Adm. Thomas Collins

dm. Thomas Collins, commandant of the Coast Guard, is managing one of the most difficult transitions in the Guard's 215 years. As a part of the Department of Homeland Security, the Coast Guard is responsible for monitoring and ensuring the safety of 95,000 miles of coastline and 361 ports, where about 7,000 ships make some 50,000 port calls annually.

"We must change our internal organization and our structure," Collins said in a speech last year at the Institute for Foreign Policy-Fletcher Conference on National Security, Strategy, and Policy. "We must change our relationships."

The Coast Guard is one of two independent Homeland Security agencies that report directly to Secretary Tom Ridge. Given its mission, the Coast Guard must develop new relationships with agencies within the Border and Transportation Security Directorate, even though it doesn't formally answer to the directorate.

Collins, 57, is no stranger to change. One of the posts he held during his 34 years with the Coast Guard was as head of the Office of Acquisitions, where he laid the groundwork for the program known as Deepwater-a project focusing on modernizing the ships, aircraft, and sensors that the Coast Guard uses to perform open-ocean missions.

At Collins's confirmation hearing, Sen. Olympia Snow, R-Maine, told him: "You possess, based on your experience, I think, the rare combination of Coast Guard experience, skilled leadership, and experience in working with other agencies."

But the commandant is not as popular as the man he succeeded, the widely admired James Loy, who in December became deputy secretary of Homeland Security. Those familiar with Collins say that he is more cerebral but less politically astute than Loy.

"He has different strengths than Admiral Loy," says a Coast Guard insider. "He's very comfortable working with industry, but, because he was in charge of small boats as captain of the Port of Long Island Sound in New Haven, he knows the sacrifices ordinary Coasties-sailors-make day in and day out."

Collins, a native of Stoughton, Mass., is a graduate of the Coast Guard Academy and received a master's degree in liberal studies from Wesleyan University. He has a master's in business administration from the University of New Haven.