COMMANDING OFFICER
Commander Earl H. Potter
CDR Potter is CGC Active's thirty-first Commanding Officer. Prior to assuming command, CDR Potter served as the 2024/2025 Secretary of Defense Fellow at the Alaska Air Group. A 2007 graduate of Officer Candidate School, he is a career sea-going officer and has spent nine of his eighteen-year career at sea.
CDR Potter's other sea tours include serving as Executive Officer aboard CGC Active, command of the Fast Response Cutter CGC Robert Yered in Miami, FL, and the Island Class Patrol Boat CGC Maui, which was based in Manama, Bahrain and attached to Patrol Forces Southwest Asia (PATFORSWA) in the Central Command (CENTCOM) area of operations as part of the Coast Guard's longest-serving expeditionary unit. He has also served aboard America's tall ship, CGC Eagle, as a Deck Watch officer and summer instructor.
CDR Potter has served in multiple staff assignments ashore, most recently he was detailed to the Coast Guard's Office of Congressional Affairs where he served as the Deputy House Liaison. The Office of Coast Guard Congressional Affairs is the primary conduit between the Coast Guard and Members of Congress and their staff.
His other staff assignments include serving as a member of the faculty at the Coast Guard Academy, where he taught international relations, comparative politics, and American government in the Academy's Department of Humanities. Prior to this staff assignment he served as the military aide to the Coast Guard's Pacific Area Commander.
CDR Potter is from Mystic, CT. He is married to Lily Potter and they have two children. He holds a Master in International Relations from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University and a Master in Public Administration from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. He earned his Bachelor in Political Science and Economics from Southern Oregon University in 2005 and is a 1999 National Outdoor Leadership School graduate.