Obituary - John B. Hayes

Sunday, January 21, 2001
THE JUNEAU EMPIRE

Former Juneau resident Adm. John B. Hayes, 76, died Jan. 17, 2001, in Mariners Hospital in Islamorada, Fla., after being struck by a vehicle.

Hayes lived in Juneau and served as 17th Coast Guard District commander and commandant of the U.S. Coast Guard from 1978 to 1982.

He was born Aug. 30, 1924, in Jamestown, N.Y. He entered the Coast Guard Academy in 1943 and graduated in 1946 with a commission as ensign.

Hayes spent most of his Coast Guard career in command positions. During the Vietnam War he commanded Naval Task Group 115.4 and Coast Guard Squadron One in the Republic of Vietnam. He also commanded the long range navigation station in Matsumae, Japan, the Coast Guard group office in Key West, Fla., the 17th Coast Guard District in Juneau, and the cutters Ariadne, Sagebrush and Vigilant. Hayes returned to the Coast Guard Academy as Commandant of the Cadet Corps before his promotion to rear admiral in 1973.

Hayes led Coast Guard responses to several significant incidents including the Prinsendam rescue off the Alaska coast, the Florida Air Flight 90 crash in Washington, D.C., and the Mariel Boatlift that, at the time, was the single largest search and rescue operation in Coast Guard history.

As commandant he ordered a comprehensive roles and missions study that helped to shape the present-day Coast Guard. As a result, the service saw an extraordinary and unprecedented increase in marijuana and cocaine interdicted on the high seas.

Hayes is survived by his wife Elizabeth of Boothbay Harbor, Maine, and four children.

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