Waukon High School 1980 graduate Craig Petersen retires after a career with the U.S. Coast Guard spanning 45 years
Completes 45-year career with U.S. Coast Guard ... Craig Petersen (center in above photo), a 1980 graduate of Waukon High School, recently completed a 45-year career with the U.S. Coast Guard. Pictured above at his recent retirement ceremony are, left to right, Rear Admiral McClelland, former Commanding Officer of the POLAR SEA and Commander Fourteenth Coast Guard District; Petersen’s wife Meilin Petersen; Craig Petersen; Admiral Paul Zukunft, 25th Commandant of the Coast Guard and presiding official; and Rear Admiral Sean Regan, Commander Oceania District. Submitted photo.
Craig Petersen, a 1980 graduate of Waukon High School, recently completed a long and rewarding career with the United States Coast Guard. He is the son of Anita and the late Marvin Petersen of Waukon.
“Forty-five years, seven months, 12 days, or so says the computer totaling my enlisted, officer, and now civilian time,” said Petersen at his second retirement ceremony at Diamond Head Lighthouse in Honolulu, HI. “Seventy-percent of my life, and all of my adult life since graduating high school has been in service to the nation and the U.S. Coast Guard. That represents 19% of the Coast Guard’s time since its beginnings as the Revenue Cutter Service in 1790.”
After meeting physical fitness standards at Fort Des Moines in Iowa in March 1980, Petersen went to boot camp at Recruit Training Center in Alameda, CA in August, following his graduation from Waukon High School. The first part of his career with the U.S. Coast Guard Petersen responded to search and rescue missions in the Pacific Northwest, engaged in maritime counter-narcotics patrols throughout the Caribbean, and fisheries enforcement boardings off New England and Nova Scotia.
He gained his commission in October 1988 and reported to USCGC POLAR SEA, an ice-breaking ship homeported in Seattle, WA. “It was the best assignment of my career,” said Petersen. “Driving a 12,000 ton ship through ice off Greenland, Canada, and through the Northwest Passage to Alaska during a 1990 circumnavigation of North American was an experience of a lifetime”.
He also completed two deployments to Antarctica. During this tour Petersen’s dad, Marvin, joined the POLAR SEA’s transit from San Francisco, CA to Seattle, WA.
In 1991, Petersen came ashore for a completely different career path in port operations, marine environmental protection and oil spill response at Marine Safety Office Puget Sound. He continued these duties in Honolulu, HI.
In July 2002, he moved to the District Office and assumed duties of Chief Homeland Security implementing one of the largest regulatory packages in the Coast Guard’s history, the Maritime Transportation Security Act across Hawaii, American Samoa, Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands. He retired from active duty November 2005.
For the last 20 years he managed domestic and international port security across the Pacific, and coordinated natural disaster response, and worked with federal, state, and local partners to recover ports and waterways.
“I had a spectacular career and would do it all over again,” said Petersen, “More importantly, I recommend any young person join the Coast Guard, it’s the most rewarding and diverse career you can have.”
