Coast Guard change of command Thursday

The Coast Guard’s Marine Safety Unit in Morgan City is in for some changes, but not the kind of changes some feared, the unit’s outgoing commander said.
Cmdr. Heather R. Mattern will become the first woman to lead the Morgan City unit during a change of command ceremony at 11 a.m. Thursday at the Morgan City Municipal Auditorium.
Mattern will succeed Capt. Blake Welborn, who will become the commander of the Coast Guard’s Houma facility. Welborn said he will continue as captain of the port for the Morgan City area with responsibility for maintaining smooth and safe operations on the waterways. Welborn will also assume that role in Houma.
Rumors saying the Morgan City facility would be merged with the Coast Guard operation in Houma began making the email rounds last week. Welborn appeared at Monday’s Port of Morgan City meeting and said the Coast Guard is staying in Morgan City.
The possibility that the Coast Guard would move out of Morgan City to Houma was especially touchy after the recent closure of PHI Inc.’s Amelia facility, which was consolidated with PHI’s Houma operation.
But “the Coast Guard is not moving out of Morgan City,” Welborn said at Monday’s port meeting.
“That is as far from the truth as can be.”
In an interview, Welborn said some personnel changes between the two Coast Guard facilities may happen later.
But Morgan City’s Coast Guard operation will continue to perform functions such as hazardous spill response and law enforcement with its two-craft small boat unit, Welborn said.
Mattern is currently stationed in New York City. Her promotion to commander was approved during the 2015-16 Congress.
In 2011 at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California, Mattern wrote a thesis titled “Laser Peening for Mitigation of Stress Corrosion Cracking at Welds in Marine Aluminum.”
An online search turned up articles in which Mattern, as a Coast Guard officer, was involved in events for senior citizens and kids at a children’s shelter.