Coast Guard Officer

The Zack Ballinger Show

Thomas "Buddy" Bardenwerper served for five years as a US Coast Guard officer in Maine, Puerto Rico, and Washington, DC. He sailed the waters from Canada to Colombia enforcing commercial fisheries laws, interdicting cocaine smugglers, and repatriating migrants. He participated in the Hurricane María response and played a crucial role in helping rescue 511 people from the burning Motor Vessel CARIBBEAN FANTASY.

Then, in 2017, his life changed.

Buddy was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes, and his days in the Coast Guard became numbered. No longer permitted to set sail with his San Juan, Puerto Rico-based cutter, Buddy found himself confined to a cubicle as he waited for his medical retirement papers to clear.

Wanting to finish this chapter of his life on his own terms and brimming with stories to tell from his maritime experiences, Buddy began to write. Shortly thereafter, Mona Passage: A Novel was born.

In 2019, Syracuse University Press hosted its inaugural Veterans Writing Award, and novelist Tobias Wolff selected Mona Passage for publication.

Thanks to the GI Bill and Yellow Ribbon Program, Buddy is in his last year of a joint law and public policy degree at Harvard. When he graduates this spring, Buddy will be moving with his wife and daughter to Miami where he will serve as a judicial law clerk.