The U.S. Coast Guard is facing its largest readiness crisis since World War II. That's according to Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, who promised an overhaul of the service that she called the “point of the spear” in the nation’s defense.

U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem will be the keynote speaker at the U.S. Coast Guard Academy in New London, the Coast Guard announced Thursday. The 144th Coast Guard Academy Comencement Excercises are scheduled to begin at 11 a.

As U.S. Coast Guard Academy cadets and their families arrived on the New London campus in Connecticut Wednesday morning for graduation, protesters filled nearby McKinley Park to voice their opposition to the academy’s commencement speaker,