The first woman to serve as Commandant of the Coast Guard – Admiral Linda L. Fagan
Admiral Linda L. Fagan now serves as the 27th Commandant of the U.S. Coast Guard - the first female officer to lead a branch of the U.S. armed forces.
Linda Lee Fagan has an impressive career. She is a United States Coast Guard admiral who now serves as the 27th Commandant of the Coast Guard. Previously, she became the 32nd Vice Commandant of the Coast Guard and the Coast Guard’s first female four-star admiral. Before that, she was the commander of the Coast Guard Pacific Area with prior terms as Coast Guard Deputy for Operations, Policy, and Capabilities, commander, First Coast Guard District, and commander, Coast Guard Sector New York. Fagan is also the Coast Guard’s first Gold Ancient Trident – the officer with the longest service record in the Marine Safety Field.
“Even still we don’t have the diversity we need at the senior leadership ranks. But as I look back, it’s all there and coming — certainly for women, and we still need to increase our number of underrepresented minority males.”
-Admiral Linda L. Fagan, New York Times Interview
Linda Lee Fagan has an impressive career. She is a United States Coast Guard admiral who now serves as the 27th Commandant of the Coast Guard. Previously, she became the 32nd Vice Commandant of the Coast Guard and the Coast Guard’s first female four-star admiral. Before that, she was the commander of the Coast Guard Pacific Area with prior terms as Coast Guard Deputy for Operations, Policy, and Capabilities, commander, First Coast Guard District, and commander, Coast Guard Sector New York. Fagan is also the Coast Guard’s first Gold Ancient Trident – the officer with the longest service record in the Marine Safety Field.
“Even still we don’t have the diversity we need at the senior leadership ranks. But as I look back, it’s all there and coming — certainly for women, and we still need to increase our number of underrepresented minority males.”
-Admiral Linda L. Fagan, New York Times Interview
Fagan has steadily risen through the ranks, from serving at sea on an icebreaker and ashore as a marine safety officer. According to her New York Times interview, she was the only woman to serve on the icebreaker during her two-year tour, during which she qualified for one of the service’s most dangerous jobs: cutting channels through packed sea ice near both the North and South Poles.
Admiral Fagan graduated from the United States Coast Guard Academy in 1985 with a B.S. degree in marine science. She later earned a Master of Marine Affairs degree from the University of Washington in 2000 and an M.S. degree in national security strategy from the Industrial College of the Armed Forces at the National Defense University in 2008.
At the change of command ceremony in Washington, D.C., former Commandant Adm. Karl L. Schultz stated that “Admiral Fagan is an exceptional senior Coast Guard officer and nominee, possessing the keen intellect, the depth of operational experience, and the well-honed leadership and managerial acumen to serve with distinction as our Service’s 27th Commandant.”
“We, as a service, need to reflect the society that we serve, and creating opportunity for everyone in the service is important.”
-Admiral Linda L. Fagan, New York Times Interview
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