Rear Admiral Ralph Utley retired from the Coast Guard in July of 2004 after completing more than 34 years on active duty. He was commissioned and ensign in June 1970 following graduation from the U. S. Coast Guard Academy.
Rear Admiral Utley’s last duty assignment was as Assistant Commandant for Acquisition at Coast Guard Headquarters where he oversaw the procurement of over $2.5 billion of work in progress. This included 30 buoy tending ships, 180 utility boats, 67 coastal patrol boats, 100 motor life boats, an ice breaking ship, 6 C-130 J aircraft, sensors for maritime domain awareness in 10 U. S. ports and a “911” system for the country and it’s territories.
Rear Admiral Utley is an FAA licensed Airline Transport Pilot in multi-engine fixed wing and helicopters with nearly 5,000 flight hours. He was a Coast Guard aviator commanding two Coast Guard air stations, CGAS Miami and CGAS Brooklyn. He also served aviation operational tours at CGAS Detroit, the Polar Operations and Training Divisions at Aviation Training Center Mobile, Alabama, and as operations officer at Group/Air Station North Bend, Oregon.
Rear Admiral Utley’s most recent operational tour was Command of the Fourteen Coast Guard District Honolulu, Hawaii, in charge of all Coast Guard missions from Japan and Singapore to between Hawaii and San Francisco.
Staff tours consisted of Director of the Navy Command Center and Interagency Support Division; Executive Director of the U. S. Interdiction Coordinators staff for counter-narcotics; Chief of Law Enforcement, then Chief of Operations, Seventh Coast Guard District Miami, responsible for the Caribbean; Chief, Officer Status Branch (promotion boards) and Chief, Functional Training Branch.
In 2004 he was appointed Deputy Federal Security Director at Seattle-Tacoma Airport for the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), a Transportation Senior Executive Service position.
From 2004 to 2006 he was the Acting Director, Office of Counter-Narcotics Enforcement for the Department of Homeland Security and the U. S. Interdiction Coordinator for the office of National Drug Control Policy. Here he became an expert on border issues with the Southwest Border a focus.
From 2007 to 2009 he held the position of Business Development Analyst Principal with Lockheed Martin Systems Integration – Owego.
Education: B. S. Management, U. S. Coast Guard Academy
MPA Harvard University’s, John F. Kennedy School of Government
MSSM University of Southern California
Graduate, Air War College
Rear Admiral Utley has sons, Scott a laboratory technician at Torrington Hospital in Connecticut, and Keith, a lieutenant commander in the U. S. Coast Guard. He also has two grandchildren.