Admiral Kevin Lunday
Commandant, U.S. Coast Guard
Kevin Eugene Lunday was born in October 1965 in Columbia, South Carolina. He graduated from the United States Coast Guard Academy with a science degree, and later earned an MS from the National War College and a Juris Doctor from George Washington University. He also graduated from the College of Naval Command and Staff.
Lunday commanded a Coast Guard cutter near the beginning of his career and became director of exercises and training for U.S. Cyber Command. He also commanded Coast Guard Maritime Intelligence Fusion Center Atlantic, the Coast Guard Cyber Command, then the Coast Guard Fourteenth District. He became commander of the Coast Guard Atlantic Area. He was nominated Vice Commandant of the Coast Guard by President Joe Biden in March 2024.
Lunday served as acting Coast Guard Commandant from the beginning of President Donald Trump’s second term. He was confirmed to the position by the Senate in December 2025.
In the News…
The U.S. Coast Guard pursued another Venezuelan oil tanker this past weekend in the Caribbean Sea. The Department of Homeland Security, under which the Coast Guard functions, announced that a second tanker had been seized just the day before.
White House Deputy Press Secretary Anna Kelly stated that the second tanker was also a “falsely flagged vessel operating as part of the Venezuelan shadow fleet to traffic stolen oil.”
President Trump stated of the U.S. armada surrounding Venezuela’s coastline, “We’re not going to be letting anybody going through who shouldn’t be going through.”
The Coast Guard’s actions came days after Admiral Kevin Lunday, who had been functioning as acting commandant, was officially confirmed by the U.S. Senate to the position.
