We’re With Jeff: A U.S. Coast Guard Commander Navigating Military and Family Life

By Danielle DeSimone

For U.S. Coast Guard Commander Jeffrey Janaro, military life is a family affair.

Coming from generations of those who have served, Jeff also has the unique experience of being in a dual-military couple, with his wife Sarah also serving in the U.S. Coast Guard. And recently, their daughter has declared that she plans to follow in her parents’ footsteps.

Through the joys and challenges of military life, Jeff has remained constant in his service to this nation – and the USO is committed to standing by his side, his family and other military families just like theirs.

Jeff and His Family’s Journey with the U.S. Coast Guard

Jeff is originally from Fort Lauderdale, Florida, where he spent his childhood out on the Atlantic Ocean in an area that is greatly affected by hurricane season.

“Growing up in South Florida, [the Coast Guard] was the branch of the military that I would say I was exposed to the most,” Jeff said. “I was out on the water a lot recreationally, as I was growing up and as a high school student, and so I would see the Coast Guard out on the water.”

It was this constant exposure to the Coast Guard that led Jeff to joining this specific branch, but growing up, he always knew that he was going to serve in the U.S. Armed Forces.

“I had a grandfather who served as an aviator in World War II, and I always just gravitated towards World War II history and World War II movies, and I was inspired by the greatest generation,” Jeff explained. “So, I just kind of always knew that that was in my future.”

Jeff graduated from the U.S. Coast Guard Academy and was commissioned in 2004. Over the course of his career, he has been stationed all around the country – and even deployed overseas.

“There is often a misconception that members of the Coast Guard only serve within 10 miles of the U.S. shore, but that is not always the case. My service in the Coast Guard has taken me to Indonesia, South America, Ghana, Iceland, Germany and all through Europe and more.”

Jeff explained that another distinct aspect of serving in the Coast Guard is that lower-ranking individuals are given a lot of responsibility, even at the junior level. For example, Jeff was the captain of a Coast Guard patrol boat when he was just 23 years old.

“Having that kind of opportunity at a young age to be leading people out at sea is unique,” Jeff said.

Throughout his career, Jeff has also leveraged opportunities through his service, such as earning a law degree. But with all these opportunities also come many of the challenges of military life. These challenges came especially into sharp focus after Jeff began building a family, as Jeff has had an additional element to navigate throughout his military career: he is part of a dual-military couple. His wife, Sarah, is also a commander in the U.S. Coast Guard.

“We met at the Coast Guard Academy. The first year of our marriage, we were both assigned to different ships. So, when they say ‘two ships passing in the night,’ that was us for at least the first year of marriage,” Jeff said. “I think our schedules lined up maybe for two months of the first year.”

While the military takes dual-military couples into account and often attempts to assign spouses to nearby duty stations, sometimes this is not possible, and they must go where the mission takes them. With their first years of marriage in the early 2000s, internet connectivity on their ships was limited, making communication between the couple difficult.

As they’ve navigated their joint Coast Guard careers, Jeff and Sarah have also had to manage two careers with two different specialties and fields of work, and trying to find locations where they could be assigned together.

“And then that certainly obviously gets more complicated when you throw two kids in the picture,” Jeff added.

Juggling their work while also caring for their children, and being stationed in locations far from immediate family and their support networks, can be quite the journey.

Jeff explained that it was specifically the challenges of serving at sea that stand out to him throughout his career.

“The first 10 years of my career were spent deploying on large Coast Guard cutters and being gone for months at a time. So, I would say the traditional hardships associated with military service also apply to the Coast Guard,” Jeff said.

“And in many circumstances, just the challenges of being away from home, being away from family, serving at sea … All of the branches, I’d imagine, have unique things about them that make them challenging. But ask anyone who’s been at sea in a hurricane or adjacent to a major weather system and you quickly find out how difficult that can be for days or weeks on-end of just having the world around you moving constantly.”

But through all the long deployments and different duty stations, Jeff and Sarah must be doing something right – because their daughter Juliette, age 10, has decided she would like to follow in her parents’ footsteps. She recently shared her passion for the branch of the Coast Guard through a poem, as part of the USO Military Kids Creative Showcase, and has told her parents that she would someday like to be a Coastie herself.

“It really surprised me because literally up until two months ago, right around the time she was writing that poem, she’d always been sort of adamant about not joining the military … it didn’t really appeal to her,” Jeff shared. “And the day she wrote the poem, it was one of those things where we both had to be at work and the kids had a half day or something along those lines. So, both girls are sitting in Sarah’s office and then Juliette wrote that Coast Guard poem while sitting in Sarah’s office.”

This is not the first time the Janaro family has utilized the USO. And it was one moment with the USO in particular, on a cold January night, that has stayed with Jeff for years.

How the USO Has Supported Jeff and his Family

Some of Sarah and Jeff’s first interactions with the USO were in the wake of Hurricane Sandy in 2012, which caused considerable damage in the northeast. At the time, Sarah was working for the Coast Guard in the Long Island and Connecticut areas, and she played a pivotal role in the recovery and response efforts during and after the hurricane. Later, Sarah was recognized by her local USO Center for her leadership during this natural disaster.

“It was just a real nice honor recognition for her to receive. I’m very proud of my wife, she’s awesome,” Jeff said. “It was another one of those connection points where, from my perspective, the USO was going out of their way to enrich the lives of service members.”

Over the course of their careers, their family has utilized the USO at numerous airports around the country. Jeff always recalls the kindness of USO volunteers at these USO airport Centers, and how these small moments can make all the difference when traveling to and from deployments overseas, or to see family across the country.

“I’ve been in airports on Christmas Eve and had lovely conversations with USO volunteers who are there on Christmas Eve supporting service men and women who are coming to or from an airport to see family. The airport thing always comes to mind for me, because I’ve never been stationed anywhere near my family, so I have to travel to see them because the military has told me where I need to live.”

But one instance of USO support stands out to Jeff.

Once, on a frigid night in the middle of winter, Jeff was captain of a ship that had just responded to a search and rescue in the Hudson River. They had received notice of someone jumping from the George Washington Bridge and, sadly, they did not survive.

“It was the middle of January, and it was around minus five degrees and we’re out there doing this really sort of sad rescue case, searching for this person who tragically passed away,” Jeff recalled. “But I was able to contact the USO in New York.”

Jeff explained that morale among service members on the ship was low after their search and rescue mission, and as they pulled into port in New York City.

On any other night, Jeff explained, “the crew would’ve been sitting on the mess deck while we refueled,” thinking of what had just happened. But this time, Jeff reached out to the USO, not knowing what to expect, but hoping for something that could lift his crew’s spirits. The USO team responded immediately, arranging tickets to a Broadway show so that the crew could step off the ship and, even if just for a moment, decompress from the weight of the night. Moments like these don’t erase the hardships service members face, but they can offer a brief sense of relief and a reminder they’re not alone in these difficult moments.

“This is an example of where I’ve seen the USO reach out and immediately help a unit and make a substantial difference,” Jeff said. “They were able to get off the boat and kind of take their minds off of things.”

While members of our Armed Forces are trained and ready to take on whatever mission that comes their way, some assignments – such as the one on this cold winter night – can take a toll on service members. That is why the USO is dedicated to stepping up in moments of need and providing support for these people who serve.

For Jeff, he sees the USO as “an organization that exists to support men and women in uniform and to bring morale during hard times or hard deployments.”

“[The USO] just makes you feel appreciated. It makes you feel noticed and thankful that there are people that honor the service of the folks in uniform.”

When asked if there was anything about military life that he wished civilians understood, Jeff responded: “The toll that service sometimes takes on relationships and those family relationships we look to for comfort.”

Jeff explained that as a service member, even if you are not currently serving in a front-line location – and he acknowledged the immense risk and sacrifice of those who do – that military life can still drastically impact one’s daily life.

“Just the fact that you experience long periods of separation from people and things that are comfortable and familiar to you … I think of my nieces and nephew who essentially have grown up with very little interactions with their uncle for the entirety of their lives,” Jeff said.

“The Coast Guard has been telling me where to go and where to live, and we certainly make our best efforts to stay connected and see family. But it’s those sorts of things that do take a toll on you. But even in the routine or less arduous assignments, the lifestyle is a lifestyle of sacrifice.”

That is why Jeff was especially proud of his daughter Juliette for her submission to the USO Creative Kids Showcase, and was excited to see an opportunity for the voices of military children to be lifted, as they are also members of the military community.

“Even though [the USO] supports service members, it’s obvious you also care and understand the importance of supporting the families and recognizing that it’s not just the people that are serving or the people that are in the combat zones that experience difficulty and maybe need some encouragement,” Jeff said.

For families so deeply entrenched in the U.S. Coast Guard like Jeff, Sarah and their children, the daily ups and downs of military life can be a challenge for all members of the family. These military community members sacrifice so much, and it is because of their unwavering commitment to our nation that the USO is steadfast in its support of them in return. We as an organization are committed to strengthening the well-being of service members and their families like Jeff and Sarah, throughout every step of their military journey.