"James Loy: A man of the sea, keeping trouble out of the skies"

Monday, July 28, 2003 issue

A man of the sea, keeping trouble out of the skies
By Samantha Levine
U.S. News & World Report


After 38 years in the Coast Guard--the last four as commandant--James Loy
was keeping his retirement plans pretty simple: taking it easy, a bit of
fishing with his 3-year-old twin grandsons. But the terrorist attacks on New
York and Washington changed all that. So Loy didn't hesitate when
Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta asked him to join the new
Transportation Security Administration just as soon as he left the Coast
Guard in the spring of 2002. "There was no choice in the matter," he says.
"That was your country calling for service." Fishing would have to wait.

Loy came aboard the TSA as deputy under secretary. But he quickly found
himself in the top job after the first administrator, John Magaw, resigned
under pressure just two months later. Since then, the bespectacled
60-year-old has been in a flat-out sprint, trying to keep up with the
problems that crop up seemingly every day at the $5 billion, 60,000-employee
agency. Privacy advocates are outraged by a proposed new passenger-screening
program. Contractors are overcharging the agency. Background checks for TSA
personnel are way behind. Convicted criminals landed TSA jobs as airport
screeners. The drumbeat of bad news is constant, but surprisingly, little of
the negative publicity seems to rub off on Loy. Rep. Harold Rogers, the
white-haired chairman of the House homeland security appropriations panel,
calls Loy "a breath of fresh air."

How is that possible? The answer, seemingly, lies in Loy's personality. By
most accounts, he's a stand-up guy who talks straight and takes
responsibility when things go wrong while sharing the kudos when things go
right--a rare profile in official Washington. Loy emphasizes one-on-one
contact and goes out of his way to treat people with respect, regardless of
their title or standing. That was a lesson he learned from his father, a
MetLife insurance agent in blue-collar Altoona, Pa. As a child, Loy watched
his dad handle his poorest clients with compassion; every Christmas, the Loy
family left anonymous gifts for the neediest.

Over the course of his long Coast Guard career, which began at the Coast
Guard Academy, Loy commanded four cutters and served a 13-month tour on one
off the coast of Vietnam during the war. His months at sea left his wife,
Kay, to run the house and raise their daughter, Kelly, now 38, and son,
Michael, now 34. Even so, Loy "never lost sight of his family as his anchor
to windward," says Michael, himself a Coast Guard veteran, who today washes
mountains of dishes with his dad after big family gatherings.

Loy also learned a thing or two from Capt. Charles Blaha, his commanding
officer during a stint as an administrator at the Coast Guard Officer
Candidate School. Loy and Blaha conceived a master plan for the dilapidated
training center, and Blaha showed him "the value of perseverance when you
know you have a good idea," Loy says. He kept that in mind when he later
fought successfully to secure a $17 billion modernization program for the
antiquated Coast Guard fleet. Along the way he realized, as any mariner
should, that you don't spit into the wind. So Loy tries hard to get along
with those who control his agency's policies and purse strings.

"Zero to 60,000." As a man who spent his life on the seas, Loy was perhaps a
less-than-obvious choice to head the Transportation Security Administration.
But Mineta was well acquainted with Loy from his Coast Guard days, and he
knew Loy was about to retire. Loy had also written a paper on homeland
security just before 9/11; it was published in a scholarly journal days
after the attacks.

Still, nothing could have quite prepared Loy for the TSA. The "zero to
60,000" agency, as Loy calls it, was created when President Bush signed the
Aviation and Transportation Security Act in November 2001. The measure made
airport security a federal responsibility. Amid the emotional fallout after
al Qaeda terrorists hijacked planes that slammed into the World Trade
Center, the Pentagon, and an empty field in Shanksville, Pa., the bill
demanded security improvements for all modes of transportation. Congress and
President Bush laid out no fewer than 37 deadlines--including one that
allowed the TSA just a year to begin screening every piece of baggage by
placing federal baggage screeners and explosive-detection systems in all 429
U.S. commercial airports. The TSA hired thousands of people in a mad rush.
The deadlines, amazingly, were met.

But all that rushing had a cost. "We spent the last year running faster than
we could to get those jobs done that Congress mandated," Loy says. "Now we
have to go back and do the cleanup process of whatever wake we left in the
process of running so hard." Overseers like Rogers are inclined to cut Loy
some slack because of the magnitude of his task, and Loy's style helps
further cushion the blows. "He knows he still has problems there, and he's
frank about it," says Rogers. Indeed. When the Kentucky congressman grilled
the admiral on how convicted criminals landed TSA screener jobs, Loy didn't
waver under the committee room's bright lights. "If you are looking for
someone who is responsible, I am the guy," he said. "I don't have an excuse
for you." After Rogers made Loy swear to complete screener background checks
by October 1, Loy walked right up to the chairman and pumped his hand.

Such personal touches are appreciated. In his first few months on the job,
Loy visited more than 50 airports. Kent George, executive director of the
Pittsburgh International Airport, says his letters to the former TSA
director, Magaw, were never answered, but a note to Loy got "a nice personal
response" in a week.

Of course, charm isn't everything. Rep. John Mica, chair of the House
aviation subcommittee, complains that the TSA gets "bogged down in
bureaucratic hurdles, extra costs, re-examinations, a host of
complications." One contractor's deal somehow ballooned to $700
million--nearly seven times the original estimate. And Loy was chastised for
using the luxury Wyndham Peaks Resort and Golden Door Spa near chic
Telluride, Colo., to interview screener candidates. He says the hotel
offered government rates and was centrally located to five airports that
needed screeners--but not everyone's buying the explanation. The inspector
general at the Department of Homeland Security is now investigating the
matter at the behest of Sens. Ron Wyden of Oregon and Byron Dorgan of North
Dakota.

Union leaders don't exactly love Loy either. He won't allow TSA screeners to
engage in collective bargaining, he says, because it's "not compatible with
the flexibility required to wage the war against terrorism." The Fair Labor
Relations Authority agrees, but American Federation of Government Employees
President Bobby Harnage is livid. Loy "does not appear to fully appreciate
the value of the workforce having an input," he complains. In April, Loy
announced cuts of 6,000 screener jobs to save $320 million in the budget.

The admiral manages to tackle his huge workload by putting in 14-hour days.
On most, he's at his desk by 6:45 a.m., slogging through a seemingly endless
list of problems and potential crises. He copes by maintaining a Zen-like
approach. The even-keeled admiral, says Robert Johnson, a TSA spokesman, is
"the ultimate calming influence."

Still, there are times when no amount of meditative calm can shield Loy from
the pressure. Sometimes, he says, he gazes out his office window to glimpse
where American Airlines Flight 77 hit the Pentagon on 9/11 and thinks, "God,
are we really covering the bases we need to cover?" Loy will probably have
many such moments during his five-year tenure at TSA. Nevertheless, he says,
it's a thrilling opportunity, although he promises not to lose sight of his
other critical goal. "Sooner or later," he says wistfully, "I want to find
my way back to that pier with a kid on each arm."

Born: Aug. 10, 1942. Family: Married. Two children, two grandchildren.
Education: Bachelor's degree, Coast Guard Academy. Master's degrees,
Wesleyan University and University of Rhode Island. Public service: Coast
Guard, 1964-2002. Administrator, Transportation Security Administration,
2002-present.

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