SAIPAN — Lieutenant Gabriel LaMartina assumed command of U.S. Coast Guard Marine Safety Unit Saipan from Lieutenant Justin Miller in a change of command ceremony on Saturday, with Captain Jessica Worst, commander of U.S. Coast Guard Forces Micronesia and Sector Guam, presiding.
Miller led the Saipan unit from October 2023 to June 2026, a period in which it grew from a Marine Safety Detachment into a full Marine Safety Unit and became the Coast Guard’s permanent prevention and response presence in the Commonwealth. The unit was elevated to its current status on April 5, 2024. Under Miller, it carried out vessel inspections, port state control examinations and container inspections while building ties with port partners and local leaders.
When Super Typhoon Sinlaku struck the Marianas in April 2026, the Saipan unit served as the on-scene Coast Guard operational hub for the CNMI response. Responders assessed port infrastructure and damaged vessels on Saipan, Tinian and Rota, and liaison officers embedded at the CNMI Emergency Operations Center to coordinate Coast Guard work with territorial and federal partners. The unit also worked with Coast Guard cutters and aircraft to receive and distribute more than 30,000 pounds of humanitarian supplies to communities across the northern islands, including Pagan and Agrihan, and helped reaffirm the navigability of CNMI ports and reopen the Commonwealth’s marine transportation system after the storm.
Miller’s tenure also included major exercises and high-visibility operations. In June 2024 he led the unit through Lina’la Halom Tasi, its first full-scale joint maritime exercise, partnering with CNMI Homeland Security and Emergency Management, the Commonwealth Ports Authority and Isla Petroleum and Energy to simulate a major oil spill and test containment at Tanapag Harbor. In 2025 he led the unit’s role in the Mobil triennial industry exercise, which stress-tested the CNMI’s worst-case discharge response, and arranged Coast Guard participation and a cutter transport for the 80th anniversary commemoration of the Enola Gay mission on Tinian.
A Tennessee native, Miller was the last supervisor of Marine Safety Detachment Saipan and the first commanding officer of the unit after its elevation. He and his family report next to Coast Guard Headquarters in Washington, D.C.
LaMartina enlisted in 2012 as a boatswain’s mate in Portsmouth, Virginia, then moved to the yeoman rating and served at Coast Guard Headquarters, where he wrote accounting policy for the service. After Officer Candidate School he served as a deck watch officer aboard the USCGC Terrell Horne in Los Angeles, then at Coast Guard District Pacific Southwest in Alameda, California, where he facilitated commercial space launches and offshore economic development off the Pacific coast.
He most recently served as chief of port state and facilities at Coast Guard Sector Los Angeles and Long Beach, where he managed the recovery of major marine casualties aboard the vessels Mississippi and One Henry Hudson and supported multi-agency efforts to prevent the importation of drugs and hazardous cargoes. A native of the Appalachian Mountains of central Virginia, LaMartina is an avid runner and boater who volunteers with the Naval Sea Cadet Corps, Boy Scouts of America, historical preservation efforts and military financial counseling programs.
The Saipan unit conducts vessel inspections, port state control, marine casualty investigations, container inspections and marine environmental response across the CNMI.
