NORTH CHARLESTON, S.C. — Capt. Justin Matthew Carter relieved Capt. Matthew T. Brown as commanding officer of the USCGC Hamilton (WMSL 753) during a change of command ceremony, Thursday, at the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center in North Charleston.
Rear Adm. Laura Dickey, Coast Guard Atlantic Area deputy commander, presided over the event.
Carter previously served on the Coast Guard’s Eighth District Staff as the chief of resources in New Orleans, Louisiana.
“I am honored to serve with the Hamilton crew and continue to meet the strategic needs of our Nation with a highly capable Legend-class cutter,” said Carter. “I look forward very much to furthering the growth of Charleston as a Coast Guard community and conducting our missions at sea with this fine crew.”
Brown served as the commanding officer of Hamilton from July 2021 to June 2023. Brown’s next assignment will be the executive assistant to the Deputy Commandant for Mission Support at Coast Guard Headquarters.
“Serving at sea has been the most rewarding experience of my life but I could not have done it without extraordinary crews and our Coast Guard families,” said Brown. “It was a true privilege to command the cutter named after Alexander Hamilton. Hamilton saves lives and manages multi-dimensional threats at sea with an impressive ‘one team’ mindset like no other.”
Hamilton is a Legend-class national security cutter with a crew of 130. With its robust command, control, communication, computers, intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance equipment, the NSC is the most technologically advanced ship in the Coast Guard’s fleet. NSCs are a worldwide deployable asset that support the Department of Homeland Security, Department of Defense, and national objectives to include drug interdiction, migrant interdiction, national defense, search and rescue, fisheries enforcement, and national intelligence collection.
The change of command ceremony marks a transfer of total responsibility and authority from one individual to another. It is a time-honored tradition to formally demonstrate the continuity of authority within a command conducted before the assembled crew and esteemed guests and dignitaries.
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