SULPHUR, La. — Carlyss Resident Buddy Reams has been appointed to the West Calcasieu Port five-person board of commissioners by the Calcasieu Parish police jurors of the western portion of the parish.
Reams’ appointment was confirmed by resolution of the Calcasieu Parish Police Jury on Feb. 6, 2020. His term will expire in October 2024. Reams assumed a port board commissioner position that was previously held by Dave Aguillard.
Reams serves as NACE International’s Chief Maritime Officer, a position he started in April 2016 after retiring from the United States Coast Guard (USCG). From 2006 to 2009, he served as the commander of Marine Safety Unit Lake Charles.
In his current civilian role, he leads the development of corrosion control programs and services to meet increasing demand from all global maritime industries including notably the shipbuilding, shipping, shore/port infrastructure, and offshore sectors. He is also the organization’s accredited representative to the International Maritime Organization (IMO).
Originally from Virginia, he was raised in Florida. He is a 1992 honors graduate of the U.S. Coast Guard Academy with a BS in Naval Architecture & Marine Engineering. Reams also holds two Master of Science degrees from the University of Michigan — in Naval Architecture & Marine Engineering and Industrial Operations Engineering.
His nearly three decades of USCG service included engineering assignments on two USCG Cutters in South Florida supporting hurricane response and migrant interdiction operations and more than two decades of focus on commercial vessel safety. His responsibilities in this area included marine casualty investigations, foreign and domestic ship inspections, technical plan review of all ship types, global salvage engineering support and leading the Coast Guard’s technical program for all passenger and container ships, including work at IMO developing
safety standards, and collaboration with NTSB on improving mariner safety.
At Marine Safety Unit Lake Charles he led responses to major pollution and hurricane incidents, initiated sustainable joint law enforcement activities, and promoted overall port safety, security, and resiliency.
In the back half of his career, he established and led two separate National Centers of Expertise; one for cruise ships and another focused on liquefied gas ships, to meet Congressional demands of better industry focus. In these roles as the Coast Guard’s primary liaison to the respective industries, he directly managed Coast Guard wide training, field operation techniques, and policy development for nation’s marine safety programs associated with those industries.
He retired from the service at the rank of Captain as Chief of Prevention Operations in the Seventh Coast Guard District. In this capacity, he oversaw Maritime Safety mission performance in South Carolina, Georgia, Florida and the Caribbean, including the Coast Guard Auxiliary volunteer organization, bridges over navigable waterways, aids to navigation, waterway management including port restoration following storms, and marine safety inspection and casualty investigation activities.
Reams and his wife, Melisa, have two teenage children, Matthew and Crystal.