Letter to the Editor from Captain Owen L. Gibbons, Commanding Officer, Coast Guard Training Center Cape May

To our Friends and Family in Cape May County,
As Veterans Day approaches, I wanted to take the time to share my thoughts with you and offer my sincere gratitude to the community for the support you provide to members of our service, not just one day a year, but all year long.
Throughout the year, new recruits arrive at the training center here in Cape May almost every week. Last week, 115 recruits stepped off the bus into the night air to be greeted by vocal Company Commanders (you may remember them as Drill Instructors) starting a timeless process of learning by experience what it means to truly value service above self – a lesson that our veterans learned long ago. These young men and women represent the continuation of a long blue line of service that has brought more than 120,000 through Training Center Cape May’s doors in the past 30 years alone. This is where 80 percent of our workforce learns what we are at our essence as Coast Guard men and women.  This community is the place they wear their uniforms out in public for the first time and receive their first comment from a stranger – often a sincere and humbling, “Thank you for your service!” This community is where our DNA is patterned and ultimately where our family tree is watered. That’s why Cape May County is the Coast Guard’s hometown, and I take a great deal of pride in knowing that our Coast Guard veterans who call this their home also got their start right here.
Cape May is one of the places where the legacy of our veterans is treated with reverence each day.  Those who have gone before us – like the 21.8 million veterans in our country today who have left a legacy, a service reputation, a family name for the United States – have created expectations that we who are still on Active or Reserve Service either live up to or diminish through our own actions. We strive here at the training center to instill in our recruits the legacy and traditions of generations of veterans who have gone before them.  Our veterans remind us who our nation needs its service members and, in our case, its Coast Guard to be
We are proud to pause with you to honor generations of women and men who chose to serve country before self this Veterans Day in Cape May. Regardless of where a veteran’s journey began, their sacrifices and those of their families have earned our abiding respect. Many of you in the community are veterans and on behalf of the training center’s staff, I want to thank you for your service.
Yours in Service,
Captain Owen L. Gibbons
Commanding Officer, Coast Guard Training Center Cape May