Rear Admiral Baumgartner serves as Commander of the Seventh Coast Guard District headquartered in Miami, Florida. As District Commander, he is responsible for all Coast Guard operations in the Southeast United States and the Caribbean Basin including Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands and over 15,000 miles of coastline. In addition, the Seventh District shares operational borders with 34 Foreign Nations and Territories.
Prior to assuming command of the Seventh District, Rear Admiral Baumgartner served as the Judge Advocate General and Chief Counsel of the United States Coast Guard from April 2006 to April 2010. Rear Admiral Baumgartner began his Coast Guard career in surface operations and served as the Commanding Officer of USCGC POINT VERDE and USCGC PENOBSCOT BAY, as a deck officer on USCGC DEPENDABLE, and as an operations center controller for the Eighth Coast Guard District where he directed search and rescue, law enforcement and other Coast Guard operations in the Gulf of Mexico.
Prior to his tenure as Judge Advocate General and Chief Counsel, Rear Admiral Baumgartner served as Chief, Office of Maritime and International Law, at Coast Guard Headquarters and headed the U.S. delegation to the Legal Committee of the International Maritime Organization. From 2002 to 2004, he served as the Staff Judge Advocate for the Seventh Coast Guard District in Miami, FL and as the Chief of Staff for Homeland Security Task Force Southeast, an interagency task force charged with planning for and executing Caribbean mass migration deterrence and response operations. Previous legal assignments include the Eighth Coast Guard District, in New Orleans, LA, Coast Guard Maintenance & Logistics Command Pacific in Alameda, CA, and Naval Legal Service Office West in San Francisco, CA. He also served as the Chief, Inventory Management Branch at Coast Guard Supply Center Brooklyn.
Rear Admiral Baumgartner is a native of Collinsville, IL and a 1980 graduate of the U.S. Coast Guard Academy where he received Bachelor of Science degrees in Marine Engineering and Electrical Engineering. He holds a Master of Business Administration degree from the University of New Orleans and a Juris Doctor degree, magna cum laude, from Harvard Law School where he also served as an editor on the Harvard Law Review.