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YORKTOWN, Va. — Vice Adm. Karl L. Schultz assumed command of Coast Guard Atlantic Area, Defense Force East and DHS Joint Task Force-East during a change-of-command ceremony Thursday at Coast Guard Training Center Yorktown, Virginia.
Schultz relieved Vice Adm. William “Dean” Lee, who served as the Atlantic Area commander since May 2014.
Before assuming command of Atlantic Area, Lee served as the deputy for operations policy and capabilities, following his assignment as the 5th District commander in Portsmouth, Virginia.
Lee, a native of Richmond, Virginia, is a 1981 graduate of Officer Candidate School. He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of South Alabama and a Master of Arts from George Washington University. Lee retired from the Coast Guard Thursday after more than 35 years of service.
As Atlantic Area commander, Schultz is the operational commander for all U.S. Coast Guard forces east of the Rocky Mountains to the Arabian Gulf, from Canada to the Caribbean Sea, encompassing more than 14 million square miles of land, 42 states, and more than 4 million square miles of navigable water.
A 1983 graduate of the U.S. Coast Guard Academy, Schultz also holds a master’s degree in Public Administration from the University of Connecticut, and completed a one-year National Security Fellowship at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government in 2006.
Adm. Paul F. Zukunft, U.S. Coast Guard commandant, presided over the ceremony.
The change-of-command ceremony is a historic Coast Guard and Naval tradition. The event, which has remained unchanged for centuries, includes a reading of the command orders in the presence of all unit crew members.