Page 29: of Maritime Logistics Professional Magazine (Q3 2014)

be challenges. You can maybe look out Þ ve years, but trying to look out twenty years is a bit of a challenge for us.Ó Looking beyond the obvious challenges facing him over the course of the next four years, Zukunft is clearly optimistic about whatÕs to come. And, heÕs pleased with the hand heÕs been dealt. ÒReally, we are the best coast guard in the world. I donÕt say that to be arrogant, but IÕve seen most of them, and been to more countries than we have states in the union. And to a person, they all model themselves after the U.S. Coast Guard. They can build the neat ships. They can paint them white with that orange stripe, but they canÕt replicate the one thing that we have and thatÕs the character and the quality of our people.Ó As usual, any discussion that involves the Coast Guard al- ways leads the Commandant back to his people. The next four years may be, on the surface, all about getting the National Se- curity Cutters funded and built. It may also be about the OPC sweepstakes and, perhaps, it will involve the process necessary to fund another icebreaker for the Coast Guard. None of that will be possible, says the Coast GuardÕs 25th Commandant, without the right people to get the job done. With a weather eye on the human aspect of his command, Zukunft, just two months into his tenure at the top, is already hard at work. 18-33 Q3 MP2014.indd 2918-33 Q3 MP2014.indd 298/15/2014 9:56:29 AM8/15/2014 9:56:29 AM