Loy Departs With Praise And 'Priceless Moments'

During the 1980 Mariel Boatlift, James M. Loy commanded the U.S. Coast Guard cutter Valiant and rescued a Cuban woman clinging to a sinking piece of Styrofoam. She soon gave birth on the ship's deck and was evacuated to a hospital. Days later, he went to see her at the hospital. She had named the baby Valiant.

"You can't touch moments like that," Loy said. "They are priceless moments in one's life."

Loy has touched many other lives since that day. He became commandant of the Coast Guard, brought stability to a fledgling Transportation Security Administration and, since December 2003, has served as deputy secretary of the Department of Homeland Security.

Along the way, he built a reputation as a person who produces short-term success and crafts long-term strategy. For many in Washington's public administration community, he is a model federal manager.

Loy leaves the department Friday, retiring from government service after a career that began in 1960 when he entered the Coast Guard Academy. To be sure, Loy has his detractors, including many union officials, but some of his toughest critics acknowledge that they will miss him at Homeland Security.

Rep. Harold Rogers (R-Ky.), who casts a wary eye on TSA and Homeland Security, told Loy at a Feb. 17 House hearing that he was disheartened by reports suggesting that the department has made scant progress on key management issues. But Rogers praised Loy for doing "a marvelous job" and said, "I have always felt good that we had a good steady hand down there, doing the day-to-day work of defending the country."

As Loy pointed out in his testimony, and repeated in an interview, it takes time to merge 22 agencies into one and create a steady sense of direction. He noted that it took the Defense Department about 40 years to settle on its framework, and corporate mergers take four to seven years to pull off.

From Loy's perspective, the two-year-old department has made significant progress in consolidating personnel and payroll, procurement, technology and financial management operations. It also is rolling out proposals that would pull together experts from across the government to improve security and thwart terrorist threats.

Although other agencies do not face the same magnitude of change as Homeland Security, they are increasingly being asked to create partnerships and networks, inside and outside government. Asked what it takes to be a federal manager today, Loy suggested four essential qualities:

• Vision. Even as federal officials make short-term, multimillion-dollar decisions about facilities and operations, they must look 10 to 20 years out and imagine the impact of those decisions, Loy said. "It's the ability to not get wrapped around the today axle and force oneself to get up to the 5,000- and 10,000-foot level."

• Thick skin. "It is just the nature of the business today. . . . We should be doing our business for America in a bit of a goldfish bowl . . . and accept the fact that there will be criticism."

• Action. The global economy, fueled by technological innovation, "calls for someone who won't get stuck in yesteryear but will embrace change for the value that it represents."

• Perseverance. "Sometimes the labyrinth of the bureaucracy is mindlessly difficult to get through, and there needs to be in one's character, as a public-sector leader, a commitment and willingness to preach the gospel and preach it again and again."

While big think is good, everyday stuff counts, too, Loy said. For example, Homeland Security had been taking months to process interim secret clearances for staffers but now turns them around in weeks. "Even the smallest things that can make a net gain for you, you take them on," Loy said.

Loy announced his retirement in December, shortly after Tom Ridge said he would be leaving as Cabinet secretary. The president has named Michael Jackson, a former Transportation Department deputy secretary, to replace Loy and assist the new secretary, Michael Chertoff.

Loy's next stop is Tidewater Virginia, where he is building a home. He hopes to continue working, at a more relaxed pace and "a little more thoughtfully," on homeland security, risk management and leadership development.

One of the rewards at Homeland Security has been the opportunity to work with dedicated public servants, Loy said. "When I walk out the door next Friday, the focus of my memories will always be about the people."

E-mail: barrs@washpost.com