NOAA Commissioned Officer Corps

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Commissioned Officer Corps
Seal of the NOAA Commissioned Officer Corps
Founded	1970; 49 years ago (1970)
Country	United States
Type	Uniformed service
Size	321 officers[1] 16 ships, 10 aircraft[2]
Part of	NOAA
Garrison/HQ	Silver Spring, Maryland, U.S.
Nickname(s)	"NOAA Corps"
Motto(s)	"Science, service, stewardship."[3]
Colors	Blue and white[citation needed]
March	"Forward with NOAA" Play (help·info)[4]
Engagements	World War I[5] World War II[5] Cold War
Commanders
Director, NOAA Commissioned Officer Corps[6]	RADM Michael J. Silah
Deputy Director, NOAA Commissioned Officer Corps[7]	RDML Nancy Hann
Director, Office of Coast Survey[8]	RDML Shepard M. Smith
Notable commanders	COL Ernest Lester Jones RADM Raymond Stanton Patton VADM H. Arnold Karo RADM William L. Stubblefield RADM Evelyn J. Fields RADM Samuel P. De Bow, Jr. VADM Michael S. Devany
Insignia
Flag
Aircraft flown
Reconnaissance	WP-3D, AC-695A, G-IV, DHC-6

The seal of the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey, in which the NOAA Corps originated as the U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey Corps in 1917.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Commissioned Officer Corps, known informally as the NOAA Corps, is one of seven federal uniformed services of the United States, and operates under the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), a scientific agency overseen by the Department of Commerce. The NOAA Corps is made up of scientifically and technically trained officers and is the smallest of the U.S. uniformed services. It is one of only two––the other being the United States Public Health Service Commissioned Corps––that consists only of commissioned officers, with no enlisted or warrant officer ranks.

The NOAA Corps was established in 1970, though its origins in its predecessor organizations date back to 22 May 1917.^[9][10][11] It is the successor to the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey Corps (1917–1965) and the United States Environmental Science Services Administration Commissioned Officer Corps (ESSA Corps) (1965–1970).

Mission[edit]

The NOAA Corps is the smallest^[12] of the seven uniformed services of the United States Government.^{[note 1]} It has over 300 commissioned officers, but no enlisted or warrant officer personnel. The NOAA Corps today provides a cadre of professionals trained in engineering, earth sciences, oceanography, meteorology, fisheries science, and other related disciplines. NOAA Corps officers operate NOAA ships, fly NOAA aircraft, manage research projects, conduct diving operations, and serve in staff positions throughout NOAA, as well as in positions in the United States Merchant Marine, United States Department of Defense, the United States Coast Guard, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, and the United States Department of State. Like its predecessors, the Coast and Geodetic Survey Corps and the ESSA Corps, the NOAA Corps provides a ready source of technically skilled officers which can be incorporated into the U.S. Armed Forces in time of war, and in peacetime supports defense requirements in addition to its purely non-military scientific projects.^[13] While civilian personnel could perform many of its functions, the advantage of the NOAA Corps as a commissioned service is the quick response time of its personnel, which NOAA can shift among projects and to various places around the world as the need arises more quickly and more easily than it could by reassigning or hiring civilian personnel to meet new or changing requirements.^[12]

History[edit]

Early history[edit]

The NOAA Commissioned Officer Corps traces its roots to the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey. The Coast and Geodetic Survey's predecessor, the United States Survey of the Coast – renamed the United States Coast Survey in 1836 – was founded in 1807 under President Thomas Jefferson. Until the American Civil War, the Coast Survey was manned by civilian personnel working with United States Army and United States Navy officers. During the Civil War (1861–1865), Army officers were withdrawn from Coast Survey duty, never to return, while all but two Navy officers also were withdrawn from Coast Survey service for the duration of the war. Since most men of the Survey had Union sympathies, most stayed on with the Survey rather than resigning to serve the Confederate States of America; their work shifted in emphasis to support of the U.S. Navy and Union Army, and these Coast Surveyors are the professional ancestors of today's NOAA Corps. Those Coast Surveyors supporting the Union Army were given assimilated military rank while attached to a specific command, but those supporting the U.S. Navy operated as civilians and ran the risk of being executed as spies if captured by the Confederates while working in support of Union forces. After the war, U.S. Navy officers returned to duty with the Coast Survey, which was given authority over geodetic activities in the interior of the United States in 1871, and was subsequently renamed the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey in 1878.^[13][14]

With the outbreak of the Spanish–American War in April 1898, the Navy again withdrew all of its officers from Coast and Geodetic Survey assignments. They returned after the war ended in August 1898, but the system of U.S. Navy officers and men crewing the Survey's ships that had prevailed for most of the 19th century came to an end when the appropriation law––approved on June 6, 1900––provided for "all necessary employees to man and equip the vessels," instead of Navy personnel. The law took effect on July 1, 1900; at that point, all Navy personnel assigned to the Survey's ships remained aboard until the first call at each ship's home port, where they transferred off, with the Survey reimbursing the Navy for their pay accrued after July 1, 1900.^[15] From July 1900, the Coast and Geodetic Survey continued as an entirely civilian-manned organization until after the United States entered World War I in April 1917.^[13]

Coast and Geodetic Survey Corps[edit]

To avoid the dangers that Coast Survey personnel had faced during the Civil War of being executed as spies if captured by the enemy, the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey Corps was established on 22 May 1917, giving Coast and Geodetic Survey officers a commissioned status so that under the laws of war, they could not be executed as spies if they were captured while serving as surveyors on a battlefield during World War I. The creation of the Coast and Geodetic Survey Corps also ensured that in wartime a set of officers with technical skills in surveying could be assimilated rapidly into the United States armed forces so that their skills could be employed in military and naval work essential to the war effort. Before World War I ended in November 1918, over half of all Coast and Geodetic Survey Corps officers had served in the U.S. Army, U.S. Navy, or United States Marine Corps, performing duty as artillery orienteering officers, as minelaying officers in the North Sea (where they were involved in the laying of the North Sea Mine Barrage), as navigators aboard troop transports, as intelligence officers, and as officers on the staff of American Expeditionary Force commanding officer General John "Black Jack" Pershing.^[13]

The Coast and Geodetic Survey Corps returned to peacetime scientific pursuits after the war.^[13] Its first flag officer was Rear Admiral Raymond S. Patton, who was promoted from captain to rear admiral in 1936.

When the United States entered World War II in December 1941, the Coast and Geodetic Survey Corps again suspended its peacetime activities to support the war effort, often seeing front-line service. Over half of all Coast and Geodetic Survey officers were transferred to the U.S. Army, U.S. Navy, U.S. Marine Corps, or United States Army Air Forces, seeing duty in North Africa, Europe, the Pacific, and in the defense of North America as artillery surveyors, hydrographers, amphibious engineers, beachmasters (directors of disembarkation), instructors at service schools, and in a wide variety of technical positions. They also served as reconnaissance surveyors for a worldwide aeronautical charting effort, and a Coast and Geodetic Survey officer was the first commanding officer of the Army Air Forces Aeronautical Chart Plant at St. Louis, Missouri. Three officers who remained in Coast and Geodetic Survey service were killed during the war, as were eleven other Survey personnel.^[13]

After the war ended in August 1945, the Coast and Geodetic Survey again returned to peacetime scientific duties, although a significant amount of its work in succeeding years was related to support of military and naval requirements during the Cold War.^[13]

The seal of the ESSA Corps, a predecessor of the NOAA Corps that existed from 1965 to 1970.

ESSA Corps[edit]

When the Coast and Geodetic Survey was transferred to the newly established Environmental Science Services Administration on July 13, 1965,^[16] control of the corps was transferred from the Coast and Geodetic Survey to ESSA itself, and accordingly, the corps was redesignated the United States Environmental Science Services Administration Commissioned Officer Corps, known informally as the ESSA Corps. The ESSA Corps retained the responsibility of providing commissioned officers to operate the Coast and Geodetic Survey's ships and of providing a set of officers with technical skills in surveying for incorporation into the U.S. armed forces during wartime.

Following the establishment of the ESSA, Rear Admiral H. Arnold Karo was promoted to vice admiral in order to help lead the agency. He served as the first Deputy Administrator of ESSA and was the first vice admiral, and at the time the highest-ranking officer, in the combined history of the Coast and Geodetic Survey Corps and ESSA Corps. Rear Admiral James C. Tison, Jr. was the first director of the ESSA Corps.

NOAA Corps[edit]

The ESSA was reorganized and expanded to become the new National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration on October 3, 1970.^[17] As a result, the ESSA Corps was redesignated the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Commissioned Officer Corps, known informally as the NOAA Corps. Rear Admiral Harley D. Nygren was appointed as the first director of the new NOAA Corps.

In 1972, the NOAA Corps became the first uniformed service of the U.S. Government to recruit women on the same basis as men.^[18] On June 1, 2012, the NOAA research vessel RV Gloria Michelle, a boat manned by two NOAA Corps personnel, became the first vessel in the history of NOAA (or its ancestor organizations) to have an all-female crew.^[19][20]

On January 2, 2014, Michael S. Devany was promoted to vice admiral upon assuming duties as Deputy Under Secretary for Operations at NOAA, becoming only the second vice admiral in the combined history of the Coast and Geodetic Survey Corps, ESSA Corps, and NOAA Corps, and the first since the promotion of Vice Admiral Karo in 1965.^{[citation needed]}

Directors of the Coast and Geodetic Survey Corps, ESSA Corps, and NOAA Corps[edit]

Image	Rank	Name	Tenure	Notes
United States Coast and Geodetic Survey Corps
		Ernest Lester Jones	1917–1929	Superintendent (title changed to "Director" in 1919) of the U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey from 1915 until his death in 1929. As such, led the Coast and Geodetic Survey Corps from its creation in 1917 until 1929.[21] Was a colonel and intelligence officer in the U.S. Army during World War I.[22]
	Captain/ rear admiral	Raymond Stanton Patton	1929–1937	Director, U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey, which included leadership of the Coast and Geodetic Survey Corps, from 1929 until his death in 1937. Became first flag officer in Coast and Geodetic Survey Corps history upon promotion to rear admiral in 1936.[21]
	Rear admiral	Leo Otis Colbert	1938–1950	Director, U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey, from 1938 to 1950, which included leadership of the Coast and Geodetic Survey Corps.[21]
	Rear admiral	Robert Francis Anthony Studds	1950–1955	Director, U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey, from 1950 to 1955, which included leadership of the Coast and Geodetic Survey Corps.[21]
	Rear admiral	Henry Arnold Karo	1955–1965	Last Director, Coast and Geodetic Survey Corps (1955–1965); simultaneously served as Director of the Coast and Geodetic Survey. At end of tour as Director, simultaneously transferred to new ESSA Corps and received promotion to vice admiral on 13 July 1965 to serve as Deputy Administrator, Environmental Science Services Administration (ESSA), from 1965 to 1967. The first officer in the combined history of the Coast and Geodetic Survey Corps and ESSA Corps officer to achieve the rank of vice admiral.[21]
United States Environmental Science Services Administration Commissioned Officer Corps (ESSA Corps)
	Rear admiral	James C. Tison, Jr.	1965–1968	First Director, ESSA Corps. Served simultaneously as Director, U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey (1965–1968).[21]
	Rear admiral	Don A. Jones	1968–1970	Last Director, ESSA Corps. Served simultaneously as last Director, U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey (1968–1970). Then served in NOAA Commissioned Officer Corps and was Director, National Ocean Survey, from 1970 to 1972.[21]
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Commissioned Officer Corps (NOAA Corps)
	Rear admiral	Harley D. Nygren	1970–1981	First Director, NOAA Commissioned Officer Corps[23]
	Rear admiral	Kelly E. Taggart	1981–1986	[24]
	Rear admiral	Francis D. "Bill" Moran	1986–1990	[25]
	Rear admiral	Sigmund R. Petersen	1990–1995	[26]
	Rear admiral	William L. Stubblefield	1995–1999	[27]
	Rear admiral	Evelyn J. Fields	1999–2003	First woman and first African-American in the combined history of the Coast and Geodetic Survey Corps, ESSA Corps, and NOAA Corps to serve as director.[28]
	Rear admiral	Samuel P. De Bow, Jr.	2003–2007	[29]
	Rear admiral	Jonathan W. Bailey	2007–2012	[30]
	Rear admiral	Michael S. Devany	2012–2014	Promoted to vice admiral on 2 January 2014, only the second officer to achieve that rank in the combined history of the Coast and Geodetic Survey Corps, ESSA Corps, and NOAA Corps, and the first to do so since Vice Admiral Karo in 1965. After tour as Director, became Deputy Under Secretary for Operations, NOAA.[31][32]
	Rear admiral	David A. Score	2014–2017	[33]
	Rear admiral	Michael J. Silah	2017–present	[34]

Commissioned officers[edit]

The NOAA Corps uses the same commissioned officer ranks as the U.S. Navy and U.S. Coast Guard. While the grade of admiral has been established as a rank in the NOAA Corps,^[35][35] the rank has not been authorized for use by the United States Congress.^[36] Current NOAA Corps ranks rise from ensign to vice admiral,^[37][36] pay grades O-1 through O-9 respectively. NOAA Corps officers are appointed via direct commission and receive the same pay as other members of the uniformed services. They cannot hold a dual commission with another service, but inter-service transfers are sometimes permitted.

Commissioned officer ranks and abbreviations of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Commissioned Officer Corps
Ensign	Lieutenant (junior grade)	Lieutenant	Lieutenant Commander	Commander
O-1	O-2	O-3	O-4	O-5
ENS	LTJG	LT	LCDR	CDR

Captain	Rear Admiral (lower half)	Rear Admiral	Vice Admiral[38]
O-6	O-7	O-8	O-9
CAPT	RDML	RADM	VADM

NOAA commissioned officers can be militarized by the President.

33 USC 3061 states:

The President may, whenever in the judgment of the President a sufficient national emergency exists, transfer to the service and jurisdiction of a military department such vessels, equipment, stations, and officers of the Administration as the President considers to be in the best interest of the country. An officer of the Administration transferred under this section, shall, while under the jurisdiction of a military department, have proper military status and shall be subject to the laws, regulations, and orders for the government of the Army, Navy, or Air Force, as the case may be, insofar as the same may be applicable to persons whose retention permanently in the military service of the United States is not contemplated by law.

Uniforms[edit]

For formal service uniforms, the NOAA Corps wears the same Service Dress Blues and Service Dress Whites as the U.S. Navy, but with NOAA Corps insignia in place of U.S. Navy insignia. For daily work uniforms, the NOAA Corps wears the same Operational Dress Uniform (ODU) as the U.S. Coast Guard, but with NOAA Corps insignia in place of U.S. Coast Guard insignia.

• 

  NOAA Corps Combination Cap Device

• 

  NOAA Corps Device

• 

  An ODU uniform ball cap, with lieutenant commander rank insignia

• 

  NOAA Corps officers wearing service dress blues

See also[edit]

• NOAA ships and aircraft
• Awards and decorations of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
• National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Fisheries Office for Law Enforcement

Notes[edit]

References[edit]

External links[edit]

• NOAA Commissioned Corps