EPA Response to September 11 | Region 2

Commander Peter W. Gautier

Commander Peter W. Gautier currently serves as Commanding Officer, Coast Guard Gulf Strike Team, Mobile, Alabama, where he has served as the Executive Officer for the previous two years. He leads this team of 42 active duty personnel and 40 reservists on its mission to rapidly deploy with specialized equipment in support of federal on-scene coordinators, preparing for and responding to oil, chemical, biological and weapons of mass destruction incidents and natural disasters.

In response to the terrorist events in September 2001, Commander Gautier served as a deputy to the Disaster Coordinator for ESF-10 for the first two weeks of the World Trade Center response, supporting the Environmental Protection Agency in providing federal emergency response to lower Manhattan and the Staten Island Landfill. He also responded in Boca Raton, Florida, categorizing and cleaning the Anthrax-contaminated AMI building and local post offices. He served as the Deputy Incident Commander for the San Augustine, TX Incident Command during the Shuttle Colombia Disaster response and U.S. Advisor to the Spanish Government during the T/S Prestige oil spill, and has responded to numerous vessel groundings, oil spills and hazardous materials incidents.

Prior to his Strike Team assignment he served as Chief, Port Operations and Chief, Marine Environmental Response at Coast Guard Marine Safety Office San Francisco, ensuring the safety and environmental protection of the waterways in Northern California. He was assigned for four years at Coast Guard Headquarters as a packaged hazardous materials transportation expert, serving as a U.S. Delegate to the United Nations Committee of Experts on the Transport of Dangerous Goods and the International Maritime Organization’s Dangerous Goods, Solid Cargos, and Containers Subcommittee. He has also served aboard two Coast Guard cutters and has a prior assignment as Commanding Officer, Loran Station Gesashi, Japan.

Commander Gautier is a native of Ridgewood, N.J. He graduated from the U. S. Coast Guard Academy with a Bachelors of Science in Marine Engineering in 1987. He holds a Masters of Chemical Engineering degree from the University of Michigan and completed a nonresident certificate from the College of Command and Staff, U. S. Naval War College.

Commander Gautier is married to the former Rosa G. Moy of Chicago, Ill. She is an actuary. They have two children, Andrew and Natalie, who were born in 2001 and 2003.