The US Coast Guard
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The US Coast Guard Cognitive Lesson Objective: • Know the core missions of the United States Coast Guard (USCG). Cognitive Sample of Behavior: • State the USCG’s three core missions. Affective Lesson Objective: • Respond to the role played by the USCG. Affective Sample of Behavior: • Voluntarily read the assigned text. The US Coast Guard 305 THE UNITED STATES COAST GUARD he United States Coast Guard is a military, multi-mission, maritime service within the Department of Homeland Security and one of the nation’s five armed services. TIts core tenets are to protect the US maritime economy and environment, defend US maritime borders, and save individuals in peril. These roles are executed in all maritime regions over which the US has jurisdiction, including international waters where an agreement with foreign governments or international agencies has been reached. The Coast Guard provides unique benefits to the nation because of its distinctive blend of military, humanitarian, and civilian law-enforcement capabilities. In order to execute these capabilities, the Coast Guard carries out 11 specific missions, covered by 3 core missions: Maritime Safety, Maritime Security, and Maritime Stewardship. Maritime Safety: enforcing safe, secure, and environmentally sound operations of US flagged vessels throughout the world and foreign vessels operating in US waters, issuing licenses and documents to qualified mariners, conducting inspections of US and foreign vessels, and developing and monitoring vessel construction and performance. A fundamental responsibility of the US government is to safeguard the lives and safety of its citizens. In the maritime realm, this duty falls mainly to the Coast Guard. In partnership with other federal agencies, state, local, and tribal governments, marine industries, and individual mariners, the Coast Guard improves safety at sea through complementary programs of mishap prevention, search and rescue, and accident investigation. Prevention activities include the development of standards and regulations, various types of plan review and compliance inspections, and a variety of safety programs designed to protect mariners. Nearly all Coast Guard prevention activities are designed to protect mariners. For example, its commercial fishing vessel safety programs are designed to safeguard commercial fishermen, many of whom earn their living performing some of the most dangerous work in the world. The Coast Guard operates the International Ice Patrol to protect ships transiting the North Atlantic shipping lanes, documents and admeasures US flag vessels, and licenses commercial mariners. However, the maritime domain is large and complex, and despite the Coast Guard’s best efforts, mariners sometimes find themselves in harm’s way. When they do, the Coast Guard has a long heritage and proud tradition of immediate response to save lives and property in peril. As the lead agency for maritime search and rescue (SAR) in US waters, they coordinate the SAR efforts of afloat and airborne Coast Guard units with those of other federal, state, and local responders. The Coast Guard also partners with the world’s merchant fleet to rescue mariners in distress around the globe through the Automated Mutual-assistance Vessel Rescue (AMVER) system. Using its Captain of the Port (COTP) authorities and responsibilities, the Coast Guard also coordinates response efforts on waterways after an incident or disaster. In addition to responding to a variety of maritime 306 accidents and emergencies, the Coast Guard investigates their causes; determining whether applicable laws have been violated, or whether changes should be made to improve safety through prevention programs. This work is often done in coordination with the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB). Coast Guard activities in support of maritime safety are often inseparable from those performed to protect the marine environment or secure the US Marine Transportation System (MTS). A routine inspection for safety compliance may uncover a serious risk to the environment. Coast Guard vessel traffic services not only reduce the risk of vessel collisions, but also provide maritime domain awareness, thereby improving security. A buoy tender working an aid to navigation may immediately divert to a search and rescue case. The integration of all Coast Guard missions has saved many thousands of lives, helped secure our citizens, and contributed to our national economic and environmental well-being. In addition to commercial vessels, more than 76 million recreational boaters use our US waterways. As National Recreational Boating Safety Coordinator, the Coast Guard is focused on minimizing the loss of life, personal injury, property damage, and environmental harm associated with this activity. The Coast Guard Auxiliary, the civilian volunteer arm of the Coast Guard, is a key contributor to these boating safety efforts and has augmented our missions for over 60 years. The Coast Guard Auxiliary provides free boating safety courses, courtesy marine examinations for recreational boaters, verification for aids to navigation, and inspections of commercial facilities. The Coast Guard is also America’s voice in the International Maritime Organization (IMO), which promulgates measures to improve shipping safety, pollution prevention, mariner training, and certification standards. They develop and enforce vessel construction standards as well as domestic shipping and navigation regulations. To ensure compliance, the Coast Guard reviews and approves plans for ship construction, repair, and alteration. The Coast Guard inspects vessels, mobile offshore drilling units, and marine facilities for safety. Its Port State Control program, aimed at eliminating substandard vessels from US ports and waterways, is a key element since the majority of the passenger and cargo ships operating in US waters are foreign flagged. As the lead US representative to the International Maritime Organization, a specialized agency of the United Nations, the Coast Guard is the driving force behind the implementation of international safety and pollution standards. However, not every country enforces these standards. With the increase in so-called flags of convenience, has come an increase in the number of substandard vessels. The Coast Guard has developed a comprehensive US strategy to promote and improve the Port State Control program, an international effort to bring substandard ships into compliance with applicable international standards or remove them from the sea. The US Coast Guard 307 Maritime Security: suppressing violations of US drug, immigration, and fisheries law, as well as securing the nation from terrorist threats. Maritime law enforcement and border control are the oldest of the Coast Guard’s numerous responsibilities. They date back to our founding as the Revenue Marine in 1790. The First Congress established the Revenue Marine specifically to patrol our coasts and seaports to frustrate smuggling and enforce the customs laws of the fledgling Republic. Over two centuries later, that early challenge has evolved into a global obligation for the maritime security of our nation. Our maritime law enforcement and border control duties require the interdiction of ships at sea. This core capability provides the foundation upon which today’s broader and more complex maritime security mission set has been built. Because the Coast Guard has law-enforcement authority, it can apprehend foreign fishing vessels engaged in poaching, interdict vessels carrying illegal drugs and undocumented migrants, and stop unsafe boaters. Today, US national-security interests can no longer be defined solely in terms of direct military threats to America and its allies. Working under the necessarily broader current definition of national security, the Coast Guard is seeking to reduce the risk from terrorism to US passengers at foreign and domestic ports and in designated waterfront facilities, but it faces the extremely difficult challenge of enforcing increasingly complex laws against highly sophisticated adversaries. Coast Guard boarding teams deal continuously with violations of multinational fisheries agreements and foil high-tech attempts to smuggle drugs into the United States. The Coast Guard is the designated lead agency for maritime drug interdiction under the National Drug Control Strategy and the co-lead agency for air interdiction operations with US Customs and Border Protection. As such, the Coast Guard defends America’s seaward frontier against a torrent of illegal drugs. For more than three decades, our cutters and aircraft have forward deployed off South America and in the drug transit zone. This six-million-square-mile area, roughly the size of the continental United States itself, includes the Caribbean, the Gulf of Mexico, and the Eastern Pacific. They have intercepted thousands of tons of cocaine, marijuana, and other illegal drugs from this zone that otherwise would have found their way to America’s streets. Coast Guard undocumented migrant interdiction operations are law enforcement missions with an important humanitarian dimension. Migrants often take great risks and endure significant hardships in their attempts to flee their countries and enter the US. In many cases, migrant vessels interdicted at sea are overloaded and unseaworthy, lack basic safety equipment, and are operated by inexperienced mariners. Many of the undocumented migrant cases they handle actually begin as search and rescue incidents. Once again,