Before heading to his new assignment in Baltimore, U.S. Coast Guard Maritime Enforcement Specialist Corey Cole of St. Ignace and his family toured Round Island Lighthouse, Saturday, July 10. Pictured with ME2 Cole are his wife, Mariah Horn, and children Savannah, 4, and Joseph, 8. Missing from photograph is son Zack, 8. (Cole family photograph) Corey Cole of St. Ignace, a U.S. Coast Guard Maritime Enforcement Specialist with Sector Sault Ste. Marie, transferred to the Coast Guard Yard in Baltimore Sunday, July 18. He plans to move back to St. Ignace in about seven years when he retires.

“Most of my adult life I have lived here,” he said. “I do love the U.P. I'm going to miss it here. I'm sure I'll be retiring here when I'm done.”

ME2 Cole and his wife, Mariah Horn, have three children, Joseph, 8, Zack, 8, and Savannah, 4, and the couple is expecting a son in December. The family will remain in St. Ignace during the school year and spend summers in Baltimore.

ME2 Cole began his Coast Guard duty in the Upper Peninsula in 1998 serving in Sault Ste. Marie in an aids to navigation unit that was disbanded. He transferred to Station St. Ignace in 2000 as a Boatswain Mate 2nd Class where he remained until taking an assignment in Iraq in 2005. There he spent about a year in Iraq performing security boardings on fishing boats, oil tankers, and other commercial vessels. He returned to the Sector Sault in 2006, where he has remained until this transfer.

In Baltimore, which is the Coast Guard's only shipbuilding and major repair site, ME2 Cole will provide law enforcement and base security.

“I like doing what I do,” he said.

There are about 15 people in the law enforcement department and 10 will be under his supervision.