Chief’s Call to Initiation at Griffin Bay

Published 1:30 am Monday, April 13, 2026

A U.S. Coast Guard ceremony observed by boaters anchored off Griffin Bay on April 10 was part of a longstanding tradition designed to shape the service’s next generation of leaders.

The ritual is known as the Chief’s Call to Initiation, an eight-week voluntary program for newly selected Chief Petty Officers at the E-7 rank. The program emphasizes leadership, professionalism, and the passing of institutional knowledge between generations of service members.

Witnesses on land and sea observed the “Burial of Crows” — a symbolic moment in which newly selected chiefs bury their first-class petty officer insignia, known as “crows,” in preparation for pinning on the anchor of a chief petty officer.

The ceremony marks the close of one chapter in a sailor's career and the beginning of another. The Coast Guard’s Northwest District Public Affairs office confirmed the details of the event to the Journal of the San Juan Islands.