The Epic Heritage Ball,

Jackson Hannon

In 2010 SK2 Amad Hankins and ET2 Shango Indomitus met for the first time onboard the CGC Sherman. They were both young Petty Officers with their whole careers ahead of them. Fast forward to 2016, Hankins and Indomitus reunite stationed onboard the CGC Waesche. While onboard Waesche SK2 and ET2 became well known for animated debates on military, social, and political topics. One topic in particular was the lack of a feeling of networking within certain populations of enlisted members in the Coast Guard. Hankins and Indomitus decided to organize their own network of enlisted friends and associates within the Coast Guard. They wanted to give everyone they knew an opportunity to connect with other people who they may not normally get a chance to meet. It was important to the two petty officers for their network to have a place they can go to feel a sense of family and community. The first communication to this network was an email asking them if they thought this was an idea people would be interested in. The response was overwhelming. EPIC was in its infancy and they did not even know.

Next, they wanted to find an event that they could all attend to build together on leadership principles they have already learned. They decided to network with the National Naval Officers Association by attending one of their leadership conferences. Their request to attend was denied because they were enlisted and not Officers. At that moment they began the journey to starting the first ever minority member Affinity Group for Enlisted personnel. This was not an easy task at all! While juggling underway LE operations, Duty days, and Cutter life they burned the midnight oil to get EPIC off the ground. Hours of emailing, calling, strategizing, and planning went into developing events. In January 2019, they worked with CWO Cory Jones of CG-12B on EPIC’s Town Hall event featuring then MCPOCG Cantrell in Yorktown, VA during the Annual MLK Basketball tournament.

In the early years EPIC was a Governing Body led by SKCM Marques Johnson, OSCS Bruce Saejung, EMC Adron Diggs, SK1 Christina Redmon, OS1 Brian Phillips, YN1 Jordan Ford, HS2 DeMarcus Lamar, EM2 Montrese Clay, SK2 Amad Hankins, and ET2 Shango Indomitus.