COMMANDING OFFICER
COMMANDER BROCK S. ECKEL
CDR Eckel graduated from Coast Guard Boot Camp at Training Center Cape May, New Jersey, in 1998. Following Telecommunications Class ‘A’ School, he was assigned to USCGC MUNRO as a Communications Watchstander and qualified as a Boarding Team Member. In May 2000, he was offered and accepted an appointment to the U.S. Coast Guard Academy. He graduated in 2004 with a Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering and was assigned as a Deck Watch Officer on board USCGC RUSH. He immediately returned afloat to serve as the Weapons Department Head on board USCGC SHERMAN. As WEPS he led law enforcement boardings and the custody crew for the largest maritime cocaine interdiction in CG history, the 300-foot M/V GATUN.
In 2008, he was assigned as Commanding Officer of USCGC WRANGELL while the cutter was deployed to the Persian Gulf in support of Coast Guard Patrol Forces Southwest Asia. During his tour, WRANGELL provided security support for the two oil platforms critical to maintaining 95 percent of Iraq’s gross domestic product. WRANGELL also won accolades for directing a multi-national surface action group, including Kuwaiti Coast Guard and Naval surface units and an Australian Naval helicopter, conducting a search and rescue resulting in the rescue of four Kuwaitis. He completed a follow-on tour as Commanding Officer of USCGC DRUMMOND, homeported in Miami, Florida, and carried out counter-narcotics and alien migration interdiction operations in the Florida Straits and Caribbean Sea.
After enjoying seven years of afloat duty, in 2011, he brought his operational experience ashore as the Optics Project Manager at Command, Control, and Communications Engineering Center leading support and development activities for the Coast Guard’s $74M inventory of Electro-Optic, InfraRed, and Portable Night Vision equipment. In 2013, he assumed the duties of the Navigation Sensors Section Chief and took on the responsibility for 18 military and civilian personnel and over 9,000 navigation sensors deployed across every Coast Guard cutter and small boat in the fleet.
Returning to sea duty in 2015, CDR Eckel served as the Executive Officer on board USCGC NORTHLAND, responsible for the development, training, health and well-being, administration, and good order and discipline of a 100+ member crew including 12 officers. USCGC NORTHLAND is homeported in Portsmouth, Virginia. During this tour NORTHLAND served as the on-scene commander for the M/V EL FARO search and rescue case, and completed deployments for counter narcotics, alien migration interdiction operations, and living marine resources enforcement missions.
CDR Eckel attended Air Force Command and Staff College at Maxwell AFB in Montgomery, Alabama, in 2018. He earned a Master of Military Operational Art and Science Degree.
Assigned as a Policy Analyst at The White House, Office of Science and Technology Policy in 2018, he served on the Executive Staff for the Ocean Policy Committee and led the Ocean Resource Management sub-committee. During his time at The White House he co-authored an Executive Order regarding Global Positioning System resiliency with the National Security Council.
CDR Eckel most recently served as the Chief of Operations Targeting at Joint Interagency Task Force South in Key West, Florida. As Targeting Chief, he employed surface and air assets to conduct detection and monitoring operations against illicit narcotics trafficking in the Eastern Pacific Ocean and Caribbean Sea. CDR Eckel’s efforts contributed to the achievement of all-time record cocaine seizures in 2021.
CDR Eckel is a South Florida native and currently resides in Gearhart, Oregon with his amazing wife and four children.