Top USCG Stories Of The Year gCaptain Total Views: 30 December 29, 2010 gCaptain’s favorite source for Coast Guard related news, the Unofficial CG Blog, is ready to ring in the new year with a post titled “ The Top Coast Guard stories of 2010 [opinion] “. In addition to huge initiatives this year in the Gulf and in Haiti, here are some of the highlights: Repealing Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell: This is, without a doubt, in my top three of the years biggest stories. The repealing of the policy enacted by the Clinton Administration in 1993 has been a huge step in the right direction for our nation. Though it’s been seen as a distraction by many in the ranks of our service, as well as the other four, it’s my opinion that the change will indeed take some time to be seen as positive once it’s actually enacted. The obstacles will and have been aplenty which aids in securing this as a top story of 2010. ADM Robert (Bob) Papp becomes Commandant : During the buildup of the unmatched response to DWH ADM Papp was taking the helm as the newly appointed Coast Guard Commandant. Within his first few weeks there were rumors of service wide changes afoot which soon took form and became reality. Among some of his first steps as Commandant were his “steadying” of our service by putting changes to our service on hold in amidst a national budget crisis. The days of modernization as we had become accustom to were no-more. The daunting task of Commandant over the smallest of the military services isn’t without its challenges. One of the largest on the plate of ADM Papp was the looming Deepwater Horizon (DWH) incident while engaging the Congressional types on issues of slimming the services and trying to gain support for fleet replacement (not easy). While doing all of that he had to also ensuring we were doing our bit in the response of DWH with potential personnel cutbacks ahead. It, being Commandant, isn’t a job for the faint of heart; however, ADM Papp is making it seem easy to the rest of us.