A change-of-command ceremony is scheduled for the Honolulu-based U.S. Coast Guard cutter Kukui at 10 a.m. tomorrow at the Coast Guard Integrated Support Command on Sand Island.

Lt. Cmdr. Bob Little will relieve Lt. Cmdr. Stephen Matadobra, the Kukui's commanding officer since June 2006. Matadobra's next assignment is at U.S. Coast Guard Patrol Boat Forces Southwest Asia in Bahrain, where he will serve as the deputy commander.

Matadobra was responsible for the Kukui's participation in Coast Guard missions of aids to navigation, law enforcement, search and rescue, and environmental protection around the Hawaiian Islands and across the Pacific Ocean for three years. Matadobra worked frequently with federal and state environmental partners, including scientists and researchers with NOAA, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and the state Departments of Health and Land and Natural Resources.

Little comes to the Kukui from a tour at the Coast Guard Headquarters' Office of Resource Management in the budget execution division where he actively managed Coast Guard appropriated funding totaling more than $9 billion and helped navigate the Coast Guard budget and legislative authorities through the service's modernization effort. This is Little's fourth tour at sea and his first command aboard a Coast Guard cutter.

Rear Adm. Manson Brown, the 14th District Commander, will preside over the ceremony.

The change-of-command ceremony is a time-honored tradition, which formally restates to the officers and crew of a unit the continuity and authority of command. It involves the complete transfer of responsibility, authority and accountability from one individual to another.

The Kukui is one of two 225-foot buoy tenders based in Honolulu and features a complement of eight officers and 41 enlisted crew members.