MCPOCG Vincent W. Patton III, USCG (Ret.)

A native of Detroit, Michigan, Dr. Patton retired from the U.S. Coast Guard on November 1, 2002, after serving 30 years of active duty. His career included staff and operational assignments both afloat and ashore throughout the United States, and a joint military service assignment in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and Haiti.

Patton became the first African American selected as the service's senior-most enlisted ranking position as the eighth Master Chief Petty Officer of the Coast Guard from May 1998-October 2002. As the service's top senior enlisted leader and ombudsman, he was the principal advisor to the Commandant of the Coast Guard, his directorates, and the Secretaries of Transportation and Defense, with primary focus on quality of life issues, career development, work environment and personnel matters affecting more than 40,000 active duty, reserve enlisted, and civilian personnel servicewide. He routinely addressed these specific issues before appropriate Senate and House committees in the United States Congress, as well as with the Commander-in-Chief, along with his senior enlisted counterparts of the other four military services.

His numerous military awards include the Distinguished Service Medal, which is the nation’s highest peace time recognition for performance of duty. He also earned the Cutterman Insignia (sea duty recognition) and is one of a few Coast Guardsmen to have earned the coveted "Parachutist Wings" specialty badge during his assignment with Joint Task Force 160.

Dr. Patton received his doctorate of education from American University, a master’s degree in counseling psychology at Loyola University at Chicago, a B.S. in social work from Shaw College and a B.A. in communication from Pacific College. Since retirement from the U.S. Coast Guard he later earned a Master of Theology in Applied Religious Studies from the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, CA. His extensive military education includes the Department of Defense Equal Opportunity Management Institute, U.S. Army Sergeants Major Academy, and the Coast Guard Chief Petty Officers Academy.

He is a member on the Unitarian Universalist Trauma Response Ministry Team.