CLEVELAND —A native of Newark, Ohio, and a 1986 graduate of Newark Senior High School and current resident of North Olmsted, Ohio, retired, Friday, from the Coast Guard following 27 years of military service during a retirement ceremony held at the Anthony J. Celebrezze Federal Building in Cleveland.
Lt. Cmdr. Wayne E. Kean II started his military career in 1986 by enlisting in the U.S. Navy and served aboard the USS Mount Whitney as an operations specialist until 1990. After four years of active duty service, Kean spent one year in the Navy Reserves as a helicopter controller for a mine counter-measure unit at Naval Air Station Norfolk, Va. Then in 1991 he enlisted in the Coast Guard and spent his first two years as a radarman on the Coast Guard Cutter Gallatin out of Governors, Island, N.Y. Kean then served as a recruiter for the Coast Guard in Syracuse, N.Y., and advanced to the rank of chief petty officer and served as officer-in-charge of recruiting offices in Buffalo, N.Y. and Cleveland.
Upon receiving an officer commission from the Coast Guard Officer Canidate School in 1998, he completed a tour on the Coast Guard Cutter Sundew as operations officer and navigator in Duluth, Minn.; law enforcement officer at Group Sault Ste. Marie, Mich; engineering division chief at Electronic Systems Support Unit Cleveland; logistic officer and commanding officer of Military Personnel at Sector Buffalo, N.Y.; and finished his career as contingency preparedness branch chief for the 9th Coast Guard District in Cleveland.
Due to his numerous qualifications and expertise, the Coast Guard has deployed him to respond to several national emergencies with the two most recent being flooding in the Midwest River in 2011 and in Duluth, Minn., in 2012. Kean is designated as a nationally recognized Master Exercise Practitioner and will be retiring from a position where he has overseen prevention, protection, mitigation, and recovery strategies in response to terrorism, oil and hazardous materials spills and other disasters. He also earned a Bachelor of Science Degree in computer science from Cleveland State University in 2004.
Following his retirement, Kean will remain in the Coast Guard family and work in the Environmental Compliance Division at the Civil Engineering Unit in Cleveland.