Vice Admiral Charles E. Larkin, USCG, Commander, Coast Guard Pacific Area and 12th Coast Guard District, was born in Los Angeles, Calif. and graduated from high school in Seattle, Wash. After enlisting in the Coast Guard in January 1945 he entered the Coast Guard Academy in June of that year. Following graduation four years later he reported to the Boston-based USCGC Bibb. There, while serving as navigator, he was awarded the Silver Lifesaving Medal for rescuing a drowning crewmember who had fallen into the harbor after slipping from the icy dock.
In 1985, after another year on a Boston homeported ocean station vessel, the admiral entered the Navy Flight Training Program, graduating in September 1952. He spent the next six years flying at various aviation commands from Salem, Mass. to Kodiak, Alaska. In 1957 he received training as a helicopter pilot and while assigned to Air Station San Francisco was awarded the Air Medal for the helicopter resuce of a seriously injured man from a vessel 38 miles offshore in fog bank.
The early sixties saw him continuing his involvement with Coast Guard aviation, going from Barbers Point, Hawaii to Elizabeth City, N.C. and to Naples, Italy where he served as commanding officer. In 1968, then commander, Larkin beame a distinguished graduate of the Air War College at Maxwell Air Force Base. Also during this period he acquired a master of science degree from George Washington University.
After two years as executive officer of the Aviation Training Center in Mobile, Ala., he returned to San Francisco Air Station as commanding officer. The air station received the Commandant's Unit Commendation and he was awarded the Coast Guard Commendation Medal. After three years on the West Coast, the admiral was assigned to Coast Guard Headquarters as chief, aviation branch where he earned the Meritorious Service Medal.
While serving as Chief of Staff, 7th Coast Guard District in Miami, he was selected for promotion to flag rank and pinned on his new stars in July 1976. Here he was awarded a second Meritorious Service Medal. The admiral then assumed the responsibilities of chief, office of personnel at Coast Guard Headquarters where he was awarded his third Meritorious Service Medal. Vice Admiral Larkin left Washington, D.C. in the summer of 1978 for Seattle, Wash. where he took over as Commander, 13th Coast Guard District. During this period he received the Legion of Merit. He then served as Superintendent, U.S. Coast Guard Academy until June 1982 when he assumed his present command.
The admiral is married to the former Katherin Phillips Buck of Glastonbury, Conn. They have four children.
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