PORT ANGELES – A Port Angeles-based Coast Guardsman has been named the agency’s top enlisted person of the year.
Petty Officer 1st Class Steven Schink, an independent health services technician aboard the Coast Guard Cutter Active, was recognized as the 2019 active duty Coast Guard’s Enlisted Person of the Year and meritoriously advanced to Chief Petty Officer during a modified ceremony held aboard Active while in port.
The 2019 Coast Guard Enlisted Persons of the Year banquet was scheduled for May, where Schink would have been formally recognized and meritoriously advanced, but the banquet was postponed until the fall due to the ongoing global coronavirus pandemic.
Schink provided healthcare and managed medical readiness for a crew of 75 Coast Guardsmen. He became one of the first Federal Aviation Administration licensed unmanned aircraft system pilots on a medium endurance cutter. He developed best practices for flight procedures, cutter evolutions and missions, which helped establish the Coast Guard’s UAS program
Schink is scheduled to transfer this summer to Coast Guard Air Station Detroit.