefits and rewards of your leadership. We should all be so lucky in life. While DeMatha is poised to take a perch as the preeminent secondary school after the completion of major construction, I know that there must be a smile on John Moylan’s face. To take pride in something so small, tend to all of the little things, and see it blossom into something bigger before your eyes than most people ever imagined is a tremendous blessing.

Oh, and so is personally supervising 19 baseball titles, 15 wrestling, 12 golf, 12 football, 8 lacrosse, 6 hockey, 5 tennis, 3 track, 3 soccer, 1 swimming and 25 basketball titles. I suppose that is a blessing too. It is no accident that the DeMatha tree continues to bare good fruit, too. DeMatha was recently featured by Sports Illustrated as having one of the best high school athletic programs in the country and Austin Freeman could be seen palming a basketball in a DeMatha uniform on the cover.  Only adding to the onslaught of college recruiters was recent DeMatha football standout Kenny Tate who probably had the most articles written about him out of all of the famous Stags that came before him.  After years of tedious pruning John Moylan is content, and probably taking it all in with his characteristic humility. (Just because he wanted to see his students do the best, doesn’t mean that he thought of himself as the best.)  No other principal in the Washington metropolitan area has had such a beautiful run and I would be impressed if one were to ever come close. John Moylan wasn’t perfect but eight years after he retired, he’s still the best that the Washington area has ever seen.

Everybody’s favorite Olympian and Black Girl of the Year finalist, Lolo Jones lost in the 100 meter hurdles when she stumbled and I cried. The cameraman followed Lolo after her post race interview all the way under the bleachers of the stadium and showed her crying, and I cried some more.

It was one thing to hear about the news of Lolo’s failure from early news releases that blatantly ignore the consideration of the timed tape delay for broadcasting and it was another to physically see it. This morning on the Today Show Lolo had the mental strength and poise to be on television (showing her fine-ass legs in some cargo shorts) to give an interview with the actual gold medal winner. (I don’t know her name, because she’s not nearly as fine as Lolo.) Damn! Lolo still looked good on television even though the other chick had a gold medal around her neck and Lolo had none.

I could tell by the way Lolo leaned back in her chair –and looking fine as hell, that she had come to the realization and resolve to try to continue to compete. I love Lolo, seriously, but this loss was just too much for me. I don’t know if I can wait another four years for Lolo to try for the gold. Besides, Lolo will be 30 years old at the next Olympic Games in London, and running is a young woman’s sport. I know that she’ll still be absolutely gorgeous by the time the next Summer Games come around but I have other, more pressing issues with Lolo. When are we going to have time to make this pop off if Lolo is going to be training for some race incessantly? How is Lolo going to be able to squeeze out one of my kids and still be in top condition for the games?

Lolo I so wish that I was in China to comfort you about your loss and help you realize that now is our time. Sure I had visions of us doing crazy things with a gold medal swinging rhythmically and violently around your beautiful neck, but we can still do that shit! Girl, I’m not even focused on the medal like that. (I mean, it would have been nice, but we don’t have to be perfectionists.) I’m an idealist, but I’m totally okay with us inventing our reality together, tonight. Even though Tom says that you’re on a plane right now to get his balls, I’m willing to go half on diverting your flight to wherever I’m at if you’re seriously ‘bout it. Hell I’m willing to go to Baton Rouge or Iowa, even though Rudy says that you look like Derek Jeter’s sister.

Lolo, let’s recap:

1. You are still stupid fine, with your bad self.

2. You looked great in your post-interview when you choked back tears.

3. You looked great on the Today Show this morning -way better than the chick who won.

4. You looked great on the cover the Washington Post even though the loss was apparent.

5. You still have the distinction of being the finest girl in track, that I know of.

6. See above, girl!  You got this!

Years from now people will be asking "where were you when Lolo lost?"  I'll have to say that I was in Washington DC in line at the Five Guys burger joint with Lorenzo and Rudes.  I got a text from my girlfriend out in Cali telling me the horrible news.  I was in disbelief until I saw it on television in between smoking copious dank and downing The Glenlivet Scotch like it was going out of style.  Yes, yesterday is the day that the hurdling died for me.  The only thing that I can think of is to console myself with those Olympians that I missed.  I'm speaking specifically about the Feres twins from Brazil that compete in synchronized swimming.  I'm not really trying to steal Lolo's thunder or anything –because Lord knows she's still ridiculously fine, but I have to post some pictures that will cheer up my fans.  I know that you guys are all crying inside, too.  Anyway, here are some photos to take your mind off of Lolo for a little while.  Besides, I think that we're going to need some time to regroup, alone together.

“Come on, you sons of bitches, do you want to live forever?” -Sergeant Major Daniel Daly, USMC, two-time Medal of Honor recipient and Glen Cove native

DIC Dangerous: The Next Humongous Things

Let me break something down for you. At times I can develop and foster a blatant disregard for my own safety. Maybe I listened to that guy Miles (Curtis Armstrong) in that movie Risky Business a little too many times when he said “Joel, you wanna know something? Every now and then say, ‘What the fuck.’ ‘What the fuck’ gives you freedom. Freedom brings opportunity. Opportunity makes your future.”

Well I think that explanation is sufficient. Without further ado, I present to you The Next Humongous Things that I’m going to make happen on the world stage.

Humongous Thing Part One: Bachelor Party in the Ides of March 2009

There really isn’t a need to go into a lot of detail about this. I’m having a bachelor party because I’m still going to be a bachelor at 35, in 2009. Fear not, there will be no actual wedding.  This bachelor party will be in addition to whatever birthday celebration that I can muster and is not meant to replace the anniversary of my birth in any way.  In addition, this bachelor party will not replace what will be known as the "the fake" bachelor party that I will participate in should I really get married, after all.

"The fake" bachelor party might be in Las Vegas, but "the real" bachelor party, as this trip will forever be known as, will be in Brazil. (I know, already.  "Beware the ides of March.") Call me cliché if you want to, but the bottom line is that I owe it to myself to have a good time since it is apparent that I will die childless, alone, and lonely. Yeah, I know it's hard to face the facts but as a bachelor at 35, why would I try and get a life companion when my life is practically half over?  And if you're talking about black men, we're not supposed to even make it past 57!  I feel like I will be better equipped to deal with this dismal fact as I reminisce in my mind about the time that I went down to Rio de Janeiro and hit for the cycle.  Baseball enthusiasts have got to be feeling this.  No disrespect to Jesus, but you know the PSI brothers did the damn thing, right?

I’m inviting all my friends that are brave enough to call themselves virgin bachelors over the age of thirty. That’s right, you heard me. No divorcees, because you already had your chance buddy. This bachelor party is for the gentlemen that held out. Of course, those individuals will have to supply their own means, but we can definitely kick it if we are there at the same time. I’m thinking about taking the full two weeks on this joint. I think that it’s going to be totally worth it. I can’t imagine Rio de Janeiro not living up to its billing.   My main concern is the prospect of catching a social disease, so I'm going with the draft pick theory rather than the lottery selection if you know what I'm saying.

And just so you know, if I don’t have any bachelor friends that have never been married at that point then I am fully capable to go it alone. I suppose that is where the danger comes in. I’m told that if you don’t have a crew then there is a likelihood that you will be severely taken advantage of. Normally I would want to do the buddy system, but I heard that you could buy a buddy down there that will totally cook and clean for you while making sure everything is okay. Yeah, free agent status. That sounds nice. I’m going to need to bring a lot of paper down there so I might have to call a moratorium on inviting respectable women out on dates.

I don’t think that I’ll be missed by the respectable women anyway. Whores have to eat too.  Besides I'll be so old I might even consider marrying a whore if she's fine enough and worth saving like that.  Quietly, part four or five of this episode could easily be going to the Philippines, Vietnam or Thailand and straight up buying a wife, but we have to save something for 2012, don’t we? Anyway, I’ll keep you posted.

Humongous Thing Part Two: El Encierro in Pamplona Spain July 6 – 14^th, 2010

As I have stated before, I am thoroughly committed to running with the bulls (Spanish Encierro) in Pamplona, Spain in 2010. This might be the start of an awesome writing career like Ernest Hemingway, or it could just be the end of my life. If I died at thirty-six at encierro, I would have to say that it was a great run. No pun intended.

The danger for this humongous thing cannot be denied. Between two and three hundred participants are injured in the encierro at Pamplona every year. There have been fourteen deaths since they started recording these types of things since 1920 or so. The last guy to actually get gored to death at the nine day festival in San Fermín was an American tourist from Illinois named Matthew Tassio back in 1995.

This humongous thing is going to require months of training. I’m not talking about the training that I usually do with the little chocolate doughnuts, either. I’m talking real running in order to get my endurance up for the encierro. You see, even though the encierro length is a little over a half a mile the bulls don’t know that this is supposed to be all fun and games. Not to mention that I’ll be thirty-six years old. Sure I’m still in better shape than most, but that doesn’t mean that I can’t get caught up. I’m sure to stick out like a sore thumb anyway. How many black guys go to this event anyway?

To make this thing even fresher, I’m going to try to film as much as possible for posterity. Picture me in a the traditional white shirt and pants rocking the red sash around my waist and a fat gold rope around my neck. I might have to do it in a white Kangol and shell toe Adidas –you know the white joints with the red stripes. Yeah son! I’m not playing with my outfit. [There are going to be things that you never seen before out that joint if you decide to be a part of the posse.] I’m pretty sure that this will be a spectacle for the ages so I’m inviting anyone that can hold a camera. After all, 2010 might be the last year that I might be considered handsome, or have a tool box of fully functioning tools.

The encierro, itself, starts at 8 AM each day of the San Fermín festival beginning on July 7^th. I’m going a day or two early to scout the route and to witness the “running of the nudes” by the PETA members protesting the event because of cruelty to the bulls. Of course, I’ll be getting hammered while I’m there. Who are we kidding; I’m going to be getting seriously hammered. The running of the bulls is actually only four minutes long but there is a fairly good chance that you will need to sprint the entire way from the corral gate opening all the way to the bull ring.

I’m told that the slippery cobblestone streets are coated with a stickier surface these days in order to lessen the chances of bulls slipping around the turns at Estefeta. A falling bull will undoubtedly take out one or two runners. I suppose that is why the participants say, “We ask San Fermín as our patron to guide us through the encierro and give us his blessings” three times before they let the bulls loose.

... Who's with me?

Today is the birthday of the United States Coast Guard. Some would call them the nation’s finest sea going service, but there can be no doubt that they are the oldest. Piracy and general lawlessness in international waters created a need for a means to protect the vital economic interests of the fledgling government. Allow me to take a little time to educate you about the history, law enforcement practices and other little known facts about the United States Coast Guard on their anniversary.

Old Trade Routes

First things first, it wasn’t always called the Coast Guard. The organization was founded by the genius framer of the constitution and treasury, Alexander Hamilton, as the Revenue Cutter Service. The operative word in that old name was revenue, meaning the production of monetary profit through shipping. Alexander Hamilton happened to be the Secretary of the Treasury, and the old Revenue Cutter Service established by him in 1790 was directly under his control.

Hamilton was a New Yorker. In addition to writing the Federalist Papers, the primary tool for interpreting the implied powers of the Constitution of the United States, he also started the New York Post. You could not find a more powerful man from the state of New York at the time, as he was the only signer from that state at the Constitutional convention in 1787. It might surprise you to note that New York had already emerged as the primary port of choice for international shipping from the original colonies and the wealth that it brought was of great interest to Hamilton. The New York Bank that was also founded by Hamilton quickly began to finance the growth and development of the metropolis in order to mirror the booming trade.

One of Hamilton’s first acts as the Secretary of the Department of Treasury was to initiate a whiskey tax. One has to understand the history of the United States to recognize that this was a major coup because it reinforced implied powers and a strong central government which had been previously met with resistance by the original colonies. (Not more than four scores later we would fight a war over those very same issues.) Perhaps it was his original ties to the Caribbean that made Hamilton see the financial gains that could be had from both taxing one of the biggest imports, and at the same time facilitating importation. Hamilton was born on the island of Nevis, which was one of the original sugar stopovers of the Spanish, Dutch and British and a hub of triangular trade.

Encoded to be Clandestine

Sugar, and more importantly molasses, is the primary ingredient of whiskey. Access to quality sugar cane and the refineries used to process it into sugar vastly limited the ability to produce the all important alcoholic byproduct. Without whiskey, how could you pay your Navy? What would you drink when the drinking water of the day wasn’t safe –and it often wasn’t? Even farmers converting their excess grains to whiskey in their private distilleries were affected and eventually caused a federal response to their rebellions in 1791. All the while newly federalized ships called cutters, the fastest of the day, were roving the Caribbean in search of vessels trying to escape the tariff by slipping into southern ports unnoticed. Of course the Revenue Cutters Services’ practice of the time was to seize the cargo and the crew until restitution was made.

The United States Code 14 section 89 states in part, “The Coast Guard may make inquiries, examinations, inspections, searches, seizures, and arrests upon the high seas and waters over which the United States has jurisdiction, for the prevention, detection, and suppression of violations of laws of the United States. For such purposes, commissioned, warrant, and petty officers may at any time go on board of any vessel subject to the jurisdiction, or to the operation of any law, of the United States, address inquiries to those on board, examine the ship’s documents and papers, and examine, inspect, and search the vessel and use all necessary force to compel compliance.” Young officer candidates know this mantra and are quick to point out their ability to act as law enforcement on the high seas. In fact the Coast Guard Academy boils it down to the acronym SEASII, or “seas two”, for Search, Seizure, Examination, Arrest, Inspection and Inquiry.

This is the crux of the implied power that makes the United States Coast Guard a military agency unlike any other in the world. Normal military powers are only enacted in times of War or as in recent times, at the will of an overreaching President. The United States Coast Guard only needs to be within the jurisdiction of the high seas to engage in activities that could be viewed by foreign nations as an act of war. Complicating matters is the fact that the focus of the old Revenue Cutter Service remains in the United States Coast Guard despite the obvious change in name. That is to say that if there were no monetary gain to be had, it is a pretty sure bet that the United States Coast Guard wouldn’t exist. The use of taxation as a means to regulation exposes the dichotomy of government nature as an entity that looks out for the overall well being of constituents while at the same time turning a profit should they choose not to look after themselves.

Combining Forces

Relate the knowledge to the high taxes on tobacco today. The tariff on alcohol guaranteed access to international trade through the regulation of the importation – deportation deficit that is important in mercantilism and capitalism, alike. The model that was originally applied to alcohol, even after prohibition, has been modified to accommodate completely illegal narcotics. There is of course no legal tax on the importation of illegal narcotics, unless you consider seizing drugs from vessels and later redistributing them a wholesome enterprise heretofore engaged by the United States government. Through no great stretch of the imagination, the United States Coast Guard works diligently, day and night, to prevent illegal narcotics from coming in the country and can only manage to actually stop less than 2% from infiltrating American borders. The paltry numbers indicate to some that it is less of an enterprise in prevention as it is an enterprise of skimming profits from the sale of illicit material.

Of course, today, the United States Coast Guard cannot be totally engrossed in the international drug trade due to other, more pressing engagements, like the current campaign in the Middle East. As a part of Homeland Security, the United States Coast Guard is an integral part of the U.S. Customs and is readily available to enforce whatever government policy is wished by the executive branch of government. Often the policies aren’t entirely for monetary gain, but rather an extension of the more dubious United States foreign efforts. (The chief of which seems to be preventing the immigration of Haitians and other dark undesirables into the United States.) The United States Coast Guard rolls on in the 21^st Century still largely ignored as the powerful entity that assists in driving the national economy and certain questionable national interests. If the government is the mob, then the United States Coast Guard isn’t the hit man, but rather the dumb muscle of goons that walks around for show.

Every now and again, the muscle might get lucky and come upon a big score of some kind of their own, but they are in place largely because a show of strength often works wonders in the leverage department. The dividends that the Coast Guard pays now are in the form of projecting fear and intimidation towards rival nations that might be basing their economies on the subversion of American culture. Put the Coast Guard in conjunction with the other military services, like the Marine Corps or Navy and you get an even more formidable entity to tangle with. Signalman First Class Douglas Munro was the only Coast Guardsman to receive the Medal of Honor when he led the rescue of 500 Marines from Guadalcanal during the pacific campaign of World War II.

Little Known Coast Guard Facts

Another notable Coast Guardsman was Alex Haley, one of the few black folks to ever be in this historically white military service. (The Coast Guard boasts the lowest minority rates of membership out all of the armed services.) Alex Haley enlisted at the tender age of eighteen as a Mess Boy, and rose to the rank of Journalist Chief Petty Officer during his twenty years in the sea going service. Haley was the first black Chief Petty Officer in the United States Coast Guard and the first ever Chief of journalism that the Coast Guard had. Today there is a Medium Endurance Cutter named after Alex Haley that makes its home port in Kodiak Alaska.

In 1990 the United States Coast Guard officer corps was comprised of less than .2% African-americans which prompted them to begin a national initiative to increase minority numbers in their leadership structure. Originally called the Minority Officer Recruiting Effort, or MORE program, it recently ended in abject failure when it was discovered that most of the officers commissioned through the program had little interest in remaining with the service. Less than one percent of the officers commissioned are of African-american descent. The prestigious Coast Guard Academy in New London, Connecticut fared equally as poor, graduating only one African-american in its last class of the millennium in 1999.

Admiral Thad Allen is the current Commandant of the Coast Guard, the highest ranking officer in the service. Admiral Allen has presided over the devastation of Hurricane Katrina, for which the Coast Guard received accolades for their rigorous response despite obvious shortcomings by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).

The Coast Guard also shares a birthday with Louis Armstrong, romantic poet Percy Bysshe Shelly, and presidential hopeful Barack Obama.