Port Townsend grad rises through the ranks, now heading to MIT

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Most incoming students at Massachusetts Institute of Technology might be a bit nervous, and rightly so. It is one of the most renowned centers of higher learning in the country. However, most new students aren’t Brian Erickson, who’s no stranger to high-stress situations. 

Erickson, 45, has just risen to the rank of captain in the Coast Guard. In his job, more than a GPA is often at risk. 

“Growing up in
Port Townsend made me a well-rounded young adult,” said Erickson, a 1992 Port Townsend High School graduate.

As is customary, Erickson was selected for the rank last year, and now the time of the actual promotion has come. His assignment is not tied directly to the rank, as his previous position could have been held by a captain. 

The new captain is now ready for reassignment, however, and will shortly be starting off down a new path, attending the Massachusetts Institute of Technology on a fellowship assignment. He was selected to attend the MIT Sloan School of Management.

As the Coast Guard’s representative to MIT, Erickson will complete a one-year fast-paced business degree, leaving with not only an MBA but also a “new outlook on how to develop business and innovation,” he said.

Erickson is considering going into business in the future, and wants to keep as many doors open as possible. Soon, he will be able to work closely with classmates and create a network of people that will no doubt aid his future. 

GROWING UP IN PT

Erickson credits the Port Townsend community and the robust maritime environment as key components in his development and leadership.

“I had a kind upbringing from a kind community, and I took a bit of that and shared it with others along the way,” he said. 

Erickson played football and baseball when he was younger, and worked as a volunteer fireman through a tech program his senior year of high school. One constant was flying with his father, Warren Erickson, a fixture at the local Jefferson County International Airport.

Flying with his dad not only sparked Erickson’s love of flying, but it also helped him build up flight hours that would prove useful later in life, giving him an advantage in flight school.

As graduation approached, some friends of his were discussing enlisting in the Coast Guard, and the three of them decided to enter together. 

The Coast Guard provided the perfect road out of town, Erickson said, who wanted to explore the world outside of Port Townsend but didn’t have a desire to serve overseas. 

“It was a neat mix of departing the town but still being able to stay in the United States and serve in the armed forces,” Erickson said.

Another factor that spurred his decision was the work he did with the Coast Guard Cutter Point Bennett, which was moored in the marina during Erickson’s senior year. He spent time each day with the unit.

After deciding to enlist, his mom, Karen Erickson, needed to sign him up for the Coast Guard because he was only 17. One month after graduation, he was heading to boot camp.

Now, having had over
15 different assignments during his career, Erickson said it was an “awesome fit.”

HISTORY OF SERVICE

While at his first assignment in Key West, Florida, Erickson applied for aviation electronics technician school. He was surprised to hear in response that his test scores made him eligible to apply to the Coast Guard Academy. With support from his parents, Erickson applied and was accepted to the academy. 

Ensign Erickson graduated from the academy in 1998 with a degree in naval architecture and marine engineering, having served as class vice-president and president. He also got his private pilot’s certificate during his four years of study.

His first assignment was aboard Coast Guard Cutter Mellon, based in Seattle. He worked as an engineering-officer-in-training, quickly qualifying as a deck watch officer. However, his stint on the Mellon was short-lived, and within three months he applied for flight school.

Following graduation from the Navy flight school in Pensacola, now-Lieutenant Erickson returned to the Olympic Peninsula, Florida, flying the Coast Guard helicopters out of Air Station Port Angeles in 2001.

His first rescue missions were made difficult by the high winds and fog that plague the peninsula, but Erickson became a flying pilot by 2003, landing at Neah Bay and moving patients inland who needed higher levels of care.

He then completed many successful rescue missions out of Port Angeles as a Coast Guard aircraft commander, including those involving stranded fishermen and search-and-rescue.

From 2005 to 2006, Erickson took a trip up north, serving in the Coast Guard’s Polar Operations Division. There, he took the last trip to the North Pole before the division shut down. This trip was only the third time a U.S. surface vessel reached the North Pole, which was completed with two of Erickson’s helicopters on deck. 

In 2007, Erickson began classes at Purdue University to earn his master’s degree in aerospace engineering structures. He was selected for the highly-competitive program by the Coast Guard, which prepared him for three subsequent years at Aviation Logistics Center, where he was the C-130-H Product Line Engineer. He was responsible for the support and maintenance of a 24-airplane fleet.

In 2012, Erickson, then a lieutenant commander, served as the aeronautical engineering officer at Coast Guard Air Station Savannah in Georgia, and flew rescue missions in an Eurocopter MH-65 Dolphin, a twin-engine helicopter.

Erickson spent 2015 to 2018 at the Coast Guard headquarters in Washington, D.C. for a staff assignment in the Office of Budgets and Programs, where he assisted in building the annual budget for the entire branch and preparing top commanders to testify before Congress. 

Afterward, he returned to Savannah, now assuming command of the Coast Guard Air Station there with his new rank. Erickson was now in charge of 110 people, five helicopters, 26 pilots, and two locations with 24/7 search and rescue response, he said. The air station was responsible for the coastal security of South Carolina, Georgia, and northern Florida.

One especially important mission to Erickson came in 2019 when a cargo ship, designated as a vehicle carrier and loaded with more than 4,000 new cars, capsized in relatively shallow water. A fire raged at the stern of the ship, and several of the
24 crewmembers were trapped below the hull. 

Two helicopter crews departed Air Station Savannah at Erickson’s command, and managed to save all the ship’s crew members in a nighttime rescue mission.

Erickson will be leaving Savannah having saved
35 lives and flown 2600 hours with the Coast Guard.

BEYOND SERVICE

“I still don’t know what I want to do when I grow up,” Erickson half-joked when considering plans beyond the Coast Guard. 

A future with Boeing might be in store, he said, given his background in aerospace engineering and business management. 

Boeing also fits in with his love of the Pacific Northwest, which he said provides simpler living and, importantly, a view of the mountains. 

“It’s something I miss,” he said.