Capt. Chris Bartz

After graduating from the Coast Guard Academy in 1990, Captain Chris Bartz was assigned as a Deck Watch Officer aboard Coast Guard Cutter DURABLE in St. Petersburg, Florida. In 1992, he received orders to Naval Flight Training in Pensacola, Florida and was designated a Coast Guard Aviator in 1994. His aviation assignments include Air Station North Bend, Oregon; Polar Operations Division, where he deployed aboard ice breakers to Antarctica and Alaska; Aviation Training Center, Mobile Alabama; Air Station Detroit, Michigan; and Air Station New Orleans, Louisiana.

During his career, Captain Bartz attained deck watch officer qualifications on three classes of cutters; and accrued over 3,300 flight hours in the MH-65 Dolphin helicopter. He is credited with over 120 search and rescue cases, resulting in over 60 persons saved or assisted. As well as conducting law enforcement, drug and migrant interdiction operations in the Caribbean, he participated in the Coast Guard response to Hurricane Katrina and to the search and rescue and oil pollution response following the tragic explosion aboard the Deepwater Horizon Mobile Drilling Unit.

Captain Bartz is currently Chief of the Office of Command, Control, Communications, Computers, and Sensors. He is also the Prospective Commanding Officer of the Operations Systems Center, which is the Coast Guard’s data center and software development organization.