Page 106 - Leadership Lessons of the White House Fellows

CHAPTER 9

LEADERS CREATE A

SENSE OF URGENCY

When Craig Coy (WHF 83–84) left the White House to return to the Coast
Guard at the conclusion of his Fellowship year, he thought that was the end
of his time as a Washington insider, and he was okay with that. A helicopter
aircraft commander, Coy was thrilled to get back to his choppers and resume
flying rescue, drug interdiction, and environmental protection missions for
the Coast Guard. However, he had done such an outstanding job as a Fel-
low working with President Ronald Reagan’s domestic policy advisor that it
wasn’t long before he was brought back into the administration again, this
time to work with Vice President George H. W. Bush’s counterterrorism task
force. Just as he had risen through the ranks in the Coast Guard, Coy steadily
climbed the government ladder and soon was named deputy director for
combating terrorism at the National Security Council.
In that job he helped implement new strategies to keep the nation safe
and also helped devise and carry out responses to threatening acts such as
the hijacking of the Italian passenger ship Achille Lauro, which was
commandeered off Egypt by Palestinian terrorists in 1985. The hijackers
murdered the American passenger Leon Klinghoffer, a disabled Jewish
man, and threw his body overboard along with his wheelchair. To help
bring the hijackers to justice, the United States sent navy jets to intercept
a plane attempting to carry the hijackers to freedom, forcing it to land in
Sicily. Navy Seals and Delta Force teams were dispatched too, and all the
hijackers were captured, charged, and convicted for their crimes. Coy also

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