Tom McAdams is a highly respected former US Coast Guard rescue boat commander.After retiring from the Coast Guard McAdams became an officer in the volunteer fire department in Newport, Oregon, the same community where he had commanded his motor lifeboats.McAdams commanded the Coast Guards 36 foot motor lifeboat, its 44 foot motor lifeboat, and its 52 foot motor lifeboat, and helped design the current 47 foot motor lifeboat.McAdams rounded out his 27-year Coast Guard career by commanding the Coast Guard's Motor Lifeboat School at Cape Disappointment, Ilwaco, Washington, where he wrote its first training manual.In 2008, while reporting on the 100th anniversary celebration of the founding of Canada's Bamfield station, the Victoria Times Colonist characterized McAdams as a "legendary figure in the U.S.