PHOTOS AVAILABLE: Coast Guard Sector San Francisco holds change-of-command ceremony

News Release

U.S. Coast Guard 11th District Pacific Southwest Contact: 11th District Public Affairs Office: (510) 437-3325 After Hours: (510) 772-8865 11th District online newsroom

Coast Guard Sector San Francisco holds change-of-command ceremony

Editor's Note: Click on images above to download full-resolution version.

SAN FRANCISCO — Coast Guard Sector San Francisco personnel hosted a change-of-command ceremony Thursday on Yerba Buena Island.

Coast Guard Rear Adm. Brian K. Penoyer, the Eleventh Coast Guard District commander, presided over the ceremony, where Capt. Taylor Q. Lam replaced Capt. Marie B. Byrd as the Sector San Francisco commander and Captain of the Port of San Francisco. 

Lam recently completed an assignment as a national security fellow at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government. In this senior service school program, he researched how the U.S. marine transportation system's resiliency could be improved given challenges associated with the novel coronavirus pandemic.

Byrd, who has served as the Sector San Francisco commander since 2019, retired after 26 years of service in the Coast Guard.

Under Byrd’s command, Sector San Francisco members responded to 2,936 search and rescue cases, saving or assisting 2,860 lives, prosecuted 2,240 law enforcement boardings, responded to 529 pollution incidents and completed 352 marine casualty investigations.

The Sector San Francisco commander's responsibilities include captain of the port, federal on-scene coordinator, officer-in-charge of marine inspections, federal maritime security coordinator and search-and-rescue mission coordinator. 

The area of responsibility spans from the California-Orgeon border to the San Luis Obispo County line, as well as much of Nevada, Utah, parts of Wyoming and includes more than 2,500 miles of shoreline within the San Francisco Bay and its tributaries. 

-USCG-