Capt. Rhianna Macon is the new U.S. Coast Guard Commander of Sector Lake Michigan.
She has more than two decades of service under her belt. But they were in places like Hawaii and California — not a freshwater environment like the Great Lakes.
“I didn't appreciate the nuance of working and operating on freshwater, and how seasonal the impact is to our operations,” Macon says. “That was a big eye-opener for me. And the vastness of the Great Lakes is very much like an ocean in a lot of ways.”
Macon is based in Milwaukee and has been in the post for about a year. She’s in charge of operations in the four states surrounding Lake Michigan — Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana and Michigan.
Even at the brink of retiring in her home state of Hawaii, Macon says taking on the commander role is an opportunity she just couldn’t turn down.
“I'm just grateful to be here,” she says. “I've loved living in Milwaukee as my home base, and it reminds me a lot of Hawaii. The people here are so welcoming, and I'm really proud of our Coast Guard across the entire lake… I'm always in awe of how much they give of themselves and their families.”
Macon spoke with Lake Effect’s Xcaret Nuñez about her responsibilities as Lake Michigan’s Coast Guard commander and how she’s learned to navigate the freshwater environment.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Xcaret Nuñez: What does your job entail?
Capt. Rhianna Macon: We generally say a Sector Commander wears five hats, and those are based primarily on the authorities of the Sector Commander. As Search and Rescue Mission Coordinator, we oversee all the Coast Guard search and rescues across Lake Michigan – and we don't do that alone. I always say search and rescue is a team effort, so we work very closely with all our local and state partners. Another unique aspect of Lake Michigan is that it covers four states, so it's very vast. And fostering partnerships is very critical when it comes to things like search and rescue. Also, Captain of the Port maintains the maritime transportation system and ensures it's safe and operational, so that places like Milwaukee and the Port of Milwaukee can do all the very important things they do from a commerce perspective. And then, on the facility security side, making sure that, in addition to safe operations, they're secure as well. And then Federal On-Scene Coordinator, which is the marine environmental response element… So if there’s an oil spill or a hazardous substance released on the maritime environment, we're working with partners to ensure that it's being addressed. So a lot of work, not just within the federal government with other entities like the EPA, which we share that responsibility with on the inland side, but also with the state and local partners. So everything we do is really critical from a partnership perspective.
Having only worked with coastal and oceanic waters throughout your career, how has adjusting to the freshwater environment challenged you?
From a search and rescue perspective, we have some very sophisticated software that we use to conduct our planning. So when we're searching for an object on the surface of the water, which is what our search and rescues are focused on, how do surface currents and wind affect that search object? Those factors are different here in the Great Lakes than on the coastal ocean or open ocean environment. And whether it’s a person in the water or from a marine environmental response perspective, we're looking at oil or a hazardous substance, how they're interacting with the marine environment, it’s different in freshwater than in saltwater. So those are all things we need to take into consideration that I haven't had to do up until this point. And the most obvious thing, I think, is the wintertime and the fact that we have a lot of frozen or hard water and how that affects our operations. So we have to switch gears, from a very busy summer — we actually are the third busiest sector in the Coast Guard, which is pretty astounding when you think of places like San Francisco and Miami. And we're doing that all in 100 days. So between Memorial Day and Labor Day, that is when everyone is out enjoying the weather, enjoying the water. So it's very intense, very intense.
What was your first winter in Wisconsin like for you?
It was a great introduction. I got to go through the ice rescue course and also understand what people do on the ice — ice fishing, learning about surfing [in the winter] — that’s new to me. And I love that people don't let the elements stop them from getting out, but it’s important to do that safely. On the commerce side, we work with our district, which is based out of Cleveland, Ohio, to facilitate ice breaking so that commercial vessels can continue to operate. In Green Bay, for example, we have ice breakers that ensure we're working to get those vessels into the Port of Green Bay.
When I say ice breaking, the ice breakers, the cutters, are actually going through and physically using the momentum of the ship to break the ice and keep a lane of transit open for a [Lake freighter] or a tug and barge to get through. It's very challenging because those lanes are hard to keep open for a significant period of time, long enough for a transit of one of these larger ships. We have different mechanisms to prioritize ports and cargo, but it’s a challenge — we’re working on building up our ice-breaking capability, because we recognize that that's very critical to ensuring that commerce is flowing all year round.
You can learn more about Capt. Rhianna Macon and her responsibilities as the U.S. Coast Guard commander of Sector Lake Michigan at the USCG website.
