YORKTOWN, Va. — Coast Guard Training Center (TRACEN) Yorktown held a change-of-command ceremony Thursday at the training facility in Yorktown.
During the ceremony, Capt. Scott D. Benson transferred command of the training center to Capt. Scott A. Rae under the supervision of Rear Adm. W.M. “Joe” Raymond, commander of the Coast Guard Forces Readiness Command.
Prior to taking command of TRACEN Yorktown, which trains Coast Guard members and federal, state and local agency personnel to enhance mission readiness, Rae served as the Joint Interagency Counter Trafficking Center Director as well as the senior Coast Guard Liaison Officer at the U.S. European Command Stuttgart, Germany.
During the ceremony, Raymond congratulated Benson on a successful tour serving as the commanding officer of Coast Guard Training Center Yorktown.
“Over the past year, he transformed the Coast Guard’s largest training center into a center of excellence, through the creation of community of practice platforms and the implementation of rating apprentice programs to customize “A” schools for the boatswain’s mate and marine science technician ratings, revolutionizing the approach to delivering training by shifting away from the classroom, toward the point of performance,” said Raymond. “His exceptional efforts have enabled the Coast Guard to maintain a high level of operational readiness and carry out all of its 11 statutory missions around the world.”
Benson plans to retire from the Coast Guard after 27 years of service. He said the women and men of Training Center Yorktown are the most caring and dedicated group he ever had the privilege to serve alongside.
“I am so proud of them and the work they do to ensure mission success in providing our services to our shipmates across the Coast Guard as well as our international partners,” said Benson.
A change-of-command ceremony is a military tradition representing a formal transfer of authority and responsibility for a unit from one commanding officer to another. The passing of colors, standards, or ensigns from an outgoing commander to an incoming one ensures that the unit and its members are never without official leadership, a continuation of trust.
Training Center Yorktown ensures members in the fleet and in the field possess the skills, knowledge, doctrine and tactics, techniques and procedures to execute the Coast Guard’s missions.
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