Surviving Hell
Tuskegee Airman
recalls horrors o f
World War II
See Local News, page 3
‘City 0/Roses’
Number 44
UO
Ronoring
Fr Veterans
h te rrie r 4 3
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Wednesday • November 13, 2013
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Former Portland resident Michelle Watson talks with her U.S. Coast
Guard Reserve security team during rehersals for President Obama’s
second inauguration last January. One o f the first African American
women to graduate from the Coast Guard Academy, she ju s t finished
a year in which she m et the President and First Lady and was pro­
moted as the first African-American woman to take command o f a
Coast Guard security unit in Ft. Eustis, Va.
photo by
S taff S gt . O pal
Michelle Watson excels as career military leader
M ichael L eighton
T he P ortland O bserver
by
It’s been a long and rewarding journey from Harriet
Tubman School in Portland to a distinguished career in the
U.S. Coast Guard for Michelle Watson.
The former Portland and Vancouver area resident has just
finished a year in which she met President Obama and the First
Lady; was promoted as the first African-American woman
commander of a Coast Guard security unit in Virginia; and
served as a deputy commander in security for the president’s
second inauguration in Washington, D.C., last January.
Watson, 40, made Coast Guard history last month when
she was put in charge o f the U.S. Coast Guard Reserve Port
Security Unit 305 at Ft. Eustis, Va. As commander, she is the
first African-American woman to oversee the 172-member
expeditionary unit which provides waterside protection to
key assets and supports military and humanitarian opera­
tions worldwide.
She credited the mentorship and support she has received
of her Coast Guard colleagues, along with the support of
family and friends for her long record of success in the
continued
on page 8