Coast Guard Buoytender Holds Change of Command

The recently commissioned Coast Guard buoytender Sycamore holds a Change of Command ceremony at 10 a.m. Wednesday. Lt. Cmdr. John Moriarty will relieve Cmdr. Stephen Rothchild as commanding officer of the cutter during the ceremony. Rothchild became the Sycamore’s first commanding officer when the cutter was commissioned into active service July 2. Rothchild previously served as commanding officer of the 180-ft. buoytender Sweetbrier, which was decommissioned Aug. 27, 2001. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Chemistry from the Coast Guard Academy. Other assignments included the cutters Planetree, Manitou and Acacia. Lt. Cmdr. John Moriarty’s most recent assignment was as the Enlisted Workforce Team Leader on the Workforce Forecasting and Analysis staff at Coast Guard Headquarters in Washington, D.C. Some of Moriarty’s previous assignments include the Coast Guard icebreaker Polar Star, the cutter Chase and the Pacific Area cutter scheduling office in Alameda, Calif. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering from the Coast Guard Academy and a master’s of science in Computational Operations Research from the College of William & Mary. Moriarty and his family are looking forward to their tour in Cordova The Sycamore is a 225-ft. buoytender homeported in Cordova. The Sycamore and 47-person crew are responsible for aids to navigations in the Prince William Sound area. Although the cutter is designated as a buoytender the crew also performs search and rescue, law enforcement and pollution response missions.