Rear Admiral R. Dennis Sirois was assigned as the Assistant Commandant for Operations in June 2004, reporting from his previous assignment as Director of Joint Interagency Task Force (JIATF) South, Key West, Florida. His responsibilities include management oversight of a wide range of Coast Guard programs essential to public safety and national and homeland security. These include: Maritime Safety, Law Enforcement, Homeland Security, and National Defense. Maritime Safety programs include all federal aids to navigation, search and rescue, recreational boating safety, bridge administration, and domestic and international icebreaking. Law Enforcement and Homeland Security encompasses illegal drug and migrant smuggling, living marine resource protection, counter terrorism, and enforcement of all federal laws on U.S. navigable waters. The National Defense mission requires orchestrating the activity of Coast Guard forces to support Department of Defense plans and goals by providing unique and non-redundant capabilities to Combatant Commanders. He also directs the allocation and distribution of Coast Guard forces (aircraft, vessels, shore facilities and operational command infrastructure) for operational employment.
At JIATF South, RADM Sirois led a joint, interagency, and international team representing 11 countries that conducted counter narco-trafficking operations. His area of operations spanned 42 million square miles that included 30 counties and 11 territories from Mexico to Argentina and across the Caribbean. Under his direction, JIATF South disrupted over 300 metric tons of cocaine, assisted in the arrest of 398 persons and the seizure or destruction of 127 aircraft or vessels. He oversaw the resumption of the Air Bridge Denial Program in Columbia and the strengthening of ties to federal Law Enforcement agencies and International partners.
Prior to JIATF South, Admiral Sirois served as Director of Reserve and Training at U.S. Coast Guard Headquarters in Washington, D.C. He was also a member of the DoD Reserve Forces Policy Board, the Board of Trustees of the Coast Guard Academy, Chairman of the Commandant’s Leadership Advisory Council, and coordinated the Commandant’s Diversity Advisory Council. His first flag officer assignment was as Staff Director of the President’s Interagency Task Force on Roles and Missions of the U.S. Coast Guard.
Admiral Sirois’ operational career includes service as Chief of Staff to Commander, Coast Guard Pacific Area/Maritime Defense Zone Pacific, Alameda, California, and Chief of Operations and Director, Coast Guard Auxiliary 14th Coast Guard District, Honolulu, Hawaii. His six afloat assignments include commands of four Coast Guard Cutters.
Staff assignments include Deputy Director, International Affairs, Office of the Commandant; Coast Guard Liaison to the Chief of Naval Operations, The Pentagon; Afloat Assignment Officer in the Officer Personnel Division, CG Headquarters; and Assistant Professor of Physics at the Coast Guard Academy.
Admiral Sirois earned a BS in Marine Science from the U.S. Coast Guard Academy, an MA in Liberal Studies with a major in Physics from Wesleyan University, an MS in Management from Rennsaelear Polytechnic Institute, and an MA in National Security and Strategic Studies from the U.S. Naval War College.