Family Photo May 10, 2010 St. Ignace, MI

Change of Command.

May 10, 2010. Coast Guard Change of Command. Coast Guard Station St. Ignace, MI.
Rich got his first Officer in Charge job in the Coast Guard. It's a pretty big deal and we are very proud of him!

The following pictures are from the Change of Command Ceromony May 10.

Rich addressed the audience and crew of the station.

This was his speach.

Captain, friends, family and shipmates; thank you for joining me today and sharing this experience.
My father, LCDR Delano Berg USN (ret.) travelled 14 hours yesterday to be here, thank you!
Master Chief, thank you for your assitance this week. It has made my transition to this unit and my first command seemless and straightforward.
To the crew of Station St. Ignace, I look forward to working with you. I have observed many of you this week and I am impressed by your upbeat attitude and professionalism. I ask that you continue your hard work and dedication under my command. Our success will hinge upon team cordination, holding eachother accountable, and maintaining a positive work environment.
I want to share three of my goals durring my term here at the station. I will focus on saftey, unit effencency and crew wellbeing.
As first responders, law enforcement officers and aids to navigation technicians, you are placed in harms way to serve to public. You can expect from me that I will provide you the training and equipment necessary to complete your missions safely and I expect from you that you will use your judgement and experience to never undertake unacceptable risk.
We will provide our services to the public to the best of our ability and operate with fiscal stewardship, environmental sensitivity and efficiency in mind. Change will not be made for changes sake, change will be driven by necessity or improvement in practices.
And lastly, I will focus on you because you are our greatest resource. I will provide you with a challenging and mentally stimulating work environment. I will assist you with your development both professionally and personnaly. . I encourage innovation and am a strong advocate for morale, let have fun, after all, this is the best job on the planet.

From Left to Right- Rich, the master chief relieved, captain of the CG sector in Ste Sault Marie. Each of them addressed the crew and the audience.

The crew of the station.

Captain asked Rich to inspect the crew before he accepted command.

At the end the offical transfer of command from master cheif to Rich.

Info on the station:

Coast Guard Station St. Ignace is a heavy-weather small boat station that serves the Straits of Mackinac including Mackinac Island, Mackinac Bridge, and the Northern portions of Lakes Michigan and Huron. Station St. Ignace's missions are Search & Rescue (SAR), Aids to Navigation, Homeland Defense, Law Enforcement, and promotion of safe boating practices. Crews from the Station assist boaters in approximately 100 cases every year, the AtoN department maintains 316 major, minor and private aids to navigation, and Law Enforcement crews conduct approximately 100 boardings each year.

Station's Website
http://www.uscg.mil/d9/staStIgnace/

Last Days of School in WA

Both of the boys had to leave amazing school in Bremerton. We will miss them so much!

Roman attended Sycamore Tree Pre-K. He really bloomed and learned so much.

His Teachers Mrs. Myer and Mrs. Brown.

Roman's favorite spot at school was the tire swing with his friends.

We brought treats to share with the class on the last day.

Roman in front of the school on his last day.

Griffin also had a great school that we were lucky enough to be a part of. 2 days a week for 1.5 hours he attended a playgroup at Holly Ridge Center. At the age of 17 months we started at Holly Ridge to help with delayed gross motor skills and delayed speech. By time we left, he tested above his age on his speech and he has no signs of any delay at all anymore. He is a perfectly developed little boy (but we already knew that!).

Here with his teacher Ms. Kerry and his friends playing at the sensory table.

Everyday to start class the kids sing the apple song and put their apples on the tree.

Yep! That is paint and a bunch of 2 year olds! The teachers at Holly Ridge are fearless!

Griffin loves to paint.....

especially with his fingers!

To show our appreciation for the kid's teachers I made them apple cupcakes.

April 8, 2010
Good News! My amazing hard working very smart husband has earned a rank advancement from BM Chief to BM Senior Chief (SC)!
I was very honored that he asked that I put his SC Anchors on along side his boss LT Melanie Burnham. Shortly after we found out Rich would be on the BMSC advancement list we were notified we would be transferred from CG Station Seattle. The advancement/pinning ceremony took place on his last day of work in front of the entire station.

I'm not gonna lie, I was not thrilled about moving from Washington. I lived in a town, Bremerton, that I'd fallen in love with and made friends that I adored being around. That being said, as I stood with my husband in front his fellow coasties and felt the mutual respect and honor in that room; my uncertainty of moving turned into pride. I'm PROUD to be a Coast Guard family; and am honored to go where ever that duty may take us.

So.......

April 3o, 2010 our packers came and packed all of our belongings in a huge truck headed to St. Ignace, MI.