USCG Base Boston Naval Engineering Department

Award: The Anil Raj Award- Excellence in Engineering Innovation 
Year: 2025
Recipient: USCG Base Boston Naval Engineering Department
Reason: for hid significant contribution to naval engineering as set forth in the following  

CITATION:

The USCG Base Boston Engineering Department has demonstrated exceptional innovation and engineering vision in advancing operational readiness, maintenance effectiveness, and industrial support capability throughout the United States Coast Guard’s Northeastern operational region.

Under Commander Matt Eyler’s leadership, the Base Boston Naval Engineering Department provided engineering support for cutters, boats, and aids to navigation across a vast operational area extending from the Canadian border in Maine to Tom’s River, New Jersey. The department included active duty, reserve, civilian, and industrial personnel responsible for sustaining Coast Guard operational assets.

The USCG Base Boston Engineering Department championed a leadership philosophy encouraging deckplate innovation, technical creativity, collaboration, and continuous improvement. He empowered personnel closest to operational challenges to identify inefficiencies and develop practical engineering solutions improving safety, workforce effectiveness, and mission support.

Among the department’s most impactful innovations were specialized maintenance tools, fabrication systems, welding advancements, and operational improvements dramatically reducing labor hours and increasing efficiency. These included the MK-38 Tool Kit, innovative diesel engine inspection tools reducing maintenance labor by twenty-four hours per inspection, portable welding power systems, and advanced waveform welding techniques reducing aluminum hull repair evolutions from eighty labor hours to four.

The USCG Base Boston Engineering Department also pioneered fabrication and maintenance solutions improving safety and sustainment capability across Coast Guard platforms and support infrastructure. These included custom safety rail systems, lightweight emergency brow systems, ergonomic battery handling tools, and reverse-engineered alignment equipment replacing obsolete commercial components while reducing production costs and operational delays.

By their engineering excellence, and unwavering commitment to operational readiness, the USCG Base Boston Engineering Department has made a lasting and significant contribution to the maritime services, the naval engineering profession and to the Nation.

For their inspirational leadership in deck plate engineering innovation, their empowerment of the team to develop practical solutions improving Coast Guard readiness, and their exceptional contributions to maintenance excellence throughout the Northeast, the American Society of Naval Engineers is honored to recognize the USCG Base Boston Engineering Department under the leadership of  Commander Matthew Eyler, USCG, as the recipient of the 2025 Anil Raj Award for Excellence in Engineering Innovation.