DATE: Friday, September 12, 1997            TAG: 9709100213

SECTION: PORTSMOUTH CURRENTS     PAGE: 06   EDITION: FINAL 

TYPE: COVER STORY 

SOURCE: BY IDA KAY JORDAN, STAFF WRITER 

                                            LENGTH:  135 lines

AT THE HELM VICE ADM. ROGER T. RUFE JR. HAS COMMAND OF THE LARGEST CONCENTRATION OF COASTGUARD PERSONNEL ANYWHERE IN THE WORLD. FROM HIS PORTSMOUTH OFFICE, HE OVERSEES OPERATIONS ENCOMPASSING 40 STATES AND 5 MILLION SQUARE MILES OF OCEAN.

FROM A NONDESCRIPT, government-issue downtown Portsmouth office building, the U.S. Coast Guard reaches across 40 states of the union and halfway around the world.

With the closing of Governor's Island in New York and the consolidation of Atlantic Area Headquarters and the Fifth District in Hampton Roads last year, Portsmouth became home to the largest concentration of Coast Guard personnel anywhere in the world.

The office in Portsmouth oversees operations encompassing 40 states from the Rocky Mountains to the Atlantic Ocean, from Canada to Mexico, from the Great Lakes to the Caribbean.

The office's mission borders 29 countries and covers more than five million square miles of ocean, inland water and tributaries.

It's awesome but manageable, according to Vice Adm. Roger T. Rufe Jr., the man at the helm. He assumed command of the Atlantic Area, the old Fifth District and the Maritime Defense Zone Atlantic in May.

``It's not an overwhelming job because we have great Coast Guard people,'' Rufe said. ``They do all the work.''

But, he added, he does sometimes ``feel stretched'' because he personally can't make it around to all his charges.

``This is more efficient even if it is not without growing pains,'' Rufe said.

The Coast Guard presence in this region ranges from small traditional life-saving stations to the Atlantic Area headquarters in Portsmouth and the Maintenance and Logistics Command in Norfolk.

The Atlantic Area/Fifth District commands in downtown Portsmouth encompass a total of 456 people, including 54 civilians.

The Coast Guard Support Center on Craney Island in Portsmouth is home to seven large cutters and six smaller ships. More than 800 Coast Guard officers and enlisted personnel are stationed aboard these vessels. In addition, three units of the Maintenance and Logistics Command, totaling 480 people, are based at Craney Island. About 125 people from Group Hampton Roads also are stationed at Craney Island.

In addition to 484 persons, including 182 civilians, at the Maintenance and Logistics Center in downtown Norfolk, another 70 persons work in a facility on Robin Hood Drive. Another 70 Coast Guardsmen are stationed at Little Creek, Cape Charles and Milford Haven.

About 300 persons, 255 of them civilians, are located at the finance center in Chesapeake.

About 500 persons, including 52 civilians, work at the Reserve Training Center in Yorktown.

Elizabeth City has 1,000 Coast Guard personnel, about half civilian. The commands there include the Air Station, 227 persons; a repair center, 628 persons; a training center, 84 persons; and the National Strike Force headquarters, 41 persons.

About 135 persons are stationed along the North Carolina Outer Banks, including Cape Hatteras, Oregon Inlet and Ocracoke, and another 145 on the Eastern Shore, including Ocean City, Chincoteague, Crisfield and Parramore Beach.

The Coast Guard budget is not the only beneficiary of the concentration in Portsmouth, Rufe said.

A majority of the Coast Guard people like it in Portsmouth, he said, because it's slower paced and the cost of living is less.

The main benefit for personnel is the opportunity to change jobs without moving.

``Things are changing, and our people desire stability,'' Rufe said. ``Here they can work in several places over a number of years without uprooting their families. That's important because so many spouses work.''

Portsmouth became the Atlantic Area headquarters when the Coast Guard moved to cut about $400 million a year from its budget. By giving up Governor's Island, the Coast Guard realized a $30 million-a-year savings. About 1,000 Coast Guard people remain in New York, working in a former Navy facility at Staten Island.

Portsmouth was the right place for the consolidation, Rufe said.

``Portsmouth is a great town,'' he said. ``This is a good place for the command because it's closer to the Navy here than any other place we could be.''

Although he is a native of Islip Terrace, N.Y., and has served all over the world in a variety of Coast Guard jobs, Rufe is no stranger to Hampton Roads. He was chief of staff of the Fifth District headquarters from 1989 to 1992.

Over the years, he has been commander of several other districts. In those days the district commander personally visited most of his bases.

``The difficult part about this new job is that I feel stretched,'' Rufe said. ``I can't spend time with the smaller units and I don't get to see all the people. I really enjoy being out there with them.''

However, he added, he sends people from his staff out to the various units and so he hears about their successes and their problems.

``I try to watch closely how we're doing and to understand the needs of our young Coast Guard personnel,'' he said.

Rufe doesn't foresee additional budget cuts affecting this area.

``The needs are still growing,'' he said. He cited increased needs for Coast Guard services such as environmental protection, maritime law and safety, and search and rescue, as well as drug interdiction.

``We can't cut any more without an impact,'' he said. ``I see continued stability in the budget right now.''

The big issue in the future, he said, will be recapitalizing the fleet.

``The buoy tenders are 50 to 60 years old, and we're now replacing them,'' he said. ``Then we need to start replacing the cutters.'' The cutters, he said, are ``the heart and soul'' of the nation's maritime operations expertise.

Rufe's experience covers all the bases.

He was graduated from the Coast Guard Academy in 1965 and holds a master's degree in public administration from New York University. He also is a graduate of the Naval War College and National War College.

Until May, when he took over this office, he held a similar assignment as commander of the Coast Guard Pacific Area and Maritime Defense Zone Pacific, responsible for all operations from the Rocky Mountains to the Far East. In Portsmouth he heads all the work east of the Rockies and across the Atlantic Ocean.

``We do a lot of good things for the public,'' he said. ``But we really haven't trumpeted all we do.''

Rufe was in the middle of Caribbean efforts as commander of the Seventh District in Miami, where he directed drug and migrant interdiction operations. He also was operational commander for the U.S. response to the Cuban shootdown of two Cuban-American aircraft in February 1996.

In Juneau, Alaska, he was commander of the 17th Coast Guard District and commander of U.S. Naval Forces Alaska.

During his career, Rufe has served aboard seven Coast Guard cutters, five as commanding officer. He commanded a patrol boat for 47 combat patrols in Vietnam.

Ashore, he has been chief of the Congressional Affairs Staff in Washington, the U.S. representative to the International Maritime Organization in London, England, and head of the U.S. delegation that negotiated the Cartagena Convention, an international environmental agreement for the Wider Caribbean Region. ILLUSTRATION: Staff photos including color cover by MARK MITCHELL

``Portsmouth is a great town,'' says Vice Adm. Roger T. Rufe Jr..

``This is a good place for the command because it's closer to the

Navy here.''

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