It has been a long road since Coast Guard Commander Emily Tharp graduated from Fredericktown High School as the co-valedictorian of the class of 1997.
After graduating from the Coast Guard Academy and moving her way up through the ranks of the U.S. Coast Guard through a variety of assignments, she is about to embark on the next part of her journey as she will be promoted to captain this June.
Originally, Tharp’s plan was to go to the Air Force Academy, and she got her Congressional appointment there as well, but once she learned about the Coast Guard more she had no question of where she wanted to be.
“What they do as far as peacetime missions really spoke to me,” Tharp said.
At the Coast Guard Academy, she earned her bachelor’s degree in naval architecture and marine engineering, and also has masters of science degrees in naval architecture and marine engineering and industrial operations engineering from the University of Michigan.
She graduated from the Coast Guard Academy in 2001, and her first assignment was on U.S. Coast Guard Cutter (USCGC) Polar Star, an ice breaker stationed out of Seattle that is still in service. She was a student engineer and deployed to both the Arctic and Antarctica for ice breaking and scientific research operations.
Tharp also was an engineer officer on the USCGC Thetis, based in Key West, Fla., where she assisted in drug interdiction and migrant law enforcement in the Caribbean and the East Pacific Oceans for three years.
“I have gained such an appreciation for everything associated with the Coast Guard, as it has really gained in relevancy since we serve this kind of middle ground,” said Tharp. “We are the military but at the same time we don’t look like this big, scary combatant ship. But we do participate in every major war and patrol our exclusive economic zones, keeping an eye on things.”
Tharp has been an operator on ships and has also assisted in building and sustaining Coast Guard vessels. She was the executive officer of the U.S. Coast Guard’s Offshore Patrol Cutter Project Resident Office in Panama City recently, where she facilitated standing up the new unit at the shipbuilder’s facility. This is the largest acquisition project in the history of the Coast Guard. During her time on site, the unit grew from 18 to 68 members as they constructed the first two hulls. Tharp supported the team in quality assurance, reduction and testing and evaluation for the construction of USCGC Argaus and USCGC Chase, which will be completed in the future.
Other previous tours of duty include program depot maintenance branch chief for the Surfaces Forces Logistics Center ice breaker, buoy and construction tender product line. There, she led a geographic dispersed workforce of 34 Coast Guard city duty and civilian personnel for maintenance support for 86 cutter and 29 barge assets from Maine to Guam. She also served at the Marine Safety Office New Orleans and Sector New Orleans conducting marine casualty investigations and suspension and revocation procedures as an investigator.
The list goes on as far as her duties over her 21 years of experience.
Tharp received the American Society of Naval Engineers Perry Award for the Coast Guard Naval Engineering Program. She has three Coast Guard Meritorious Service medals, three Coast Guard Commendation medals and one Coast Guard Achievement medal.
Like much of the military branches, the Coast Guard is primarily made up of men, reportedly with only about 15% women. Tharp is now one of the most senior naval engineers in the Coast Guard. She said the service is always looking to increase diversity.
“The really great thing about our service is that in the Coast Guard, we really have all gender-neutral jobs,” Tharp said. “There are certainly less females in naval engineering, but the culture of our service is what I think makes the Coast Guard great. I have had overwhelmingly positive mentors and have certainly seen the numbers increase as far as the naval engineering speciality for women."
Next on the docket for Tharp is her graduation from the Eisenhower School for National Security and Resource Strategy in June, and then reporting to the Coast Guard Yard, where she will assume the rank of captain, known as O-6 in the Coast Guard. Tharp said she is proud of this, saying that the percentage of selection is fairly slim.
“I will have additional duties and responsibility and for me, as an engineer, I will be the industrial manager of Coast Guard Yard in Baltimore,” said Tharp. “The Coast Guard has one shipyard in the whole country, and it is in Baltimore. This is pretty significant, and I’ll be the first female to hold the role.”
As industrial manager, she is involved in a $100 million business where ships are brought in and fixed. She has one commanding officer above her, and Tharp said she is on track to compete for that position in the future.
“This is a leadership role in charge of sustaining our Coast Guard vessels on the East Coast,” said Tharp.
Tharp has family with military experience, as her father was in the Navy for four years and her grandfather fought in the Korean War. But that wasn’t the main reason she decided to serve. She said that since she grew up in the inland, rural community of Fredericktown, she didn’t know much about the Coast Guard until she was about a junior in high school. But through various road trips, she realized that it is a big world out there that she still had yet to see.
“I'm proud of my Knox County roots; my participation in 4-H Junior Fair, teachers/mentors at Fredericktown High School and my family have been instrumental in my military career,” Tharp said. “I'm proud to serve this great nation.”
She added, “I always had a thirst for adventure and wanting to serve somehow. I love a good challenge.”
