ET2 Stephens earns CCOQ

At Training Center Cape May, the mission is to deliver dynamic
training that sets the foundation for the Coast Guard’s professional
culture and develops job-ready skills in recruits to build our
workforce for generations to come. That training is carefully overseen
by a more than 50-person corps of highly-trained company commanders
that develop civilians of today into Coast Guard men and women of
tomorrow.
Every three months company commanders and regimental staff nominate
someone they think personifies the Coast Guard’s core values of honor,
respect, and devotion to duty. This quarter, Petty Officer 2nd Class
Joshua Stephens was selected as the Company Commander of the Quarter.
Earning the title of CCOQ isn’t easy. You are competing against the
best people the service has to offer. Stephens was humble about the
title his fellow shipmates bestowed upon him.
“There are 50 other people that I work with that are company
commanders that I see do things that go above and beyond the normal
call of duty every single day,” Stephens said.
Stephens, a native from Grovehill, Ala, and rated as an Electronics
Technician, graduated company commander school at Training Center Cape May on July 7, 2017.
“I knew I wanted to be a company commander because my life was
changed, and I felt my company commanders were a huge part of that,
and if I could change one life then it would be a huge success,” said
Stephens.
Before applying to and completing one of the hardest C-Schools the
Coast Guard offers, Stephens’ served aboard the Coast Guard Cutter
Rush, TRACEN Petaluma; ET “A” School, TRACEN Yorktown, Coast Guard
Cutter Tahoma, Coast Guard Cutter Wrangell, and the Coast Guard Cutter
Mackinaw.
While performing the Coast Guard’s missions, Stephens also earned
multiple awards, including the Coast Guard Commendation Medal, Coast
Guard Achievement Medal, the Cutterman insignia, and the Company
Commander Insignia.
Stephens was surprisingly candid about the reason he was able to be
selected as the CCOQ. He stated that his family is the most important
thing in his life and his wife is the one that allows him to focus on
the work he has to do on the regiment.
“Absolutely none of this would be possible without my wife,” Stephens
said. “She sacrifices every single day just so I can be here [working]
these crazy hours.”