Captain Edwin M. Stanton, USCG

Prospective Commander, Sector New Orleans

Captain Stanton enlisted in the Coast Guard in 1975, serving aboard Coast Guard Cutter WESTWIND and at Marine Safety Office Sturgeon Bay, WI.  He graduated from Officer Candidate School in 1981.  His first tour following OCS began at Marine Safety Office, Mobile, during which he trained as a Marine Investigator, Marine Inspector, and Port Operations Officer.  He next participated in Port Safety Industry Training at the Port of New Orleans.  Upon completion, he was assigned to the Eighth District Office, in New Orleans, where he performed duties reviewing penalty cases, managing spill response activities, coordinating explosive loading operations, recording secretary for the Lower Mississippi Waterway Safety Advisory Committee and managing Vessel Traffic Systems New Orleans, Houston and Morgan City. 

From 1989 to 1992, he served as Executive Officer of the Atlantic Area Strike Team, a specialized oil and hazmat response team, in Mobile.  He responded to major oil spills in St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands, following Hurricane Hugo and the major spill from the Tank Barge APEX, in Galveston Bay, Texas.  He was responsible for providing oil and hazardous materials response training for all Coast Guard Marine Safety Offices in Atlantic Area.  From 1992 to 1997, Captain Stanton served as Operations Officer and Executive Officer of Marine Safety Office San Juan, Puerto Rico.  He was the Operations Section Chief and Deputy Incident Commander for the major oil spill from the barge MORRIS J. BERMAN, in Puerto Rico.  The Commandant of the Coast Guard has described this spill response as a model response. 

Captain Stanton returned to Eighth District staff in 1997, as the Response Division Chief, serving as the Coast Guard Co-Chair for Regional Response Teams in Federal Regions 6, 7, and 8.  In 2000, he became Commanding Officer of Coast Guard Gulf Strike Team, Mobile.  His command and he responded to the anthrax incidents in Florida; the major oil spill from the tankship JESSICA in the Galapagos Islands; the aftermath of the World Trade Center attack; the crash of the orbiter COLUMBIA; and the ricin attacks on Congressional office buildings.  He transferred to Coast Guard Headquarters in 2003, to serve as Chief of Response Division and Chief, Office of Response.  He served as Vice Chair of the National Response Team. 

In 2005, Captain Stanton was selected as Deputy Commander, Sector Mobile.  He arrived just in time for the infamous hurricane season of 2005, and was instrumental in Sector Mobile's outstanding response to Hurricane Katrina.  He led the Coast Guard Reserve Incident Management Team that FEMA tasked with cleaning marine debris from 500 square miles of coastal Mississippi waterways, removing 300,000 cubic yards of debris at a cost well below estimates, while successfully meeting all other Sector mission demands.   In 2007, he took over the helm as Sector Commander, Mobile.  In 2008 and 2009, he was selected to represent the U.S. Coast Guard at the North Atlantic Coast Guard Forum as a subject matter expert in Environmental Response