uscg 2010 cover final.indd 2 11/9/09 3:30 PM WHVRURLQGG $0 INTRODUCTION
Students and instructors at the Coast Guard’s National Motor Lifeboat School (NMLBS) in Ilwaco, Wash., operate 47-foot motor lifeboats in heavy surf. NMLBS is a unique Coast Guard training center that provides instruction on operating in rough surf and weather and is the only training facility of its kind in the United States. Photo by Petty Officer 3rd Class Jeff Pollinger
Coast Guard Outlook 2010 1
intro page.indd 1 11/2/09 6:50 PM INTRODUCTION ALLEN FOREWORD
Commandant of the U.S. Coast Guard, Adm. Thad W. Allen: Foreword
“A few armed vessels, judiciously stationed at the entrances of our ports, might at a small expense be made useful sentinels of the laws.” – Alexander Hamilton First Secretary of the Treasury Nov. 27, 1787
hat simple sentence inspired the creation of the modern U.S. Coast Guard. We proudly remain T “sentinels of the laws” fulfilling our safety, security, and stewardship missions as America’s Maritime Guardian. We are a unique federal instrument stemming from Hamilton’s vision and we have developed into a multi-mission, military service unlike any other. As an armed service, Department of Homeland Security component, National Intelligence Community member, and the nation’s lead representative at the International Maritime Organization, we can form and leverage partnerships across the public and private spectrum. Exercising a broad and complementary mission set, we’re well equipped to mitigate risks and respond to threats throughout the maritime domain. Over the past year, our personnel – active duty, reserves, civilians, and auxiliarists – performed superbly to safeguard America’s maritime interests. We worked with our departmental partners to respond to last summer’s floods in the Midwest; conducted 680 ice breaking operations to facilitate over $2 billion in commerce; operated with our federal partners to interdict nearly 350,000 pounds of cocaine; and supported anti-piracy efforts off of Somalia as well as Operations Iraqi and Enduring Freedom. We also saved more than 4,000 lives. We have never had a closer relationship with the Department of Defense. We are operationalizing the “Cooperative Strategy for 21st Century Seapower,” an overarching document jointly signed by all three Commandant of the U.S. Coast Guard, Adm. Thad W. Allen. naval services, which stresses maritime presence to promote peace. The USS Crommelin recently deployed with a Coast Guard law enforcement detachment to prevent illegal fisheries in the western Pacific; this is just one example of how this new philosophy is becoming reality. U.S. Coast Guard photo by Telfair H. Brown Sr. Coast GuardU.S. photo by Telfair
2 Coast Guard Outlook 2010
cmdt fwd.indd 2 11/5/09 8:36 AM ALLEN FOREWORD INTRODUCTION
Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano listens to a briefing on current operations alongside Adm. Thad W. Allen at Coast Guard Headquarters, Washington, D.C., Jan. 22, 2009.
While we have been successful, the demand for our to meet new challenges. To fulfill our obligations, I am services is outpacing our capacity to provide them. Like committed to recapitalizing our aging assets and shore all other federal agencies, the current economic recession infrastructure. is compounding our challenges. As sound stewards, Our first National Security Cutter [NSC], the Bertholf, we’ll leverage all available resources, authorities, and was commissioned last August and is already making partnerships to manage risk as we execute our duties. its presence felt. During its first operational patrol in One of the ways we’ll do this is by modernizing our July, the Bertholf simultaneously tracked four go-fast service. By properly aligning our operational chain of smuggling vessels, and then launched its own helicopter command and sustaining it with a product-line support and small boats to thwart the entire operation. The system, we’ll create a more flexible and change-centric Bertholf’s combination of endurance, sensors, and multi- Coast Guard. This will improve our service delivery to the mission capability were on full display and portends nation. The National Academy of Public Administration great promise for this new class. The second, the CGC recently provided a strong, independent endorsement of our Waesche, completed its highly successful builder’s trials in efforts confirming we are on the right course. We also just August. By incorporating the lessons from the Bertholf, the completed the final negotiations with our civilian union Waesche’s crew minimized the number of work-list items so both sides agree on the changes to our organizational that need to be corrected before the ship is commissioned structure. We will remain within the bounds of our current in May 2010. Our third NSC, the Stratton, named after legal authority while we work with the 111th Congress to Capt. Dorothy Stratton who was the leader of the World obtain the legislative authority necessary to achieve a fully War II-era SPARS, is under construction and scheduled to modernized Coast Guard. be christened in July 2010. We are especially pleased that The Coast Guard’s working environment has changed first lady Michelle Obama has agreed to be the Stratton’s dramatically over the past decade and we are evolving sponsor. We are realizing greater efficiencies with each U.S. Coast Dan Bender GuardU.S. photo by PA2
Coast Guard Outlook 2010 3
cmdt fwd.indd 3 11/5/09 8:37 AM resolve marine.indd 1 10/29/09 9:21 AM ALLEN FOREWORD INTRODUCTION
A Coast Guard HC-130 Hercules aircraft departs Kodiak, Alaska, on an Arctic Domain Awareness flight May 27, 2009. The Coast Guard is determining its operational requirements in the region, due in part by mandate.
successive NSC thereby reducing the life-cycle cost of these mission is how we would respond to a major SAR case or mass disaster. critical platforms. Considering that a German shipping company is planning to send Other new assets are also coming online. The contract for the an unescorted commercial freighter through the once-impassable Sentinel class, the replacement for the 110-foot patrol boat, was Northeast Passage, the risks are increasing with every passing day. awarded September 2008 and lauded by the U.S. Government The Arctic region is one of the focal points of the White House’s Accountability Office for its efficiency. We have accepted the eighth Ocean Policy Task Force. I represent the Department of Homeland HC-144A Ocean Sentry aircraft to replace the HU-25 Falcon, the Security on this multi-agency group charged with creating a national fourth fully missionized HC-130J long-range aircraft, and our fourth oceans policy, developing a comprehensive governance structure, and MH-60T helicopter, which has enhanced sensors and an Airborne Use implementing “maritime spatial planning,” which is akin to urban of Force [AUF] capability. We have reconfigured 43 of the venerable planning for the ocean. These are daunting tasks but absolutely Dolphin helicopters so they will also have the AUF capability. essential. America is a maritime nation so we must consider how Along the coasts, our Rescue 21 system is now providing search we want to protect the environment, facilitate maritime commerce, and rescue [SAR] and short-range communications coverage for over and responsibly harness oceanic resources. By pursuing a “whole of 28,000 miles of coastline. We have accepted our 11th Response Boat- government” approach, we can meet our broad goals while protecting Medium, which will replace the workhorse 41-foot utility boats that our way of life. have served the country for decades. All of these new assets are All of these events represent significant change for the Coast essential, because the scope of our missions is certainly expanding. Guard and our nation. What hasn’t changed over the past 219 years As the Arctic ice recedes, shipping companies, cruise ships, and is the commitment of our people. At the end of the day, Coast Guard energy companies are all increasing their activities in this resource- personnel are the reason the service can provide such tremendous laden yet pristine environment. We are determining our operational value to the nation. They enable us to be “Always Ready” so we can requirements, including icebreakers, based on the recent National meet all threats and all hazards – nationwide and worldwide. Security Presidential Directive that mandates a maritime presence In the Coast Guard, we willingly shoulder the burden of our in the region. I recently hosted a group of administration officials nation’s maritime challenges. We are driven by our Guardian Ethos on a trip to the Arctic so they could get a glimpse of the existing – a willingness to protect the weak, defend the vulnerable, and save conditions and operational challenges within this remote area. Since those in peril. As Hamilton would confirm, this is who we are and we do not have a permanent footprint in the Arctic, my biggest fear why we serve. U.S. Coast GuardU.S. photo
Coast Guard Outlook 2010 5
cmdt fwd.indd 5 11/5/09 3:21 PM RDR-1700BRDR
TruLink ®
APS-143C(V)3
WHOHSKRQLFVLQGG 30 Table of Contents 8LI1MWWMSR 1EXXIVW1SWX
INTRODUCTION
Commandantof the U.S. Coast Guard, Adm. Thad W. Allen: Foreword ...... 2
Vice Commandant of the U.S. Coast Guard, Vice Adm. David Pekoske ...... 12 By J.R. Wilson
MCPOCG “Skip” Bowen: Making the Coast Guard Successful – One Guardian at a Time ...... 16 By J.R. Wilson MISSIONS ):30:-2+8,6)%87 By Craig Collins &30(73098-327 Ports, Waterways, and Coastal Security...... 20
Illegal Drug Interdiction ...... 21
Aids to Navigation: Part of the Waterways Management Mission Program ...... 22 7LMJXMRKTVMSVMXMIWERH
Search and Rescue ...... 25 GLEPPIRKIWHIQERHWSPYXMSRW Living Marine Resources ...... 26 XLEXEVIIUYEPP]JPI\MFPI Marine Safety ...... 27
Defense Readiness ...... 29 From ship design, engineering, Undocumented Migrant Interdiction ...... 31 acquisition and program Marine Environmental Protection ...... 32 management to human systems Ice Operations: Part of the Waterways Management Mission Program ...... 33
Other Law Enforcement: Targeting Foreign Fishing Vessels ...... 35 integration, T&E support and
REGIONS integrated logistics, Alion delivers
U.S. Coast Guard Pacific Area: Reaching the Far East ...... 36 the technology and expertise to By Chris Doane and Dr. Joe DiRenzo III help you achieve your mission. U.S. Coast Guard Atlantic Area: Middle East and Africa Operations ...... 42 By Chris Doane and Dr. Joe DiRenzo III Because that’s what matters. District 1 ...... 50 By J.R. Wilson
District 5 ...... 54 www.alionscience.com By Mark D. Faram
District 7 ...... 58 By J.R. Wilson
District 8 ...... 62 By J.R. Wilson
District 9 ...... 66 By Craig Collins
District 11 ...... 70 By Craig Collins
District 13 Guardians of the Pacific Northwest ...... 74 By Craig Collins
District 14 Fighting the “Tyranny of Distance” in the Vast Pacific ...... 78 By Craig Collins
Coast Guard Outlook 2010 7
TOC.indd 7 11/5/09 8:47 AM ZF technology - the intelligent choice. Because Semper Paratus appliestomorethan just people
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=)PDULQHLQGG 30 District 17 The Service’s Harshest District and Cornerstone of America’s Arctic Presence ...... 82 By Chris Doane and Dr. Joe DiRenzo III
STRATEGIC DIVISION
The Arctic: An Increasingly Accessible Region ...... 86 By Chris Doane and Dr. Joe DiRenzo III
A Habit of Change Coast Guard Modernization ...... 94 By Eric Tegler
One Small Boat Among Many Can Be a Big Problem ...... 100 By Edward H. Lundquist
Fighting Pirates Requires Coordinated Effort ...... 106 By Edward H. Lundquist
Maritime Domain Awareness: Information-sharing and Coordination ...... 112 By Edward H. Lundquist
TECHNOLOGY
The Sentinel-class Fast Response Cutter: Top-notch Performance Capability ...... 118 By Mark D. Faram
Coast Guard Foreign Military Sales: A Modest Program with a Big Impact ...... 124 By J.R. Wilson
Lifeline New Sensors Take the Search Out of Search and Rescue ...... 128 By Eric Tegler
Persistent Partner Unmanned Aircraft Systems and the Maritime Patrol Gap ...... 132 By Jan Tegler
Mission Management System: Improving Service to the Maritime Industry ...... 140 By Scott R. Gourley
Cutter Boats “Tilting the Playing Field” ...... 146 By Mark D. Faram
Interagency Operations Centers ...... 152 By Scott R. Gourley
One for All and All for One The Coast Guard’s New Merchant Mariner Credential ...... 158 By Jan Tegler PEOPLE
For the Good of Their Communities: Coast Guard Volunteers ...... 162 By Barbara Stahura
Coast Guard Diversity: A Mosaic of the Population ...... 165 By Barbara Stahura
Coast Guard Proven Leaders ...... 168 By Barbara Stahura
Lifesavers Out of Uniform ...... 172 By Barbara Stahura ORGANIZATIONAL SNAPSHOT
Coast Guard 2009 Snapshot ...... 175
The Ships and Aircraft of the U.S. Coast Guard ...... 178 By Robert F. Dorr
Flag Leadership ...... 196
Coast Guard Outlook 2010 9
TOC.indd 9 11/5/09 8:47 AM Prepared to respond.
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marine preservation on temp.indd 1 3/20/09 9:42 AM Published by
North American Headquarters 701 North West Shore Blvd. Tampa, FL 33609 Tel. (813) 639-1900 Fax (813) 639-4344
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Coast Guard Outlook 2010 11
masthead.indd 11 11/9/09 3:33 PM INTRODUCTION PEKOSKE INTERVIEW
Vice Commandant of the U.S. Coast Guard
Vice Adm. David Pekoske By J.R. Wilson
“We’re small, but we deliver a powerful return. We punch way above our weight.”
– Vice Commandant David Pekoske
ice Adm. David Pekoske was promoted to the Coast Guard’s second-highest post – vice commandant – in V August 2009. A 1977 graduate of the USCG Academy, he also has a master’s degree in public administration from Columbia University (1989) and an MBA from MIT (1997). In his 32-year career, he has held six operational unit commands and served in the Atlantic, Pacific, and Gulf coasts, and the Great Lakes. He received his first star in 2004 and his third in 2008 when he was appointed commander, Pacific Area/Coast Guard Defense Forces West.
Coast Guard Outlook 2010: You have called Modernization a top priority for the Coast Guard; in your new job as a primary service-wide integrator/implementer, how will you pursue that? Vice Commandant of the U.S. Coast Guard, Vice Adm. David Pekoske: I plan to keep on moving Modernization forward as quickly as I can. The central tenet of Modernization is to focus the roles and responsibilities of key leaders in the field and headquarters and the processes around which they work. Implementing Modernization is an imperative; to be always ready for what we see as the future operating environment, we must modernize. The commandant develops our strategy and works our relationships with our key stakeholders, both here in Washington, around the country, and indeed around the world. My role as vice commandant is to manage the business of the organization; I implement the commandant’s strategic intent via our senior leadership, which, when Modernization is complete, will be the deputy commandant for mission support, the deputy commandant for operations, the Operations Command, and the Force Readiness Command. Our current geographic-based, area structure is outdated and was built for a time before near real-time situational awareness was possible or requirements for service-wide response. The common theme is rather than taking a regional approach to operations and support, we are taking a service-wide view. At the end of the day, we are convinced this will result in improved mission performance and operational effectiveness across the Vice Adm. David P. Pekoske, vice commandant of the U.S. Coast Guard. board. In the short term, we have asked Congress to provide the authorization in law to make changes to our core leadership structure. U.S. Coast Guard photo by Telfair Brown Coast GuardU.S. photo by Telfair
12 Coast Guard Outlook 2010
pekoske.indd 12 11/5/09 3:25 PM PEKOSKE INTERVIEW INTRODUCTION
Petty Officer 3rd Class Alejandro Gutierrez lines up the special-purpose craft to “shoot the notch” on the CGC Bertholf’s stern launch ramp June 24, 2009, while deployed in the Pacific Ocean. The stern launch ramp allows the Bertholf to launch and recover smallboats in a higher sea state than with a more traditional side davit. Vice Commandant David Pekoske says the cutter’s commissioning is among the service’s highlights of the last two years. The Bertholf is “... the first major ship commissioning in decades and desperately needed in our inventory,” he said.
What do you consider to have been the highlights of the past marine inspection. Cruise ship traffic is on the rise and we will year or so for the Coast Guard? have a responsibility to ensure safety. As shipping routes emerge, We commissioned our first National Security Cutter, Bertholf, the so will the need for navigation services and consideration of a first major ship commissioning in decades and desperately needed traffic separation scheme in the Bering Strait. As one of the most in our inventory. We brought on the superb CASA aircraft [developed pristine environments on the planet, we will do all we can to by the former Construccionnes Aeronáuticas SA (CASA), now the prevent a spill. If there is any sort of environmental issue, we will EADS CASA company], took delivery of 13 Response Boat-Mediums, need to respond – and the operating requirements are unlike any continued deployment and acceptance of Rescue 21, brought CGC we have faced elsewhere. Fish stock protection, law enforcement, Waesche [NSC No. 2] through builder’s and acceptance trials, homeland security, and nearly every mission that the Coast Guard modernized our helicopter fleet, and let the contract for our new performs around the country will be in demand in the Arctic Fast Response Cutter, a model contract for acquisition. We are environment. seeing much-needed new capabilities come into the Coast Guard inventory. What goals and challenges do you see for the Coast Guard in We also began to scope our requirements for potential future the year to come? multi-mission operations in the Arctic. We worked with tribal leaders To maintain our motto to be always ready, we must continue and other partners to understand what it will take to operate there our efforts to recapitalize the service – this is critical. Some of our in the decades ahead. cutters were commissioned more than 40 years ago – that’s old for any ship, especially those that must operate in adverse weather What are the requirements there? conditions. A key challenge and priority going forward is to get We will continue to support scientific research. As the ice legislative authority to fully implement Modernization, giving us the continues to melt, water space opens, and the oil and gas industry organizational structure we need to conduct and support our future explores vast fields, we will see a greater need for Coast Guard operations. U.S. Coast GuardU.S. photo by Petty Officer 3rd Class Michael Anderson
Coast Guard Outlook 2010 13
pekoske.indd 13 11/5/09 3:25 PM INTRODUCTION PEKOSKE INTERVIEW
How did the Coast Guard evolve into all of these multiple missions and where do you see it going in the future? We’ve been evolving since our founding over 219 years ago. There is a national need for an organization that is agile, nimble, and can provide a wide a range of maritime services for our citizens. It is our broad mission set that makes us so effective. For a ship approaching a U.S. port, one service – the Coast Guard – ensures compliance with global safety requirements, evaluates security, provides safe navigation aids, and knows that ship’s capabilities if a search, rescue, or environmental response is required. One service does it all and coordinates the efforts of any others that become involved.
How do you see the Coast Guard’s role in working with the navies and Coast Guard equivalents of other nations? The Coast Guard is a unique model of safety, security, and protection of resources that is replicated around the world. We share model procedures and laws with interested countries to help them balance the demands of military service with law enforcement, maritime safety, fishery protection, maritime border security, and pollution response and how to build relationships with other military services, state and local governments, industry, and international partners.
With increased demands for homeland security, maritime law enforcement, being the primary interface for Foreign Military Sales and training for most of the world’s navies, support to Department of Defense in Southwest Asia, etc., the Coast Guard has been thinly stretched for several years – with no end in sight. Is the government demanding and expecting too much of this one, relatively small, organization? We’re small, but we deliver a powerful return. We punch way above The U.S. Coast Guard’s second National Security Cutter, Waesche, our weight. Every one of those operations reinforces the conduct of makes waves during acceptance trials off the Mississippi Gulf Coast our missions around the globe. Operations in Southwest Asia have from Sept. 28 to Oct. 1, 2009. The Coast Guard and the U.S. Navy a direct benefit to our security missions in the U.S. While stretched, Board of Inspection and Survey conducted the trials. the real challenge is completing tasks with outdated assets and infrastructure. Think about where we are today and what we do around the world; then think what we could do if we had the ships, What changes – in terms of priority, resource allocation, etc. the C2 [command and control], the aircraft, and shore facilities we – do you foresee in the Coast Guard’s 11 primary missions? need combined with a modernized Coast Guard business process. Performance in one of our 11 missions reinforces our performance That’s a very powerful combination. We are stretched because people in another mission and they are all inter-related with our core roles find value in what we do – and if people like what they see, they of safety, security and stewardship. Through marine inspection, need to invest in it. There is a huge return on that investment. we develop expertise on vessel construction, operation and crew expertise. This helps us better perform search and rescue and As someone who has worked a wide range of Coast Guard security missions. Security is an all-hands operation for all levels posts, in the field and administrative, what more do you of the government, industry, and every citizen. Working alongside believe needs to be done to improve the service’s operations? industry on inspections establishes relationships that allow us to Recapitalization of our major assets is the most important thing we leverage capabilities in other missions. need to do to improve our mission performance and overall service But we are more than just multi-mission, we are an integrated- capabilities. We also have had great success at working alongside mission Coast Guard. We represent an enormously positive value partners to enhance the overall capability of the government. When proposition to the American taxpayer. Mission priorities have working in a port, we try to foster good working relationships with changed over time and will continue to change as national priorities our partners at the state and local level. Offshore, we’re always evolve, operational environments change, and as the tactics of others looking for ways to operate together with our DHS [Department of change. When smuggling organizations change tactics, our counter- Homeland Security] and military partners. We can do a lot more drug mission tactics respond as quickly. together than we can individually to solve problems. That also holds Security has clearly become an enhanced priority since 9/11. true with our international partners and improving our own organic We will look at what the administration and Congress establish as capacity to impact mission success. national priorities and operate accordingly. Mission focus is not static and we will always be looking to adjust both the priority of missions What is your “wish list” for the Coast Guard’s future, from and the resourcing they receive. new technologies and equipment to manpower and training? We acted on the industry demand for additional focus on marine I hope we can replace our major cutters, aircraft, and command safety, capacity, and skills of our workforce to inspect commercial and control [C2], and build out our coastal capacity with our new vessels. It has become a higher priority. As we investigate marine fast response patrol boat – and do so at a quick pace. I look for us accidents, we self-evaluate to determine how we might prevent such to develop a shoreside C2 system for visibility of what’s going on
accidents in the future. in our waterways and offshore to best allocate resources. I hope Photo courtesy of Northrop Grumman Shipbuilding
14 Coast Guard Outlook 2010
pekoske.indd 14 11/5/09 8:33 AM PEKOSKE INTERVIEW INTRODUCTION
Since 9/11, security is one of the Coast Guard’s foremost responsibilities. Here is but one example of the service’s show of force: A 25- foot response boat crew from Coast Guard Station New York, based on Staten Island, N.Y., awaited the arrival of President Barack Obama during a surge in security operations near the South Street Heliport in Manhattan Sept. 24, 2009. The Coast Guard and the New York City Police Department provided an increased security presence throughout the East River during the 64th session of the United Nations General Assembly held Sept. 23-30.
we continue to develop intelligence capabilities, so that deployed to the extent we can bring countries together to cooperate on those, resources have the best information on where to go and what to do the global community will benefit. to get the job done. Over the past decade the North Pacific Coast Guard Forum As a small service that operates in remote locations, I wish our has become a model for the North Atlantic Forum and others. We support system for our people and their families was commensurate encourage this model to take hold. The U.S. need not be a member of with what we ask them to contribute. We need to have good or lead all regional fora, but we can show them the benefits realized child care, good housing and good health care. The quality of our and offer best practices that apply to their region of the world. workforce is the absolute most important thing for us. We attract and retain the best people and develop them as individuals so they Any final thoughts? can achieve their full potential. To do so, we have to provide for their Our people, active, Reserve, civilian, and volunteer Auxiliary family well-being or we won’t be able to retain them. Likewise, we are the best. We must continue to train them and provide the need to provide the equipment they deserve to do the job we ask tools they need for their jobs. Our value is in our integrated them to get done. mission performance, which gives the taxpayer a valuable return. While we would always like to do more, the reality of Do you expect to expand the forum concept to develop new budget constraints forces us to prioritize our efforts. organizations for the Southern Hemisphere? I’ve never been more optimistic about our future. We have the The regional forums, like the North Pacific Coast Guard Forum, highest quality and motivated workforce we’ve ever had and the have gone a long way toward breaking down barriers and building demand for our services has never been greater. Our partnerships respect between countries and we’re much better operating with with state, local, inter-agency, and international stakeholders are each other as a result. We want to see these kinds of forums maturing for the benefit of everyone – which is why Modernization all around the world. Shipping is a global enterprise, and safety, and recapitalization of our service is so important to provide an security, and protection of the environment are global priorities. So organizational structure to best operate in the 21st century. U.S. Coast GuardU.S. photo by Petty Officer 3rd Class Barbara L. Patton
Coast Guard Outlook 2010 15
pekoske.indd 15 11/2/09 11:17 AM INTRODUCTION MCPOCG BOWEN
MCPOCG Charles “Skip” Bowen: Making the Coast Guard Successful – One Guardian at a Time
By J.R. Wilson
’m the blue collar guy among senior leadership, so I consider myself a field reality check,” said Master Chief “IPetty Officer of the Coast Guard (MCPOCG) Charles “Skip” Bowen. “When a policy or course of action is being considered that will affect the enlisted workforce, I bring up issues from their perspective. Every organization has a bureaucracy and if it blocks communication, I try to unblock them, but that means assisting the chain of command, not circumventing it.” MCPOCG Bowen serves as the senior enlisted member of the service, a position he has held since being selected for it by Adm. Thad W. Allen, commandant of the Coast Guard, in May 2006. The normal tour of assignment is four years and the primary duties are: communicate the commandant’s intent to the enlisted workforce, both active and Reserve; talk to the enlisted personnel and families and communicate their concerns to the commandant; and be a resource for the chain of command. Allen has been one of the most transformational of Coast Guard commandants, overseeing a major modernization and reorganization effort. That has kept Bowen busier than many of his predecessors, but he has been an ardent supporter of modernization, especially where it improves the safety, capabilities, and quality of life of the workforce. “Getting modernization and our new logistics delivery MCPOCG Charles W. Bowen is the U.S. Coast Guard’s 10th master chief system right have been extremely important, but I’m pretty petty officer. excited about where we are now compared to three years ago,” he said. The service just stood up Forces Readiness Command and is moving toward consolidating all operations under Operations Command. While they have not received legislative authorization yet, they have moved a long way in positioning their workforce to be ready to fully implement as soon as authorization is passed. Instead of having two area commands – Atlantic and Pacific – with separate ideas on how to do business, the Coast Guard will have one operational commander and standardization across the entire fleet. A major example of improvement, in Bowen’s view, is the new approach to maintenance and logistics support. Through the new structure, the service will have an improved maintenance capability. U.S. Coast Guard photo by Telfair H. Brown Sr. Coast GuardU.S. photo by Telfair
16 Coast Guard Outlook 2010
bowen.indd 16 11/5/09 5:21 PM MCPOCG BOWEN INTRODUCTION
MCPOCG Charles W. Bowen takes some time to talk with Coast Guard personnel in the Hampton Roads, Va., area. As the senior enlisted member, Bowen serves as the liaison between the commandant and the enlisted service members, among other duties.
“Prior to modernization, we had two large Maintenance One of the great values of the Coast Guard is the Logistic Commands subordinate to the operational multi-mission capabilities of its assets. The Coast Guard commanders. Coast Guard operations always have – and has 11 statutory missions, each subject to changes in always will – trump all others, but we sometimes were global maritime requirements and the commandant’s deferring maintenance when instead they should have modernization and transformation program. A specific done the maintenance and found some other way to deal cutter may be engaged in a search and rescue case, but with ops requirements,” he said. once completed, they can turn immediately to a drug or Two of the largest new programs in the Coast Guard’s human smuggling or other law enforcement or natural modernization effort are the Response Boat-Medium (RB- resources mission. M) and the National Security Cutter (NSC). Ten RB-Ms “All of our missions are important but there is no doubt we had been built and fielded by mid-2009 to an enthusiastic are stretched thin,” said Bowen. “We have done a great deal crew reception – and hundreds more will be delivered over to get additional resources so we can continue to improve our the next few years. There are eight planned NSCs: The performance and enhance our value to the nation.” CGC Bertholf was commissioned in August 2008; the CGC Much of Bowen’s charter is directly related to all Waesche, which was christened in August, is undergoing aspects of the Coast Guard’s workforce, both at sea sea trials and the keel was laid in July 2009 on the third and ashore. In some ways, that is colored by the older – the CGC Stratton – which is scheduled for christening average age of Coast Guardsmen, both officers (35) and in 2010. enlisted (29), compared to the Department of Defense The delivery of the first of the new Sentinel class of (DoD) services. Fast Response Cutters could occur as early as late fall “We recruit in the same way as the DoD services, but 2010. As a replacement for the aging 110-foot Island-class older recruits seem to find their way to us. People are patrol cutters, the 153-foot Sentinel will be faster and able attracted to our mission set who might start off doing to perform independently for a minimum of five days at sea something else in life, then realize the Coast Guard is and be under way with its crew of 22 for a total of 2,500 an option,” he said. “What we do is incredibly complex, hours each year. dealing with multiple missions. Our people often must U.S. Coast Rich Condit GuardU.S. photo by Lt. Cmdr.
Coast Guard Outlook 2010 17
bowen.indd 17 11/2/09 2:46 PM INTRODUCTION MCPOCG BOWEN
A Coast Guard crew from Station Boston operates a new law enforcement and search and rescue boat in Boston Harbor, April 13, 2009. The 45-foot Response Boat-Medium was delivered to Coast Guard Station Boston, March 28, 2009, and is the third initiative in the Response Boats 2010 strategic vision and transition plan, aimed at standardizing and revitalizing the Coast Guard’s shore-based response fleet.
make difficult on-scene decisions that require a certain ”We have a supplemental program to assist our level of maturity, not just in terms of life and death and personnel with private child care but that is extremely understanding rules of engagement, but also civilian use limited and only a small percentage of our workforce can of force, which is quite different. Having a more mature take advantage of it,” said Bowen. “We are looking at other force handling those missions is an advantage – which is options to help more people.” not to say our younger members do not do well.” Bowen acknowledges how difficult it can be to change a In his role as the enlisted advocate, Bowen also works large organization while maintaining full mission capability on a full range of quality-of-life issues. The Coast Guard and growing demands, but believes it is well worth the government-owned housing is documented as very old and effort. He noted that in early 2009, two high-endurance in need of tremendous upgrades. The other services have cutters had to be taken out of service and millions of dollars been able to take part in public-private ventures (PPV), are being spent to return them to service. with private entities managing their housing. “Afterwards, we did an assessment of our high- “In our case, because of glitches with the law, we endurance cutter fleet and, as I was reading through that, have not been able to enter into those agreements,” I couldn’t help but think, if we had been using our new he said. “The Coast Guard Service Member Benefits logistics system, with one touch-point to maintain those Improvement Act [introduced in the House of ships the past 10 years, we would have been in a much Representatives in June 2009] will give us the authority better place with them despite their age, which is the No. to enter into PPV agreements, which will help better 1 problem with them,” he said. “The whole new system manage our housing.” will position the Coast Guard to be much more effective Also, the service has a huge issue with child care. overall.” Currently, the Coast Guard and DoD Child Development Bowen’s term as the senior enlisted advisor will end Centers help deal with some of the need, but often with Allen’s retirement as commandant in May 2010. But members live in high-cost areas away from DoD bases. even though he will be ending his active-duty service, U.S. Coast GuardU.S. photo by Petty Officer 2nd Class Luke Pinneo
18 Coast Guard Outlook 2010
bowen.indd 18 11/2/09 2:46 PM MCPOCG BOWEN INTRODUCTION
The 153-foot Sentinel-class cutter (above) will be capable of speeds of 28-plus his concern for the welfare and needs of the enlisted knots and will be armed with one stabilized, remotely operated 25 mm chain guardians will not end in 2010. gun and four crew-served .50-caliber machine guns. It was designed for a crew “Even though I retire next year, I will never stop being capacity of 23 and will be able to perform independently for a minimum of five an advocate for our workforce whenever the opportunity days at sea and be under way for 2,500 hours per year. The first delivery of the presents itself,” concluded Bowen. new generation Fast Response Cutter is scheduled for late fall 2011. Illustration courtesy of Bollinger Shipyards
bowen.indd 19 11/5/09 3:29 PM MISSIONS PORTS, WATERWAYS, AND COASTAL SECURITY
Ports, Waterways, and Coastal Security By Craig Collins
he Homeland Security Act of 2002 categorized the U.S. Coast Guard’s T 11 statutory missions as homeland security or non-homeland security. Of the five homeland security missions, Congress listed ports, waterways, and coastal security (PWCS) first. The PWCS mission protects the U.S. Maritime Domain and the Marine Transportation System – essentially, the approaches to our nation’s ports, inside the ports, and on navigable waterways, and the people, maritime critical infrastructure, and key resources, cargo, and vessels. The mission has three strategic courses of action: achieving Maritime Domain Awareness within the Coast Guard and in cooperation with other agencies; maritime security and response operations to prevent attacks, sabotage, espionage, or other subversive acts, and responding to Petty Officer 3rd Class Valerie Thrall, a machinery technician from Coast Guard Station New and aiding the recovery from any attacks York, mans the M240 7.62 mm general purpose machine gun while enforcing the security that occur; and national and international zones around the Staten Island Ferry in New York Harbor Sept. 10, 2008. Station New York is maritime security regimes that establish a multi-mission unit, conducting search and rescue missions, as well as providing security policies and regulations for strengthening along New York waterways. The ports, waterways, and coastal security mission is one of five maritime security. primary U.S. Coast Guard homeland security missions. The PWCS program provides a vigorous level of preventive security activities: according to Joseph Conroy of the Coast programs (e.g., America’s Waterway Watch) armed escorts of vessels carrying military Guard’s Office of Counterterrorism and aimed at involving the public in detecting or certain dangerous cargoes, large Defense Operations. and expeditiously reporting suspicious numbers of passengers, and Navy warships; The Coast Guard keeps its response behavior. security boardings of various classes of capabilities sharp through participation The U.S. and Canadian governments vessels; waterborne, aerial, and shoreside in national level exercises designed to achieved a milestone in international patrols; enforcement of security zones; test national policy related to emergency cooperation in May 2009 that will and layered security coordination through response. From July 27-31, 2009, the Coast dramatically increase cross-border communication, education, and planning Guard participated in the first National maritime capability in eastern Maine, the with port partners and local federal, state, Level Exercise (NLE) to focus on maritime St. Lawrence Seaway, Great Lakes, and local, and tribal governments via Area terrorism prevention, in a scenario that Pacific Northwest. They formally agreed Maritime Security Committees. simulated an imminent terrorist threat to to authorize law enforcement personnel Mumbai, India, suffered a series of the U.S. Gulf Coast. The scenario was a from both countries to conduct joint patrols coordinated terrorist attacks in November Tier I exercise, involving the entire federal on the shared waterways of the U.S./ 2008. Its attackers arrived in a rubber dinghy, government. “This exercise gave us an Canadian international maritime border. launched from a hijacked fishing vessel – a opportunity to highlight the Coast Guard’s Informally called the “shiprider” agreement, method anticipated by the Department of authorities, capabilities, and responsibilities it authorizes armed, cross-designated, law Homeland Security (DHS) in its April 2008 in the first NLE of this administration enforcement personnel to embark on the Small Vessel Security Strategy (SVSS). To and one in which the president himself vessels of the other party. Vessels with help craft an interagency implementation participated,” said Jeff Hughes of the Coast embarked shipriders may conduct patrols plan for the SVSS, the service convened Guard’s Force Readiness Command. and take law enforcement actions on the five regional small vessel security summits The partnership between international waters of either party, but each shiprider with small vessel commercial and pleasure partners, government agencies, industry, and vessel operates under the direction craft stakeholders. In September 2009, and the public is a key factor in the success of the host nation when in waters of the the commandant of the Coast Guard and of PWCS. In August 2009, the Coast Guard other party. The Canadian Parliament must the commissioner of Customs and Border and DHS’ small-vessel security study group ratify the shiprider agreement and enact Protection forwarded the implementation held a workshop on enhancing small vessel implementing legislation prior to its entry plan to the secretary of DHS. “It lays stakeholder collaboration. The workshop into force. out methods to achieve the goals and focused on how technological innovations These efforts exemplify how the service objectives of the SVSS, including what the ranging from social networking media leverages its assets and those of its partners Coast Guard, other government agencies, like Twitter and Facebook to imaging to ensure the security of our nation’s ports, industry, and the public are doing or can applications such as Google™ Earth can waterways, and coasts as required by the do to prevent a Mumbai-style attack,” increase the effectiveness of Coast Guard Homeland Security Act. U.S. Coast Barbara GuardU.S. L. Patton photo by PA3
20 Coast Guard Outlook 2010
ports waterways.indd 20 11/2/09 2:39 PM DRUG INTERDICTION MISSIONS
Members of U.S. Coast Guard Law Enforcement Detachment 406 Illegal Drug assigned to HMS Iron Duke approach a stopped go-fast vessel off the coast of Venezuela July 16, 2009. Thirty-six bales of cocaine worth an estimated $55 million were seized during the drug Interdiction interdiction. Partnerships like this help disrupt the illegal drug market, prevent other crimes, and choke off potential funding sources for terrorism and international criminal syndicates. By Craig Collins
he largest single increase in funding for the U.S. Coast Guard’s personnel T and shipbuilding occurred in the 1920s, after Congress assigned it the job of enforcing the 18th Amendment by intercepting rum-runners attempting to smuggle alcohol into the United States. The service’s leadership in illegal drug interdiction began a few decades later; it conducted its first Coast Guard-controlled drug seizure in 1973 when it uncovered about half a ton of marijuana aboard a 38- foot sport fishing boat off the Florida coast. Today, the service is the lead federal agency for maritime drug interdiction. Its mission is to reduce the supply of drugs to be significant drug-smuggling activity change tactics to continue their illicit trade. from the source by denying smugglers the from the Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico They continually shift types of conveyances use of air and sea routes in what is known to the eastern Pacific, and an increasing and routes, as well as innovative as the transit zone – a 6-million-square-mile reliance on a new mode of transportation concealment methods, to increase their area that includes the Caribbean, the Gulf known as self-propelled semi-submersibles success rate for moving illegal drugs of Mexico, and the eastern Pacific Ocean. (SPSSs) boats. The SPSSs are low-profile through the transit zone. The Coast Guard’s On average, Coast Guard drug interdiction vessels that are difficult to detect on radar success in detecting concealed cocaine accounts for more than half of all U.S. because their hulls project only about a and disrupting the offshore routes has government cocaine removals. foot above the waterline, and which can resulted in the increased use of low-tech The Coast Guard’s approach to reducing be intentionally flooded and scuttled when go-fast vessels transiting littoral waters the flow of illegal drugs is multifaceted, intercepted. Until September 2008, this by the drug-trafficking organizations. Go- and includes detection and monitoring, proved frustrating for the Coast Guard, fast vessels now account for 50 percent interdiction, and federal and international which, faced with a lack of evidence, was of all non-commercial, maritime drug- partnerships to support national strategies forced to treat drug interdictions as search smuggling events. These routes along the and increase the assets used to patrol and rescue operations after smugglers sank eastern Pacific and western Caribbean such a vast area. Perhaps the service’s their vessels and set themselves adrift. provide short, high-speed runs and limited most significant domestic partnership According to the Department of Homeland protection from U.S. patrol assets in coastal is with the U.S. Navy and other allied Security, semi-submersible vessels are nations’ territorial seas. nations, which carry Coast Guard Law responsible for about one-third of all Although more expensive to construct, Enforcement Detachments, the Coast cocaine movement in the transit zone. the increased load size and success rates Guard’s specialized drug-interdiction The Coast Guard had been working hard have made the SPSS an efficient mode of teams, aboard its ships in the transit for more than a year in the fight against transport for the trafficking organizations zone. Additionally, the U.S. government SPSSs but found current law inadequate as well. The SPSSs operate farther offshore, has bi-lateral agreements and operational for prosecution. On Oct. 13, 2008, Congress while the go-fasts operate closer to land, procedure arrangements with 26 Central passed the Drug Trafficking and Vessel stretching thinner the Coast Guard’s limited American, South American, and Caribbean Interdiction Act, which outlaws the detection, monitoring, and interdiction countries. With these agreements and operation of unregistered submersible or assets as it tries to combat all modes of arrangements combined with our forward semi-submersible vessels in international drug trafficking. deployed operational assets, it allows the waters with the intent to evade detection. Despite these challenges, from fiscal year U.S to extend the maritime border and In 2009, the Coast Guard removed a 2004 to fiscal year 2009, the service has improve our ability to disrupt the illegal record 352,863 pounds of cocaine (160 removed 1,995,778 pounds of cocaine. Coast drug market. This partnership also helps metric tons) from the market; in the fourth Guard efforts in the transit zone contribute prevent other crimes and chokes off quarter alone, it disrupted 28 cocaine to reduced availability, increased price, and potential funding sources for terrorism shipments, including shipments involving decreased purity of cocaine on U.S. streets. and international criminal syndicates. The three SPSS vessels and 12 high-speed go- Application of strategies that leverage government’s efforts to disrupt the illegal fast vessels. Coast Guard maritime security expertise drug market help prevent other crimes, Coast Guard strategies must remain and capability will protect U.S. borders. Iron Duke and choke off potential funding sources sensitive to a suite of threats and challenges The service will strengthen the operational for terrorism and international criminal and be adaptive to effectively fight drug- posture of regional allies, facilitate safe syndicates. trafficking organizations. Transnational and rapid international trade practices, and 2009 was a busy year for the Coast Guard’s drug-trafficking organizations have mitigate threats imposed by transnational drug interdiction efforts as there continued repeatedly shown their ability to rapidly criminals. Photo courtesy of HMS
Coast Guard Outlook 2010 21
drug interdiction.indd 21 11/2/09 5:10 PM MISSIONS AIDS TO NAVIGATION
Aids to Navigation: Part of the Waterways Management Mission Program
By Craig Collins
he United States is a maritime nation that relies on its interconnected rivers, lakes, oceans, and waterways for national T defense, commerce, energy, food, resources, and recreation. The Coast Guard is the principal federal agency responsible for the safety, security, and stewardship of America’s maritime domain. The Waterways Management (WWM) Mission Program supports this important responsibility by facilitating the safe and efficient flow of commerce through the U.S. Marine Transportation System (MTS). One of the statutory missions of the WWM is aids to navigation (ATON). The Coast Guard’s aids to navigation program promotes safe navigation of vessels transiting through U.S. navigable waters. The ATON program’s fleet of 76 cutters and 63 aids to navigation teams (ANTs) maintains approximately 51,000 federal fixed and floating
navigational aids, providing mariners with vital visual navigation Coast GuardU.S. photo by Petty Officer Rob Simpson information in the riskiest areas for navigation accidents – coastal waters, harbors, channels, and rivers. The ultimate measure of the effectiveness in facilitating the safe and efficient marine transportation is the number of accidents – collisions, allisions, and groundings – in U.S. waterways; by that measure, the program has been successful. Accidents have declined by 23 percent over the last decade, even with ever-increasing numbers of ships plying the waters. 2008 marked the lowest number of reportable maritime collisions in the United States since the Coast Guard began collecting collision data in 1994. When major flooding occurred throughout the Mississippi River system in 2008, the Coast Guard’s inland buoy tenders and ANTs played a crucial role in reopening waters to commerce, replacing more than 3,500 buoys and 330 fixed ATON structures. Likewise, when Hurricanes Gustav and Ike caused nearly $40 billion in damage to Houston, Texas, and other ports in the Gulf of Mexico in August and September 2008, ANTs quickly restored the navigability of ship channels by correcting 1,200 ATON discrepancies. The aids to navigation program continues to improve navigation safety and reduce total program costs through its Modernization initiatives, replacing incandescent lights with less costly and more visible and reliable light emitting diodes, for example, and replacing wooden pilings with steel to better withstand major weather events. The safety and efficiencies provided by the ATON program are vital to the nation’s MTS that comprises 25,000 miles of inland, intracoastal, and coastal waterways and 95,000 miles of U.S. coastline. The MTS plays a vital role in the country’s economic security by generating over 8 million jobs, adding $2 trillion to the Coast Guard personnel aboard the CGC Vise, a 75-foot inland U.S. economy, and providing U.S. military, industry, and consumers construction tender homeported in St. Petersburg, Fla., raise a with vital goods and products. Disruptions to safe vessel navigation temporary buoy from Bayboro Harbor, in St. Petersburg, to replace within the MTS, whether they occur due to marine accidents, natural it with a permanent navigational marker Aug. 13, 2009. Over the disasters, or malicious acts, often have significant national security, last decade, accidents – collisions, allisions, and groundings – have economic, environmental, and social implications. fallen 23 percent.
22 Coast Guard Outlook 2010
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024 L3 & Cavotec.indd 1 10/29/09 10:06 AM SEARCH AND RESCUE MISSIONS
Search and
Rescue By Craig Collins
he Coast Guard has saved more than 1 million lives since 1790. These T incidents range from individual rescues to catastrophic events. Each year, the service conducts more than 23,000 search and rescue (SAR) cases, saves nearly 5,000 people, assists more than 35,000 people, and assists or saves in excess of $1.5 billion worth of property. Recreational boaters, commercial fishers, and professional mariners make up the majority of those A Coast Guard rescue HH-60 Jayhawk helicopter crew from Air Station Elizabeth City, N.C., saved and assisted. transfers a 58-year-old woman suffering from chest pains to emergency medical personnel The Coast Guard’s SAR mission is to save at Sentara Norfolk General Hospital in Norfolk, Va., April 30, 2009. The Coast Guard airlifted lives anywhere its actions can be brought the woman from the Ocracoke Island Health Center in Ocracoke, N.C., which is normally to bear. SAR continues to be the service’s accessible only via ferry. greatest calling. The service strives to minimize lives lost, injury, and property damage by rendering aid to those in distress The maritime transportation system new and fostering existing international in the maritime environment, and elsewhere is the backbone of worldwide trade and partnerships and relationships; and (4) as called upon. In 2008, the Coast Guard recreation. The globalization of these enhancing SAR expertise. saved 4,912 lives and responded to 24,230 issues means that emerging challenges The Coast Guard has taken significant incidents. once considered local or regional may steps to address these challenges, The service’s SAR mission supports now need to be mitigated by actors and including the further installation of national and international strategies by organizations throughout the world. The Rescue 21, the state-of-the-art digital assisting people or property in distress. system is vibrant, but it nonetheless faces communication system designed to close The Coast Guard advances these national many challenges that are expected to affect coverage gaps across the coastal United responsibilities through the following the future performance of the search and States. The system was installed in 10 strategic goals: rescue program. major coastal areas in 2008, and to date, hVkZ Vaa a^kZh ^c Y^higZhh l]ZgZ 8dVhi Commercial and recreational groups it covers 28,000 miles of coastline. In the Guard resources can be brought to rely on ever-improving technologies to past year, the service has upgraded the bear; communicate their maritime distress with direction-finding equipment on its fixed- gZa^ZkZ eV^c dg hj[[Zg^c\ [dg i]dhZ the expectation that assisting organizations wing aircraft to locate emergency distress injured in the maritime domain; will hear their call. signals, and it has taken delivery of the egdiZXiegdeZgin0 Faced with the potential loss of lives and first three of 180 multi-mission capable Wj^aYVbdgZZ[[ZXi^kZVcYZ[ÒX^ZciH6G property, the expertise of command center Response Boat-Medium boats, which will system; personnel in the coordination of SAR cases replace the outdated 41-foot utility boat. WZVldgaYaZVYZg^cbVg^i^bZH6G0 is paramount. This workforce is required to Recent updates are promising. In 2008, bV^ciV^ci]ZXVeVW^a^i^Zh!XdbeZiZcX^Zh! provide oversight and coordination across the percent of people saved from imminent and partnerships necessary to respond all Coast Guard missions. The multi-mission danger in the maritime environment – to catastrophic events, including mass proficiency required of command center the primary SAR performance measure – rescue operations; and personnel is a challenge for watchstanders rose to 76.8, surpassing the Coast Guard’s b^c^b^oZi]Zg^h`id8dVhi Coast Guard Outlook 2010 25 SAR.indd 25 11/2/09 2:58 PM MISSIONS LIVING MARINE RESOURCES Living Marine Resources By Craig Collins As an ocean steward of marine species, the Coast Guard partners with other agencies to assist with stranded, entangled, or injured animals. Here, the CGC Penobscot Bay enforced a 500-yard safety zone around this humpback whale entangled in a lobster pot and netting eight miles east of Sandy Hook, N.J., near the approach to the Ambrose Channel Feb. 25, 2009. he Coast Guard’s involvement in protecting natural resources Marine Protected Species dates to the early 19th century, when the Revenue Cutter T Service was used to protect Florida from timber poachers. In cooperation with NMFS and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Today, the service’s descendant, the Coast Guard, focuses on the the Coast Guard also works to safeguard other marine animals, protection of marine and aquatic resources – not only to preserve particularly those protected by the Endangered Species Act and the marine ecosystem but also the national economy, to which the Marine Mammal Protection Act. The Coast Guard’s tradition of U.S. commercial and recreational fishing contribute more than $185 protecting marine mammals extends back to the Fur Seal Act of 1897, billion and 2 million jobs. which charged the service with protecting the animals from being The Coast Guard is responsible for enforcing domestic fisheries hunted to extinction. Just a few years later, in 1904, the Revenue laws and regulations within the U.S. exclusive economic zone, Cutter Thetis removed 70 foreign tern and albatross poachers from which projects 200 miles outward from the nation’s 90,000 miles Lisianski Island, in the remote Northwestern Hawaiian Islands. of shoreline: 4.4 million square miles of open ocean. Its strategy The Marine Protected Species Program is guided by “Ocean for federal fisheries enforcement is set forth in “Ocean Guardian,” Steward,” a document that establishes the Coast Guard’s framework a guiding document that aims to protect and sustain U.S. fishing for meeting key environmental challenges such as the recovery of stocks while maintaining a level playing field for domestic fishers. endangered species, the protection of marine mammals, and the In 2008, the Coast Guard conducted 5,623 living marine resource management of vital marine habitats. These efforts can be broad boardings, with an observed at-sea compliance rate of 95.3 percent. in scope, such as joint operation of surveillance flights to determine The largest portion of significant violations typically were reported the position of Atlantic right whales near or within U.S. shipping in areas of high-value species, such as Atlantic sea scallops, Gulf lanes, or the enforcement of mariner restrictions in areas such as the of Mexico shrimp, and various North Atlantic species such as cod, Hawaiian Islands Humpback Whale National Marine Sanctuary. The haddock, sole, and flounder. Coast Guard often responds to requests for assistance from other The Coast Guard realizes that fisheries enforcement is but one agencies, participating in the rescue and rehabilitation of stranded, piece of the overall fisheries management process; the management entangled, or injured animals. In 2008, the service lent assistance to plans themselves, devised by Regional Fisheries Management whales, Hawaiian monk seals, dolphins, turtles, manatees, and even Councils of the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), and the the recovery, rehabilitation, and release of a single osprey. socioeconomic and environmental factors of fishermen, are creating Together, “Ocean Steward” and “Ocean Guardian” chart a course for an increasingly complex picture for U.S. fisheries. As fish stocks the Coast Guard’s stewardship of the ocean environment in the 21st become a more threatened resource, and management regulations century. In the near future, each strategic plan is likely to undergo more restrictive, the Coast Guard continues to aim for a level of revision as the Coast Guard works to improve the efficiency and enforcement that keeps the fishing industry at or above the 97 effectiveness of at-sea enforcement and support operations, and to percent compliance rate established as the service’s benchmark for assure that those operations are conducted in an effective manner that success. also avoids or minimizes adverse impacts to the marine environment. U.S. Coast GuardU.S. photo by SN David Portillo 26 Coast Guard Outlook 2010 living marine.indd 26 11/2/09 2:11 PM MARINE SAFETY MISSIONS Marine Safety By Craig Collins As part of a Port State Control exam, Coast Guard Marine Inspectors Lt. Robert Webb (left) and CWO Bill Dodson (right) inspect the steering gear of a foreign-flag container ship with a representative from a Bahamian- flagged vessel. he U.S. Coast Guard’s Marine Safety Program goal is to initiatives are aimed at its workforce (which will grow by more than eliminate deaths and injuries associated with maritime 300 personnel by the end of 2009 and take advantage of expanded T transportation, commerce, and recreational boating. Secondary training opportunities), service delivery, quality management, and benefits of preventing marine casualties include the protection of the specific areas of recreational boating, towing vessels, and the marine environment and the strengthening of the economy commercial fishing. by minimizing property loss, disruptions to commerce, and the Over the past few years, an area of increasing concern to U.S. and accidental release of hazardous substances. other merchant vessels has been the risk of attack from pirates who The program achieves these goals with a multi-faceted approach roam the coastal waters of the Horn of Africa – a risk that led to the that includes the development of standards and regulations; mariner formation of an international task force in January 2009. To address licensing and credentialing; compliance inspections and enforcement; the increasing risks, the Marine Safety Program has worked with investigation and analysis; industry and public outreach; and other government agencies to provide guidance on how mariners can international engagement. prepare themselves and their vessels for transiting through high-risk The Coast Guard’s authority extends to the operation of U.S.- areas. flagged vessels anywhere in the world. It also exercises port state As it continues to adapt to such threats to maritime safety, the authority for foreign vessels operating in U.S. waters. It is the lead Coast Guard continues to both refine its own regulatory guidance federal agency with responsibility for operations within the nation’s and to develop the scope and abilities of its own workforce. As Marine Transportation System – the waterways, locks, ports, part of its five-year plan, it has opened seven National Centers of bridges, and channels that accommodate more than $958 billion of Expertise (NCoE), each with a particular marine safety emphasis. international commerce in 51 million cargo containers annually, as They are: Towing Vessel NCoE in Paducah, Ky.; Liquefied Gas well as 8 million cruise ship and ferry passengers, and nearly 13 Carrier NCoE in Port Arthur, Texas; Outer Continental Shelf NCoE million recreational boaters. in Morgan City, La.; Marine Investigation NCoE in New Orleans, Over the past two decades, global trade has become increasingly La.; Vintage Vessel NCoE in Duluth, Minn.; Cruise Ship NCoE in dynamic, and U.S. maritime industry growth has been dramatic. From Miami, Fla.; and Suspension and Revocation (of merchant mariner 2001 to 2006, for example, the number of U.S. port calls from cargo credentials) NCoE in Martinsburg, W.Va. These centers will be a ships that can carry 5,000 or more 20-foot containers has increased repository for keeping the Coast Guard current with the latest by 241 percent. World seaborne trade has doubled in the last 20 years technology, and for having experience in one place that units can to nearly 7 billion metric tons annually. call upon. Currently only the Cruise Ship and Suspension and The Marine Safety Program has struggled to keep up with Revocation NCoEs are fully operational. The other five NCoEs have such explosive growth, and in November 2008, issued for public personnel assigned and are working with industry representatives comment its five-year plan for improvements in its own marine safety to enhance cooperative relationships, but they will not be fully functions, the Marine Safety Performance Plan 2009-2014. Its major operational until mid-2010. U.S. Coast GuardU.S. photo by CWO Scott Gradel Coast Guard Outlook 2010 27 marine safety.indd 27 11/2/09 6:24 PM Power to propel both vessels and business. Since 1902, commercial mariners around the world have relied on Scania engines to power their fishing boats, patrol boats, tug boats and ferries. No matter the application, Scania marine engines have earned a reputation for their robust performance, legendary durability and outstanding fuel economy. Read more at www.scaniausa.com Scania engines - 12 or 16 liter /$,#*,$'"+!*(&,( #) Scania U.S.A. Inc. '$ '2'',('$( 2#(' 20 &$% (',,+'$-+$'(&2 +$, ///+'$-+(& VFDQLDLQGG $0 DEFENSE READINESS MISSIONS Defense Readiness By Craig Collins Coast Guardsmen with Maritime Safety and Security Team 91101 shoot an M240 machine gun during moving live-fire qualifications at U.S. Naval Station Guantanamo Bay, July 2, 2009. MSST 91101 was deployed here to perform maritime anti-terrorism and force protection duties for Joint Task Force Guantanamo. y statute, the U.S. Coast Guard is one of the five armed forces of enforcement detachments participated in Combined Task Force 151, Bthe United States. CENTCOM’s counter-piracy effort in the Gulf of Aden. In May 2008, the Coast Guard ensured its integration with its In 2009, a USCG port security unit (PSU) deployed fully integrated fellow armed services by updating the “1995 Memorandum of with a U.S. Navy maritime expeditionary squadron (MSRON) in Understanding [MOU] on the Use of Coast Guard Forces to Support support of CENTCOM. While the PSUs have worked side by side the National Military Strategy.” The Department of Defense (DoD), with the MSRONs before, this marked the first year that a PSU the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the chairman of trained and deployed with the MSRONs as a combined Navy and the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the USCG commandant signed this Coast Guard team to protect high-value U.S. assets bringing supplies updated MOU that identifies eight mission areas where the Coast to troops in Iraq. Guard supports the Department of Defense. In 2009, the Coast Guard continued to support CENTCOM Coast Guard stations and maritime safety and security teams with a port advisory council element. This four- to five-person provide crews and smallboats for security and escort missions, detachment has the mission of helping the Iraqi government bring including military outload operations that support DoD operations the Port of Umm Qasr back into compliance with the United Nations throughout the United States. The recently established Maritime International Ship and Port Facility Code requirements. Force Protection Units are a cooperative effort between the USCG About 250 Coast Guard personnel continue to serve in Patrol and the U.S. Navy to provide protection for Navy ballistic missile Forces Southwest Asia under CENTCOM. This includes a contingent submarines during surface transits in the vicinity of their homeports. of six USCG patrol boats to protect Iraq’s offshore oil assets, as These Coast Guard units are fully funded by the Navy. well as ships transiting in the Horn of Africa region. Additionally, The Coast Guard has multiple units that deploy globally to the Coast Guard deployed redeployment assistance inspection support combatant commander’s military operations. In 2009, the detachments to Iraq and Afghanistan to inspect and ensure that CGC Legare deployed in support of Africa Command (AFRICOM) all containerized cargo packed and loaded is safe for transit and along with U.S. Navy and allied assets, supporting their African shipment on the high seas. Partnership Station mission. The Legare, working with other forces As the combatant commanders look for ways to help assist nations under AFRICOM, trained the maritime forces of various African around the globe become partners and allies, they will continue to countries. The goal of this training was to assist those countries’ look for Coast Guard expertise and assistance. This assistance will standing forces with their national security objectives and help aid allied and partner nations to grow their maritime services and those forces become better maritime security partners. The provide for their own maritime security. CGC Boutwell deployed in support of the U.S. Central Command These are just a few examples of the many national defense (CENTCOM), working alongside U.S. Navy and allied forces, to programs under way within the Coast Guard – a multi-mission service provide security for both international shipping and protect Iraq’s more involved than ever in supporting the Defense Department’s oil platforms. Additionally, the Boutwell and Coast Guard law efforts to provide for the safety and security of the United States. Photo by Air Force Staff Sgt. 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California University of Pennsylvania Building Character. Building Careers. www.calu.edu A proud member of the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education. CALU 030 Chevron & CA Univ.indd 1 10/29/09 10:07 AM MIGRANT INTERDICTION MISSIONS Undocumented Migrant Interdiction By Craig Collins The CGC Harriet Lane interdicted and repatriated 247 Haitian migrants that were aboard this Haitian sail-freighter in April 2008. he U.S. Coast Guard is the lead agency for enforcement of Overall, the Coast Guard interdicted nearly 3,500 undocumented U.S. immigration laws and policies at sea, and its effort to migrants attempting to illegally enter the United States by sea in T stem the flood of undocumented migrants traveling by boat to 2009, repatriating 92 percent of them to their country of origin. America’s shores is conducted for two reasons: such covert voyages, The flow of undocumented migrants decreased slightly when often undertaken aboard overloaded, non-seaworthy, and unsafe compared to fiscal year 2008 and has been on a steady decline vessels, are a threat to human life, as well as a violation of U.S. and over the last four years. During the first quarter of fiscal year international law. A majority of migrant interdiction cases handled 2009, there was a significant increase in the Haitian migrant by the Coast Guard begin as search and rescue missions, usually in flow, which is almost double the number taken at sea when international waters. compared to fiscal year 2008 numbers. The service’s efforts along In addition to its response capabilities, the service emphasizes with internal and external partners ensured the correct strategic prevention and readiness; it works closely with interagency partners to messaging was shared with the U.S. Embassy in Haiti. As a monitor any indications and warning signs (i.e., political or economic result, the Coast Guard was able to expedite the repatriation of upheaval) for mass migration efforts, and refines its strategic plans thousands of Haitian migrants, which quickly led to reducing the in accordance. significant increase in migrant flow during the first quarter of The Coast Guard also targets its capabilities along the major fiscal year 2009. migrant smuggling maritime routes used by undocumented migrants. There are multiple, short-distance threat vectors, along very busy In the past year, the Homeland Security Task Force Southeast, a team waterways, for illegal migration. This leaves the service with an combining the efforts of 10 federal and state government partners, extremely small window of opportunity in which to detect and targeted smuggling operations in speed boats (commonly referred interdict a suspect vessel before it reaches landfall. Migrants and to as “go-fast” vessels) in the Florida Straits, resulting in 40 at-sea smugglers quickly adapt to known law enforcement patrol areas and interdictions, the capture of 31 migrant smugglers, and 718 migrants change their routes and modes to avoid detection and interdiction. – all in a two-month span near the end of 2008. They continue to exploit Coast Guard weaknesses in detection The past year was also a successful one for a Coast Guard program capability. that was piloted in 2006 in the Mona Passage, the 80-mile strait In the near future, the Coast Guard confronts the increased use separating the island of Puerto Rico from the coast of the Dominican of go-fast vessels in the Caribbean and, to a smaller degree, in Republic and in the Florida Straits. Using Biometrics at Sea System the eastern Pacific Ocean. This trend is the single largest factor (BASS), the Coast Guard has been able to identify repeat offenders, affecting the migrant interdiction rate; the success rate for a go- not to mention all other felons, attempting to enter the country fast boat is currently 70 percent, much greater than traditional illegally. The results of the program: biometric data collected from rafts or other homemade vessels. Moreover, approximately half of 2,749 individuals, resulting in 711 who were found to have criminal the Cuban maritime flow uses smugglers and go-fast as a mode of records and 333 of whom have been prosecuted. conveyance. Photo by PA1 Jennifer Johnson Photo by PA1 Coast Guard Outlook 2010 31 migrant interdiction.indd 31 11/2/09 4:32 PM MISSIONS MARINE ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION Marine Environmental Protection By Craig Collins Headline By line he mission of the Coast Guard’s Marine Environmental he^aahYddXXjg!i]Z8dVhi Coast Guard members position a boom from a Coast Guard Auxiliary response boat to form a “U” shape during a boom deployment course near Keehi Lagoon, Honolulu, June 5, 2009. The training teaches students boom deployment techniques to use for oil spill response, one of two goals of the Marine Environmental Protection Program; the first is prevention. U.S. Coast Luke GuardU.S. Clayton photo by PA3 32 Coast Guard Outlook 2010 marine environ protect.indd 32 11/5/09 3:30 PM ICE OPERATIONS MISSIONS Ice Operations: Part of the Waterways Management Mission Program By Craig Collins he Coast Guard Waterways Management mission program includes The CGC Sturgeon Bay, homeported in Bayonne, N.J., creates a T two statutory missions: aids to navigation (see page 22) and ice shipping lane for a barge on the icy Hudson River in New York. operations. Among other duties, ice operations perform an essential mission The ice operations mission focuses on addressing the risks resulting of keeping waterways open to ensure heating oil reaches its from vessels navigating in winter ice conditions, promoting U.S. destinations in the winter months of the Northeast. national interests in polar regions, and facilitating the environmentally sustainable use and scientific exploration of America’s Arctic waters. The mission has three major components: domestic ice breaking, the international ice patrol, and polar ice breaking. Domestic ice breaking throughout the Great Lakes and U.S. northeastern coastal regions extends the commercial shipping season and reduces the flooding risks by breaking ice dams that retain or divert rivers. Ships operating on the Great Lakes carry an estimated 115 million tons of cargo annually consisting of vital products such as iron ore, coal, and other products whose delivery cannot stop merely because the water has turned to ice. In the Northeast, Coast Guard icebreakers enable crucial shipments of home heating oil by breaking ice from New York to Maine. The international ice patrol promotes the safety of international trade and vessel traffic by monitoring and reporting the iceberg danger to ships operating in or near the Grand Banks of Newfoundland. Polar ice breaking supports the United States’ scientific, commercial, and national security interests in the Arctic and Antarctic regions; in the Arctic, for example, Coast Guard polar icebreakers support national security and science objectives by mapping the Arctic Ocean floor to determine the extent of the U.S. continental shelf and determining the CGC Polar Sea full extent of the U.S. borders in the Arctic region. U.S. Coast Guard photo by PA3 Tom Sperduto Coast Tom GuardU.S. photo by PA3 Coast Guard Outlook 2010 33 ice operations.indd 33 11/2/09 2:11 PM BOLD INNOVATION YOUR MISSION – FEARLESS STRENGTH 2XU7XUQNH\6ROXWLRQV Big Corporate Solutions– Small Business Service. t$MFBSFE5FDIOJDBM4UBGGJOH t*5$POTVMUJOH t.BOBHFE0VUTPVSDFE4PMVUJPOT t.BOBHFE.BJOUFOBODF4FSWJDF “Our goal is to be your I.T. t.BOBHFE1SJOU4FSWJDF service partner of choice!” Behind every successful mission is a strong and reliable vessel. t%BUB$FOUFS$BCMJOH - Thu Stubbs, CEO Trust Kobelt to deliver. 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The University of South Alabama is an Equal Opportunity/Equal Access educational institution. 034.indd 1 10/29/09 10:13 AM OTHER LAW ENFORCEMENT MISSIONS Other Law Enforcement: Targeting Foreign Fishing Vessels By Craig Collins The other law enforcement mission is charged with ensuring national security of the U.S. exclusive economic zone. In this photo, the crew of the CGC Shamal seized approximately 75 pounds of shark and red snapper 40 nautical miles off the coast of Corpus Christi, Texas, March 2009. The catch was seized from a suspected illegal fishing vessel. he U.S. Coast Guard’s other law enforcement (OLE) mission, fell significantly, to 81. In the U.S./Gulf of Mexico region, while serving primarily to deter thefts of the nation’s Mexican lanchas, or small passenger motorboats, have come T living marine resources under U.S. jurisdiction, also serves to account for the overwhelming majority (about 80 percent) the nation’s national security by ensuring the integrity of the of annual incursions. Due largely to a more intensive Coast maritime border represented by the U.S. exclusive economic Guard presence in the region, there were 67 incursions in the zone (EEZ) – an area extending 200 nautical miles out from the Gulf in 2008, a dramatic drop from the previous three years’ shorelines of U.S. states and territories that totals 4.4 million average of 135. square miles of open ocean. As fish stocks decline worldwide, In the nation’s vast western/central Pacific EEZ – at 1.5 million foreign fishers have an increased incentive to attempt the square miles, nearly 40 percent of the U.S. total – the number of poaching of fish from the United States’ relatively well-managed detected incursions dropped from 21 (in fiscal year 2007) to 12 and more robust fisheries. (in fiscal year 2008). The year 2008 was a momentous one in the The Coast Guard attacks the problem of foreign fishing vessel region, as the CGC Munro conducted the first high seas foreign encroachment in two important ways. On the front line, its fishing vessel boarding under new boarding and inspection aircraft and vessels patrol the nation’s EEZ boundaries, which procedures adopted under the Western and Central Pacific extend outward from the nation’s 90,000 miles of shoreline. Fisheries Commission – a 25-member international organization To increase the overall stability of fish stocks and thereby dedicated to preserving high seas migratory fish species. reduce the incentive for EEZ incursions, the Coast Guard forms While Russian fishing vessel activity remained high near the enforcement partnerships with other nations and monitors Bering Sea’s U.S./Russian Maritime Boundary Line, which divides compliance with international agreements to combat illegal, access to some of the world’s most valuable fisheries, a heavy unreported, and unregulated fishing on the high seas – an activity Coast Guard presence in the region kept Russian incursions at a which, according to the United Nation’s Food and Agriculture minimum in 2008. Only one incursion was detected. Organization, costs the world about $14 billion annually. The foreign vessel interdiction rate for the Coast Guard is In 2008, the multinational high-seas drift net enforcement a relatively low 16 percent, owing largely to the elusiveness of campaign coordinated through the North Pacific Coast Guard Mexican lanchas and the huge distances Coast Guard assets Forum resulted in the interdiction of three Chinese-flagged drift- must patrol in the western/central Pacific. However, the recent netting vessels on the high seas, which resulted in their seizure success in targeting problem areas will greatly influence the by Chinese officials. Coast Guard’s strategy for the future – a strategy that will The Coast Guard uses the number of detected incursions, involve developing increased capabilities to target EEZ patrols as well as the interception and interdiction rates, as a measure and monitoring, and stronger international partnerships to of the performance of its OLE mission. In 2008, the number of maximize the ability to intercept and interdict foreign fishing detected incursions by foreign fishing vessels in U.S. waters vessels within the U.S. EEZ. U.S. Coast GuardU.S. photo Coast Guard Outlook 2010 35 other law enforcement.indd 35 11/2/09 12:34 PM REGIONS PACIFIC AREA U.S. Coast Guard Pacific Area: Reaching the Far East By Chris Doane and Dr. Joe DiRenzo III Coast Guard Pacific Area (PacArea), headquartered in international engagement effort by FEACT under the guidance of U.S. Alameda, Calif., has a widespread area of responsibility commander, Coast Guard District 14 in Hawaii, the Coast Guard’s that includes the U.S. West Coast, Alaska, and Hawaii, as well as commander for international engagement in the Asia-Pacific region. U.S. territories and possessions such as Guam, the Northern Mariana Each IPSLO is assigned a portfolio of countries with whom he or Islands, and American Samoa. In addition to these domestic areas she works to develop relationships with government and industry of responsibility, the area’s activities have historically extended well stakeholders in maritime security. The goal of these relationships beyond U.S. waters to include operations in Asia. Since 1994, the is to foster an exchange of maritime security best practices and to Coast Guard has maintained U.S. Coast Guard Activities Far East understand what each nation is doing to implement the requirements (FEACT) as a subordinate PacArea command in Japan to carry out of the International Ship and Port Facility Security (ISPS) Code. marine inspection responsibilities for U.S.-flagged vessels under The IPSLOs have a very significant impact on improving regional construction or significant repair in Asian ports. Since 1994, much maritime security as they carry maritime security best practices from has remained the same, but much has also changed. one country to the next, helping to improve consistency between Coast Guard operations in Asia have grown significantly. FEACT’s nations and the overall quality of maritime security. FEACT IPSLOs activities extend from Russia to New Zealand and Madagascar made 36 trips to 28 countries in the past year, observing and sharing to French Polynesia. This region includes: more than 47 nations security practices. and territories; some of the world’s largest commercial ports and In addition to their country visits, the FEACT IPSLOs were shipbuilding/repair centers; several of the busiest shipping routes instrumental in forming the South Asia and Africa Regional Port featuring critical chokepoints, such as the Straits of Malacca; and Security Cooperative (SAARPSCO). The purpose of SAARPSCO is the largest and fastest growing economy in the world: India. Exports to foster information sharing on maritime transportation security from India alone total more than $150 billion annually, with about between port facility security officers and maritime law enforcement 17 percent shipped to the United States. Unfortunately, along with agencies from participating nations to create more uniform all of this legitimate maritime activity come high occurrences of implementation of the ISPS Code. The idea for this cooperative illegal activity such as piracy, smuggling, and illegal fishing. To came when the port facility security officer in the Port of Galle, combat these illegal activities requires the combined efforts of all Sri Lanka, expressed to a FEACT IPSLO a desire to share lessons nations within the region. With detachments in Singapore and Seoul learned from a thwarted attack by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil in addition to its main base in Tokyo, FEACT is working hard to Eelam. The cooperative’s inaugural conference was held in May foster the international relationships necessary for effective maritime 2008 in the Republic of the Maldives, with representatives from nine security cooperation. nations attending. In addition to exchanges on maritime security Originally founded to perform marine inspection duties throughout practices, the conference provided a forum for other maritime topics the Asian region, FEACT now does so much more. Since 9/11, FEACT such as small passenger vessel safety and pollution response. In has added 10 International Port Security Liaison Officers (IPSLOs) to September 2009, a second conference, focusing on piracy, was held work with other nations in the region to improve maritime security near Port Louis, Mauritius, with more than 120 representatives from in accordance with requirements of the Maritime Transportation 11 partner nations attending. The value of these discussions cannot Security Act of 2002. This infusion of IPSLOs has energized a broader be overstated. As summarized by Capt. Gerald Swanson, FEACT’s 36 Coast Guard Outlook 2010 pacific area.indd 36 11/2/09 11:17 AM PACIFIC AREA REGIONS The Coast Guard Cutter Polar Sea (left) and the Coast Guard Cutter Mellon (right) are moored at the Coast Guard’s Pier 36 with the Japan coast guard cutter Yashima and the Russian border guard vessel Vorovskiy Aug. 27, 2009. The three nations took part in the North Pacific Coast Guard Forum (NPCGF), which is an international partnership of Coast Guard-like agencies from Canada, China, Japan, Russia, South Korea, and the United States. The forum took place in Seattle and Port Angeles, Wash., Aug. 23-27. commanding officer, “A sound network of information-sharing and FEACT also participates in the North Pacific Coast Guard interoperability will be the basis of a regional strategy to combat Forum along with District 14 and PacArea. Established in 1999, the piracy.” The Seychelles has assumed leadership of SAARPSCO for forum encourages multilateral cooperation by sharing information 2010 and will host the next meeting. and expertise on combating illegal drug trafficking, maritime Another important step in improving regional maritime security security, fisheries enforcement, and illegal migration. Coast Guard- was the 2009 signing of a memorandum of understanding between like agencies from Canada, China, Japan, Korea, Russia, and the the secretariat of the Pacific Community and the U.S. Coast Guard. United States form the membership, and their representatives meet The secretariat manages a program for monitoring compliance of biannually to exchange ideas. One outcome of the forum is the multi- member nations with the ISPS Code. They do this primarily through mission, multi-lateral exercise (MMEX), which seeks to improve security audits to assist nations with remaining in compliance with operations and interoperability by conducting underway drills related international requirements. The memorandum leverages the parallels to a variety of maritime missions. The first MMEX was hosted by between the activities of the secretariat and the Coast Guard IPSLOs by Korea in 2006. The second was hosted by the U.S. Coast Guard along coordinating joint visits and thereby reducing the number of separate the U.S. West Coast in August 2009. foreign port security assessment visits each port experiences. The While these multinational relationships are incredibly important partnership formalized by the memorandum creates an important and continue to be a focus of FEACT, Japan remains a principal opportunity for taking Coast Guard international maritime security partner. The Coast Guard participates in a variety of U.S. and engagement to an even higher level of effectiveness. Japan defense and force-protection exercises. More importantly, the U.S. Coast GuardU.S. Conroy photo by Petty Officer 1st Class Allyson E.T. Coast Guard Outlook 2010 37 pacific area.indd 37 11/5/09 3:32 PM REGIONS PACIFIC AREA CGC Polar Sea is anchored as the Japan coast guard cutter Yashima pulls into the U.S. Coast Guard’s Pier 36 Aug. 29, 2009. Japan is a chief FEACT partner with the United States; the Coast Guard and Japan conduct defense and force-protection excercises, continuing a 60-year partnership. service continues its 60-year partnership with the Japan coast guard International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships conducting joint search and rescue exercises and in participating (MARPOL) 1973, as amended). A significant challenge developed in the Annual Sea Review in Tokyo Bay. An especially noteworthy when the ship’s diesel generator met MARPOL VI requirements, but exchange was with the Japan coast guard and the Maritime Self- failed the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) domestic Defense Force (JMSDF) on piracy, in which the U.S. Coast Guard’s Tier II standards. After several meetings between the Coast Guard, practice of embarking law enforcement detachments on U.S. Navy EPA, and Liberty Pride representatives, the owners decided to install ships was discussed. As a result, JMSDF Maritime Defense Force a charged-air moisturizing system to comply with EPA standards, an ships to the Gulf of Aden with embarked Japan coast guard eight- to nine-month modification. personnel to conduct anti-piracy operations. FEACT’s marine inspectors were also involved in the construction While maritime security engagement represents a relatively new of the first Floating Production, Storage and Offloading facility, the business line for FEACT, they continue to perform their traditional BW Pioneer, planned for employment in the United States; it is mission of marine inspection. The majority of deep-draft U.S.-flagged scheduled to operate in the Gulf of Mexico in early 2010. FEACT vessels in the Pacific have repair and modification work done in inspectors working in coordination with Coast Guard Marine Safety Asia. It is the responsibility of the Coast Guard to inspect this Unit Morgan City, La.; Marine Safety Unit Port Arthur, Texas; Marine work to ensure compliance with U.S. safety standards. In addition, Safety Unit Galveston, Texas; and Sector Corpus Christi, Texas, transient U.S.-flagged vessels, foreign-flagged tanker ships that have spent hundreds of hours verifying that the workmanship operate in U.S. trade, and Military Sealift Command vessels have and materials used to comply with U.S. regulations, as well as the required inspections within FEACT’s officer-in-charge of Marine lifesaving, firefighting, cargo, and navigation systems. It is through Inspection zone. Altogether, the eight marine inspectors of FEACT this careful attention to detail and assurance that U.S. standards and and its Marine Inspection Detachment Singapore manage a fleet of regulations are met that the Coast Guard ensures that this vessel 75 vessels. will operate safely while in U.S. waters, harvesting energy resources An example of FEACT’s inspection work is the reflag examination to help meet the country’s energy demands. of the 6,000-unit car carrier Liberty Pride in Busan, South Korea. Another important contribution of FEACT’s inspectors is in This was the first new-construction vessel to reflag after the U.S. support of the Military Sealift Command as that command works had ratified the Maritime Pollution (MARPOL) VI (this refers to the to meet the tremendous logistical demands created by Operations prevention of air pollution from ships – Annex VI – as part of the Iraqi and Enduring Freedom. These military operations require an U.S. Coast GuardU.S. Conroy photo by Petty Officer 1st Class Allyson E.T. 38 Coast Guard Outlook 2010 pacific area.indd 38 11/5/09 3:33 PM Strength at sea, freedom ashore. www.northropgrumman.com/shipbuilding SHIPBUILDING At Northrop Grumman, we take tremendous pride in designing, building, and maintaining the world’s most complex and capable ships for the world’s most powerful fleet. 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Anzio was the flagship of Combined Joint Task Force 151, a multinational task force established to conduct counter-piracy operations off the coast of Somalia. incredible volume of supplies of all types, the majority of which must interpersonal relationships that develop between representatives be transported by sea. To meet this pressing demand, the Military of various nations. With its maritime security and marine safety Sealift Command uses a variety of U.S.-owned and -leased vessels. international engagement initiatives throughout Asia, the Coast FEACT inspectors work closely with the Military Sealift Command to Guard is having a significant impact in improving our country’s ensure these vessels are safe and their crews properly licensed while ties with a host of nations. As a result, the maritime security of also meeting the very tight schedule required to support the troops all nations has been improved, as has international trade. There is in Iraq and Afghanistan and elsewhere around the world. little doubt that the importance of the nations of Asia to the U.S. In support of its marine safety mission, FEACT, in partnership as trading partners will continue to grow, and the Coast Guard with the American Bureau of Shipping and the Australian Maritime will continue to play an important role in facilitating this trade by Safety Authority, attend joint port state control seminars. These ensuring safety and security. seminars provide an outreach forum to the maritime industry to impart information on U.S. and international requirements for vessels The views expressed herein are those of the author(s) and are not operating in U.S. waters. The seminars also provide a means for to be construed as official or reflecting the views of the commandant developing closer relationships with the maritime industry to or of the U.S. Coast Guard. enhance communication and understanding and, as a result, improve Chris Doane and Dr. Joe DiRenzo III are retired Coast Guard officers the efficiency of the Coast Guard’s oversight of the industry. and civilian employees of the Coast Guard. They are also adjunct The key to improving international relations is by building trust professors for the Joint Forces Staff College and write extensively on and mutual understanding through professional exchanges and the maritime topics. U.S. Navy photo Navy by Mass Communication SpecialistU.S. 1st Class Scott Taylor 40 Coast Guard Outlook 2010 pacific area.indd 40 11/5/09 3:35 PM Northcentral University G=C>@=D723 offers the advanced 63:>3D3@G2/G degree you want, and the A=2=E3 support you won’t get anywhere else. Learn more about our unique Faculty Mentored Approach to online education. Call Today! &$$%%$!! or visit eee\QcSRc ,=\S=\=\S;S\b]`W\U ,<]@SaWRS\Qg@S_cW`S[S\ba ,@SOa]\OPZS1]aba ,/^^`]dSRT]`DSbS`O\a¸ ,C\RS`U`ORcObSO\R5`ORcObS 3RcQObW]\c\RS`bVS570WZZ >`]U`O[a ,;WZWbO`gBcWbW]\/aaWabO\QS Independent learning. Individual attention. 041 NCentralUniv & Selex.indd 1 10/19/09 1:27 PM REGIONS ATLANTIC AREA U.S. Coast Guard Atlantic Area: Middle East and Africa Operations By Chris Doane and Dr. Joe DiRenzo III U.S. Coast GuardU.S. photo by Petty Officer 2nd Class Shawn Eggert “… the U.S. Coast Guard provides forces to multiple DoD counterparts that are conducting missions throughout the entire CENTCOM area of responsibility, from Africa, to Iraq, Kuwait and Bahrain, and into Afghanistan. Whether combating terrorism, preventing piracy, reducing illegal maritime operations, or working with regional, joint, and other partners to improve overall security, stability and maritime capabilities, our Coast Guard men and women play an incredibly important role in global maritime security, and their contributions are felt daily.” Vice Adm. Robert Papp, U.S. Coast Guard commander, U.S. Coast Guard Atlantic Area 42 Coast Guard Outlook 2010 lantarea.indd 42 11/2/09 6:12 PM ATLANTIC AREA REGIONS ice Adm. Robert Papp’s words leave no doubt that the Element, Navy Central Command liaison, and Maritime Liaison U.S. Coast Guard is engaged globally to ensure maritime Officer. The Port Security Units, about 115 personnel, provide V security and protect the homeland. For Coast Guard port security for the Kuwait Naval Base and the port of Ash Atlantic Area (LantArea) perhaps its most significant out-of- Shaiba, Kuwait. The Maritime Safety and Security Teams hemisphere operations have been occurring in the Middle East alternating with LEDETs provide two eight-person teams – one supporting Operations Iraqi Freedom and Enduring Freedom, that trains Iraqi marines and the other supporting anti-piracy as well as anti-piracy operations, and in Africa supporting missions in the Gulf of Aden. The maritime security advisor stability operations and building partnerships with African supports the U.S. Embassy by coordinating the three-member nations. The contributions of Coast Guard men and women port advisory element, which works to improve compliance with in these regions are significant and an important element in the International Ship and Port Facility Security Code. The the service’s “layered security” strategy for maritime security. Liaison Officer to Navy Central Command assists with theater In support of Operations Iraqi Freedom and Enduring security cooperation. The Maritime Liaison Officer works in Freedom, the Coast Guard brings its unique set of skills Bahrain, supporting commercial maritime security. and competencies to support maritime security operations The ultimate goal of these Coast Guard security forces is to and redeployment of Department of Defense (DoD) units. train Iraqi forces and ultimately turn over all maritime security On the operational side is Patrol Forces Southwest Asia or operations to them. The training effort has been moving PATFORSWA. Operating as Combined Task Group (CTG) 55.6 forward with signs of slow but steady success. Iraqi marines, under the command of Coast Guard Commodore Capt. “Duke” trained by the Coast Guard, now provide the point defense Walker, PATFORSWA consists of six Coast Guard 110-foot patrol on the Khawr al’ Amaya oil terminal and conduct boardings boats and five U.S. Navy 179-foot Cyclone-class patrol boats, as in the north Arabian Gulf. Training of Iraqis in patrol boat well as about 240 supporting forces’ members. The primary operations continues and will be greatly enhanced when Iraq mission of CTG 55.6 is to protect the two Iraqi offshore oil takes delivery of 15 Italian-built patrol craft. It is difficult to terminals: Khawr al’ Amaya and Al Basrah while training Iraqi predict when the Coast Guard mission in Iraq will be complete, forces to take over the mission. but the goal remains for Iraqi forces to assume responsibility These two oil terminals are incredibly important to the for their own security. survival of Iraq as a nation. Lacking a deepwater port, Iraq must In addition to the Coast Guard security forces, the service depend upon these two offshore terminals to export its oil. also maintains a redeployment assistance and inspection Together the oil they transfer accounts for mote than 90 percent detachment, a 15-member team based out of Camp Arifjan, of Iraq’s oil income. If these terminals were to be destroyed, the Kuwait, and Camp Anacoda, Iraq. This team of mostly Coast impact on the Iraqi economy would be devastating. To protect Guard Reserve volunteers assist in ensuring volatile and them requires a layered defense: armed security personnel on hazardous materials are properly packaged, segregated, and the platforms providing point defense; patrol boats operating stored for shipping back to the U.S. The Coast Guard personnel around the platforms providing a sector defense by enforcing also are qualified to examine and place custom seals on the the safety and security zone around the terminals; and boarding containers. As a result, Army units are able to more rapidly teams embarked aboard U.S. Navy ships providing area security redeploy their equipment back to the U.S. with a greatly outside of the safety and security zones. reduced risk of accidental combustion. The program has been The task of protecting the oil terminals is not easy. The so successful that the Army is now seeking to more than double waters around the terminals are traversed by hundreds of fishing the number of Coast Guard personnel. dhows, providing excellent camouflage for anyone wishing to As mentioned earlier, one of the eight-member Maritime approach and attack the terminals. Security forces must sift Safety and Security Team/LEDETs is supporting anti-piracy through this collage of surface craft, constantly alert for any operations in the Gulf of Aden. Specifically, these members are sign of hostility, all under the watchful eyes of Iranian Islamic attached to Combined Task Force (CTF) 151 operating in the Revolutionary Guards located on a sunken barge about 2 miles Gulf of Aden and off the coast of Somalia. On May 13, 2009, away. It is long, hard, hot work; the Coast Guard patrol boats LEDET 409, operating from the USS Gettsyburg, participated in accumulate twice the operating hours of any patrol boat in the the apprehension of 17 suspected pirates, the confiscation of continental United States. Despite this operational intensity and assault rifles, rocket-propelled grenade launchers, ladders, and danger, PATFORSWA remains an all-volunteer force. grappling hooks, and seized the first and only pirate mother In addition to the patrol boat crews, Coast Guard security ship taken by coalition forces. presence in Iraq includes Port Security Units, Maritime Safety Throughout Africa, the Coast Guard is working to support and Security Teams, law enforcement detachments (LEDETs), U.S. Africa Command. Here again, Coast Guard men and women maritime security advisor Baghdad, Port Advisory Coordination bring their unique skills and competencies to aid in theater Opposite: A boarding team consisting of crewmembers from the CGC Legare and representatives of the Cape Verde coast guard and judiciary police embark a fishing boat during boarding operations. Legare and its crew were in Cape Verde deployed as part of Africa Partnership Station, an initiative to conduct joint maritime law enforcement operations in African waters to improve maritime safety and security. Coast Guard Outlook 2010 43 lantarea.indd 43 11/2/09 6:13 PM Saluting our nation’s guardian. For more than 200 years, the U.S. Coast Guard mission has been vital to protecting the maritime security of the United States. Today, as an integral part of the Department of Homeland Security, the Coast Guard remains our nation’s front-line agency for maritime law enforcement, port security and search and rescue. Sikorsky Military Systems, A Sikorsky Company, thanks the U.S. Coast Guard for its vigilance and enduring commitment to protecting our homeland, our people, and our freedom. We are honored that our SA-38B SHADOW HAWK™ surveillance aircraft will support you in that essential mission. www.sikorsky.com www.sacusa.com VLNRUVN\LQGG $0 ATLANTIC AREA REGIONS Members of a Visit, Board, Search, and Seizure team assigned to USS Gettysburg and U.S. Coast Guard law enforcement detachment 409 capture suspected pirates after responding to a merchant vessel distress signal while operating in the Combined Maritime Forces area of responsibility in the Gulf of Aden May 13, 2009. These service members conducted the operation as part of CTF 151, a multinational task force established to counter-piracy operations to actively deter, disrupt, and suppress piracy in order to protect global maritime security and secure freedom of navigation for all nations. cooperation and maritime security initiatives. For the most part, scheduled for the spring. These officers work to coordinate Coast the navies of the various African nations operate more as coast Guard activities with those of DoD and U.S. agencies represented guards than deepwater, power-projection navies. Therefore, the at the command. The effectiveness and value of these officers can Coast Guard’s expertise in maritime law enforcement, maritime be seen in the highly successful visits Coast Guard cutters have security, smallboat operations, interagency cooperation, and made to African nations. Beginning in the summer of 2008, three maritime commerce makes it a natural fit for partnering with and cutters have made extended deployments to Africa to participate training the maritime forces of African nations. in professional training, cultural exchanges, and actual maritime The nations of Africa are important to the U.S. both operations. economically and from a security perspective. As the economies During a four-month deployment in the summer of 2008, the of the African nations improve, so will their importance as CGC Dallas visited Cape Verde, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Sao trading partners to the U.S. At the same time, we in the United Tome and Principe, Ghana, and Senegal to train and collaborate States are well aware of the threat of terrorism that can grow with host nation navies and coast guards. These visits were in nations with weak economies and fractured governments. performed in support of Africa Partnership Station, an initiative Economic stability, general prosperity, and strong governments to strengthen maritime safety and security in west and central supported by the general populace are the enemies of terrorism. Africa. By all accounts, Dallas’s visit was highly successful and It is the goal of the Coast Guard to assist in strengthening paved the way for future visits. national stability and sovereignty throughout Africa. In May 2009, the CGC Boutwell visited Libya, the first by a To do its part in Africa, the Coast Guard has four officers U.S. military vessel to Libya in more than 40 years. The Boutwell permanently assigned to Africa Command, with a fifth position conducted a three-day port visit during which time the crew DoD photo by Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class Eric L. Beauregard, Navy U.S. Coast Guard Outlook 2010 45 lantarea.indd 45 11/2/09 6:13 PM REGIONS ATLANTIC AREA Crewmembers aboard the CGC Boutwell perform damage control and search and rescue training for Libyan forces while in port at Tobruk, Libya, June 1, 2009. This marked the first visit to Libya by a U.S. vessel since the early 1970s. trained with Libyan maritime law enforcement personnel while relationship with many African naval forces and, because of Coast Guard and Libyan officers met to exchange perspectives on analogous missions and force makeup, is uniquely positioned to leadership. assist partner nations with their efforts to promote security and During the summer of 2009, the CGC Legare visited Sierra Leone, stability in the region.” Morocco, Senegal, and Cape Verde. While each of these visits In addition to the actions of these operational units, Coast Guard was successful in strengthening relationships with the U.S., the port security personnel have been conducting country visits and Sierra Leone visit was particularly noteworthy. In a joint operation, professional exchanges with a variety of nations, including those members of Sierra Leone’s Armed Forces Maritime Wing and the in the Middle East and Africa, as part of the services International Coast Guard boarded and seized the Taiwanese fishing vessel Yu Port Security (IPS) program. These exchanges are conducted in Feng for illegal fishing within Sierra Leone’s exclusive economic compliance with congressional mandates set forth in the Maritime zone. The vessel was fishing without a license, government observer, Transportation Security Act of 2002. Coast Guard International Port or crewmembers from Sierra Leone. The Sierra Leone officers took Security Liaison Officers, or IPSLOs, are assigned a portfolio of the crew into custody and the vessel was escorted into Freetown. countries with whom they build relationships with maritime security The seizure of this fishing vessel was a significant event, as many officials and representatives from industry. These relationships African nations rely upon fishing as a significant source of revenue. are key to conducting port visits to understand how countries are This income is threatened, as upward of $1 billion in U.S. dollars complying with the requirements of the International Ship and Port are lost to illegal fishing annually, according to some estimates. As Facility Security Code and to exchange ideas on best practices in stated by Lt. Augustine Bengeh of the Sierra Leone Armed Forces port security. Maritime Wing, “This is a big catch for us … It is a dream come Over the past year, Coast Guard teams have visited Sao Tome true for us to be able to come this far out to sea and conduct these and Principe, Lebanon, Nigeria, Comoros, Libya, Sierra Leone, missions.” Tunisia, Cote d’Ivoire, Mauritania, United Arab Emirates, Guinea, Coast Guard efforts in Africa are producing significant results. Timor-Leste, and Oman. As part of the program, countries are As stated by U.S. Coast Guard Capt. Craig Lloyd, the senior invited to send teams to visit U.S. ports; Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Department of Homeland Security Coast Guard representative Nigeria, South Africa, Saudi Arabia, Tanzania, Togo, and Bahrain to Africa Command, “The Coast Guard has a long-standing have all participated in these reciprocal visits. These interactions U.S. Coast GuardU.S. photo by Petty Officer 3rd Class David R. Marin Continues on page 49 46 Coast Guard Outlook 2010 lantarea.indd 46 11/5/09 3:36 PM GDWDVWULSLQGG $0 Sea Tel.indd 1 10/16/09 9:52 AM ATLANTIC AREA REGIONS Continued from page 46 Stacks of fish lay in the hold of the Taiwanese-flagged fishing vessel Yu Feng as a result of alleged illegal fishing activity off the coast of Freetown, Sierra Leone. Crewmembers from CGC Legare, along with representatives from Sierra Leone’s Armed Forces Maritime Wing, Fisheries Ministry, and Office of National Security found the illegal catch after conducting a joint boarding operation Aug. 17, 2009. Sierra Leone is patrolling the waters farther from its shore to protect its exclusive economic zone. Legare was on a three-month deployment as part of Africa Partnership Station. continuously improve relations between trading partners, and the examples of the positive effect the IPS program is having around better understanding of security in other ports improves the Coast the globe in improving maritime security and, by extension, the Guard’s ability to assess the risk associated with vessels arriving security of the United States. in the U.S. from foreign ports. Whether it is in Iraq, Kuwait, the Arabian Gulf, the Gulf of The value of these visits and the daily efforts of the IPSLOs Aden, or Africa, the forces of the Coast Guard’s LantArea are doing to improving maritime security cannot be overstated. In January, their part as the nation’s guardians to realize the service’s goal of during a visit to Algeria, Algerian officials were impressed by defeating threats as far from the U.S. as possible. Perhaps the most the Coast Guard’s new Vessel Traffic Management System and effective counterterrorism strategy is to eliminate the conditions that expressed their intention to share this information with other nations permit terrorism to flourish. By strengthening bonds with the U.S. around the Mediterranean; the potential for improving security and improving the rule of law within other nations, the Coast Guard throughout the Mediterranean is tremendous. In Tanzania, IPSLOs is having a very positive impact in stemming the growth of terrorism provided technical assistance on port security implementation in the Middle East and Africa. to 40 representatives from various government agencies and the maritime industry. In the Democratic Republic of Congo, IPS The views expressed herein are those of the author(s) and are not program representatives held bilateral discussions on small vessel to be construed as official or reflecting the views of the commandant security, waterway watch programs, and other safety and security or of the U.S. Coast Guard. programs. In Qatar, IPS program representatives aided officials in Chris Doane and Dr. Joe DiRenzo III are both retired Coast Guard establishing port area security committees, a small vessel security officers who are adjunct professors and the Joint Forces Staff College. program, a draft vessel targeting program for safety compliance, Both are mentors at Northcentral University and are internationally and promoted the idea of a national command operations center published authors on maritime security, maritime transportation, and for managing littoral sea domain awareness. These are just a few terrorism issues. U.S. Coast GuardU.S. photo Coast Guard Outlook 2010 49 lantarea.indd 49 11/2/09 6:14 PM REGIONS DISTRICT 1 District 1 By J.R. Wilson he U.S. Coast Guard’s 1st District, covering all or part of eight A new command center was opened in 2008, enabling District 1 New England states and 10 of the nation’s busiest ports, has to better monitor and manage operations with enhanced situational T one of the most diversified portfolios in the service. While awareness throughout its area of responsibility, which encompasses most of its eight sister districts tend to concentrate on two or three 2,000 miles of shoreline in Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, of the Coast Guard’s 11 primary missions, Rear Adm. Dale G. Gabel Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York City/Long found his last command required a broader view. Island, and northern New Jersey. Operationally, it is divided into five “District 1 is one of those districts that has more of a balanced sectors – northern New England, Boston, southeastern New England, workload across various missions. SAR [search and rescue] is big Long Island Sound, and New York – and operates about 30 cutters in the summer, ice breaking in the winter, and, fairly consistently and 250 smallboats, along with four jets and four helicopters based throughout the year, fisheries law enforcement and fishing vessel at its lone air station on Cape Cod. safety – probably more so here than anywhere except Alaska’s Mission diversity was further increased on the international level District 17,” said Gabel, who retired in July. when District 1 was designated the the service’s executive agent for “A little newer, but fairly consistent the last eight years, is ports, the new North Atlantic Coast Guard Forum, a working group of 20 waterways, and coastal security [PWCS], which continues to be nations seeking to coordinate maritime law enforcement, SAR, and refined as we discover what things we need to focus on and which other activities in the region. Similarly, in May, the responsibility are not as high a priority given our limited resources. In addition, for the International Ice Patrol was moved to District 1, not only New York City is one of the nation’s biggest ports, so we’re always expanding that focus but leveraging it to enhance other missions dealing with marine safety issues there and at a number of other and expand joint efforts with Canada and Iceland. ports around the district.” The district’s public visibility increased dramatically in January While those tend to top the list, most of the remaining missions – 2009, when a commercial airliner taking off from New York’s drug interdiction, aids to navigation, living marine resources, defense LaGuardia Airport ran into a flock of birds and lost power from both readiness, migrant interdiction, marine environmental protection, engines, forcing the pilot to ditch into the Hudson River. The Coast and other law enforcement – come into play at some point each year. Guard joined a number of its maritime partners in safely rescuing “Which one is at the top at any one moment depends on the time all 155 passengers and crew, and successfully salvaging the aircraft. of year and situational developments,” Gabel said. “Just for the three- “It was interesting how everyone there, including the ferry day 4th of July weekend this year, for example, we had about 130 operators, responded immediately. Partly that had to do with the SAR cases across the district and, for the year through change of Coast Guard’s involvement with all the operators in the Port of New command on July 24, 56 lives saved through SAR efforts.” York and frequent planning sessions to discuss operations, so they all 50 Coast Guard Outlook 2010 district 1.indd 50 11/2/09 4:50 PM DISTRICT 1 REGIONS A crew from Station Boston, Mass., operates a new law enforcement and search and rescue boat in Boston Harbor April 13, 2009. The 45-foot Response-Boat Medium was delivered March 28, 2009, and is the third initiative in the Response Boats 2010 strategic vision and transition plan, aimed at standardizing and revitalizing the Coast Guard’s shore-based response fleet. had a response mentality,” Gabel said. “The New York Coast Guard make sure everyone was ready when the different port areas went responded immediately, but most of the first responders were ferry on line with that credential. If it had stopped commerce because no operators. One of the first on scene was a Coast Guard reservist who one could get into the facility, everyone would have heard about it. was captaining one of those ferry boats and used her Coast Guard But silence on the line – as a result of a lot of hard work, planning, training, in many ways acting like a Coast Guardsman, in what she and execution – spelled success to me,” he said. did, even though she wasn’t wearing the uniform at the time. “Other successes included airborne use of force, which is “The Coast Guard response was more than just the first-response something we obviously use in counter-drugs down south and had evacuation, however. Units also were on the scene during the been planned for a long time in the PWCS arena, but a lot of folks salvage operation to make sure that was done safely and without have been concerned about how to do that properly. At Air Station any pollution problems. Everything we had available was just what Cape Cod, we instituted a concept of operations using aircraft with we needed and, after action, I didn’t see anything we could have mounted machine guns and sniper rifles for coastal security. We got improved on in that one.” that reviewed, updated, and approved, and, as one of my last acts, I Other recent major district highlights Gabel cited related to the signed off on beginning to use that as part of our CONOPs [concept Coast Guard’s role as a component of the Department of Homeland of operations]. That will enable us to cover a lot more ground a lot Security. more quickly than using just our boats. And now that we have the “Implementation of the Transportation Workers Identification TTPs [techniques, tactics, and procedures] down on how to do that Credential was a big deal in the Northeast and went off so smoothly properly, it can be applied elsewhere, at least as a starting point for it was almost invisible. It took a lot of work by a lot of people to local refinement.” U.S. Coast GuardU.S. photo by Petty Officer 2nd Class Luke Pinneo Coast Guard Outlook 2010 51 district 1.indd 51 11/2/09 4:50 PM REGIONS DISTRICT 1 different ways to track icebergs, different capabilities to allow us to modify the mission? All that will undergo a careful look.” District 1’s relationship with its two primary international partners – Iceland and Canada – sometimes overlaps, especially in SAR and enforcement of the Northwest Atlantic Fisheries Organization (NAFO) treaty, for which Canada has the lead role. “Iceland has a very small coast guard organization responsible for their SAR and we’ve been working with them for several years. We’ve also worked with Iceland on NAFO, through the International Ice Patrol, which helps keep an eye on where the fishing fleet is, communicating anything anomalous to the Canadians or U.S. Coast Guard,” Gabel explained. “But we really don’t do any fisheries enforcement with Iceland; it’s mostly SAR, especially how we would jointly respond to a major event. “It’s a difficult part of the world in which to mount any kind of rescue operation. So as more and more large cruise ships go up there with more and more passengers, the countries in that area are becoming more concerned about how to deal with any problems that might arise, what we can put in place early on to make the response more effective.” For NAFO, Canada is tasked with boarding fishing vessels to check for violations. For the past two years, District 1 has assigned a boarding officer for each of Canada’s four summer NAFO patrols. “The Coast Guard officer works with the Canadians to confirm compliance with the NAFO treaty counting fish, ensuring the nature of the catch is within treaty restrictions, etc. The sanctions on this treaty are interesting – there are no fines or other punishments, you just can’t land any fish taken in violation of the terms of the treaty. So you could end up with a shipload of fish you can’t sell and a ship that is not allowed to dock at any treaty nation.” District 1 also has put special effort into encouraging innovative thinking, which is considered central to the new Alexander Hamilton Award for Excellence. Its judging is done by Coast Guard officials from other parts of the country, which to Gabel, makes it more than just a reward for good work. “A lot of organizations hire outside consultants to look at them, but it’s very difficult for an outsider to tell you how Rescue boat crews from Coast Guard Station New York and to do your job better when they don’t really know what the New York Police Department (NYPD) enforce a security that job is. You get the best ideas from your own people, zone around the partially submerged US Airways plane because they know the job better than anyone else and can that was successfully ditched into the Hudson River Jan. best assess what are good, workable ideas we can examine, 16, 2009. The Coast Guard and the NYPD worked with the implement locally, and perhaps move up to the national New York Fire Department and local ferry response teams level,” he said. to evacuate all 155 passengers after the aircraft crashed into “The bigger something is, the harder it is to implement, the water. so where we can do things locally, on a small scale, we can make greater progress more quickly. Once you go above the Having taken over the responsibility for the International local level, you don’t get nearly the same level of passion Ice Patrol, District 1 is seeking to update its resources while and run into other people’s priorities. That’s why it’s good to looking for synergies with other missions. have these little local labs, which also lets you try out a lot “In the next year, we’ll be taking a good look at the of ideas and find the very best of those to implement more mission set, making sure it is doing the right things based broadly across the whole Coast Guard.” on current technology. It has been an iceberg monitoring For District 1, that has included a dedicated effort, organization for a long, long time and we need to see if both internally and in association with others, to develop there are other things to add to or refine that mission set,” alternative energy capabilities, with Sector Northern New Gabel said. England (SEC NNE) taking the lead. “It’s on the deep ocean, so we need to consider if there “The sector commander has been looking at better ways are other things aircraft can do to increase our situational to utilize new technologies coming on line to create energy awareness at the outer edges. And are there better or and how can we power our own assets, especially ashore, U.S. Coast Susan Blake GuardU.S. photo by PA1 52 Coast Guard Outlook 2010 district 1.indd 52 11/5/09 3:36 PM DISTRICT 1 REGIONS to keep our long-term costs down. That includes working with a company proposing a method to get power from ocean currents near Station Eastport [Maine], which has a fairly strong current all the time. That involves running that current through something that looks like a paddleboat wheel, which then creates electrical power for one of the shore units,” Gabel said. “Another – Cape Wind – is a commercial venture to put 131 wind turbines out on Nantucket Sound to provide energy across the state. The Coast Guard is playing a role in determining impacts to navigation safety and maritime security as part of the permitting process. Overall, the smaller alternative energy projects in SEC NNE may have broader applications throughout the Coast Guard, because they are intended as local ways to reduce main power grid energy consumption by local units.” Other projects involving liquefied natural gas (LNG) have drawn mixed reactions, with one in Maine garnering good public support as a jobs resource, while another that would involve mooring an LNG tanker in Long Island Sound facing both state and public opposition. The Coast Guard role in both is contributing to the permitting Craig Sheerin, Kenneth Portanovi, and their dog walk with Petty process, but LNG transport and safety also constitute a major direct Officer 1st Class Mike Stallard, a rescue swimmer from Air Station concern and mission for District 1. Cape Cod, after they were rescued Aug. 22, 2009, near Hull, Mass. “Every three days in the winter, an LNG carrier comes into the Coast Guard personnel from Station Point Allerton responded to the middle of Boston Harbor, going under the Tobin Bridge, a main search and rescue case. Point Allerton is generally considered the artery that has to be shut down to traffic. The Coast Guard provides home of Coast Guard search and rescue. an inner and outer layer of security as it comes in and offloads, which is a huge responsibility,” Gabel said. “Each LNG-related proposal brings with it public concern about how dangerous it might be and Coast Guard requirements to deal with it, from supporting the primary permitting agencies to looking at maritime and navigation security.” U.S. Coast GuardU.S. photo, Station Point Allerton Proud supporter of the United States Coast Guard Shell’s commitment to community and social responsibility has been in place for more than 50 years. Like the United States Coast Guard, we focus on safety and environment in every aspect of our business. We take pride in our association with the United States Coast Guard and wish you continued success. www.shell.com/us The U.S. Coast Guard did not select or approve this advertiser and does not endorse and is not responsible for the views or statements contained in this advertisement. district 1.indd 53 11/2/09 4:51 PM REGIONS DISTRICT 5 District 5 By Mark D. Faram ake a quick look at Coast Guard District 5 and it’s easy to get Capital Coast Guard Personnel T overwhelmed. With 156,000 square miles of ocean, bays, rivers, wetlands, and The service wasn’t always heavily involved in the National Capital tidal marshes, there’s no shortage of places the 3,500 active-duty and Region (NCR), but after September 11, all that changed. Reserve Coast Guard personnel need to have under their watchful Still, few people know that it’s the Coast Guard who patrols eyes – though they do get needed help from their nearly 6,800 the skies above Washington, D.C., as the low-altitude part of the Auxiliary volunteers. city’s layered air defense plan – and have done so since taking that With some of the nation’s busiest seaports under its control, the mission over from the U.S. Customs and Border Protection Service men and women of this district annually conduct inspections on in 2006. 4,700 U.S. and foreign vessels and respond to more than 300 reported It’s the responsibility of the pilots and ground-support personnel hazardous material spills. who make up the National Capital Region Air Defense (NCRAD) With the largest natural bay on the east coast, the Chesapeake, facility, located at Reagan National Airport – just across the Potomac and a number of major rivers, there are also 6,880 federal aids to River from downtown Washington. navigation that must be inspected and repaired each year. And, with “We fly every day around what is probably the most restricted the bay’s heavy commercial and recreational boat traffic, the service airspace in the country around the White House, the Capitol building, conducts thousands of law enforcement and homeland security and the monuments, and really most of the Washington, D.C., area,” boardings each year. said Lt. Clay Clary, one of the pilots who regularly rotates through Getting lost in all these statistics is because the service averages the facility. He goes on to say that their job is to intercept any 539 lives saved each year in the district that stretches from the aircraft that enter this area without the requisite prior coordination border between North and South Carolina to the north of New Jersey and radar identification. and Pennsylvania. But Clary isn’t permanently stationed in Washington – he’s on But it’s not only the waterways the service must keep under its temporary assignment from Air Station Atlantic City, N.J. watchful eyes. Pilots on temporary assignment come from air stations across the The boats and aircraft of this service reach far out to sea, assisting United States to supplement the Washington-based pilots; mechanics mariners on the high seas and to that end, the service is employing and other support personnel only come from AirSta Atlantic City. new aviation assets at its Air Station Elizabeth City, N.C., that are Clary said they don’t talk about how many pilots and other now allowing them to search farther and faster than ever before. personnel are at the station as a matter of security, but in 2006, the But these Coast Guard members also have another mission now service increased AirSta Atlantic City’s aircraft and personnel so – protecting Washington, D.C. – the nation’s capital – a symbol of their normal search and rescue (SAR) mission capability would be freedom to millions of people around the world. sustained. 54 Coast Guard Outlook 2010 5th district.indd 54 11/2/09 1:01 PM DISTRICT 5 REGIONS A Coast Guard HH-65C Dolphin helicopter passes over Washington, D.C., during a National Capital Region Air Defense training mission. The Coast Guard is tasked with intercepting low-flying, slow-speed aircraft in restricted air space over Washington, D.C. But to fly over D.C., Clary said all pilots undergo special training This training came in handy in September 2009, when Clary in the intricacies of the NCR’s airspace as well as how to intercept was part of a crew that scrambled to intercept a small private dissimilar aircraft. The service uses its nimble H-65 Dolphin aircraft to airplane that was heading from Pennsylvania straight for downtown conduct these missions. Atlantic City has operated the Dolphin since its Washington. 1998 commissioning and is a short one-hour’s flight from Washington, “It was really a typical mission for us,” he said. “We were scrambled D.C. A key benefit of designating it the “parent” unit of the Air Defense and flew up to the north part of Washington, D.C., and intercepted Facility is the ability to accomplish major aircraft maintenance and a pilot who simply got lost on his first cross-country solo flight and intercept training in the comparatively benign New Jersey airspace, and was now violating restricted airspace.” deploy only mission-ready crews to the capital region. Clary and his crew were able to move alongside the aircraft Pilots must be trained to fly close to other aircraft other aircraft and established communication with the pilot and led him to the and communicate effectively. The primary method of communication Montgomery Air Park in Maryland, outside Washington. is radio. If that is not possible, aircraft also carry lighted signs “Generally, we find these pilots fly into the security zone because they can also use to send signals to pilots. Every year they must of mechanical or electronic failure in navigation or flight systems or pass a special check ride to ensure they are still proficient in these by simple confusion as was the case this time,” he said. “But we techniques. have to stay on top of the game as you never know if someone might Aircrews also routinely train for the mission with the help of have malicious intent and we can’t forget that’s always a possibility.” realistic “intruder” aircraft. In Atlantic City, Coast Guard Auxiliary aircraft and crews role-play this function on a weekly basis. In the New Aircraft in E-City NCR, light aircraft operated by the Civil Air Patrol activate the system as part of periodic drills orchestrated by the Department of Meanwhile, down at AirSta Elizabeth City, N.C., there’s a quiet Defense, with the Coast Guard responding. revolution in Coast Guard aviation under way with modernization Last year, Coast Guard crews scrambled on real missions 55 times efforts in process to make the station’s fleet of Jayhawk and Hercules and of those, six became actual intercepts, where an aircraft violated aircraft more capable. some of the 2,826 square miles of “security-restricted airspace” In fiscal year 2008, the station conducted 279 SAR missions and around Washington. as of Sept. 13, its 2008 SAR mission totals were 249. U.S. Coast John Edwards GuardU.S. photo by PA1 Coast Guard Outlook 2010 55 5th district.indd 55 11/2/09 1:02 PM SEACOR Marine Era Helicopters Seabulk Tankers SCF Marine SEACOR Environmental Services Seabulk Towing Founded on the principles of… safety, environmental protection and operational excellence, and dedicated professionals. To learn more about SEACOR, SEACOR Holdings provides customers with a safe, environ- visit us at www.seacorholdings.com. mentally conscious and highly responsive operation with a focus on innovative technology, modern, efficient equipment S TRENG TH IN DIV ERS ITY 056 Telegenix & SeacorHoldings.indd 1 10/29/09 10:07 AM DISTRICT 5 REGIONS Also this year personnel have been credited with saving 60 lives, assisting in saving 201 others, and safeguarding more than $297,000 in property. In August 2009 alone, the station conducted 27 SAR missions, saving six lives and assisting in the saving of 13 others. Now they’re getting an increase in their capabilities as they modernize their Hercules aircraft and Jayhawks with the latest technology. Since 2003, the station has operated the C-130J “Super Hercules” aircraft. Initially they were used only for airlift, but the service has gradually been upgrading its “J” models with the latest technology for long-range maritime patrol and surveillance capabilities. Two of the station’s six aircraft are getting this upgrade now. This is good news for the SAR capability as the J model Super Hercules can travel farther, faster, and use fuel more efficiently than it’s predecessor, the Hercules “H” variant, which is still in service throughout the Coast Guard. Sixteen of those models are expected to get upgraded capabilities, as well. Specifically, the Hercules can travel at speeds up to 350 knots with a range of 5,500 nautical miles and can stay aloft for 21 hours. For comparison, the older H models have a maximum speed of 330 knots. Their range is 4,100 nautical miles and their endurance is 14 hours. “This package is a significant upgrade,” said Lt. Cmdr. Kevin Lyons, operations officer at AirStat Elizabeth City. “Once these are done, all our C-130Js will become significant surveillance assets – combined with the increased capability of the aircraft itself, this will be quite an increase in capability.” The modifications include installing a belly-mounted surface search radar, a nose-mounted electro-optical infrared sensor and will come with a flight deck mission operator station. “The mission operators can use these simultaneously and can overlay the surface search radar picture with the infrared picture and see it all on the same screen,” he said. The new capability will significantly increase the mission capability of the air station, Lyons said. Not only for SAR and law enforcement work – where the new gear will help also operate more efficiently with other Coast Guard air and surface assets – but also when they deploy to St. Johns Newfoundland for the International Ice Patrol between February and July each year. Slightly different, but no less significant is the conversion of the station’s Jayhawks, where the older frames are being gutted and refitted with new avionics and a “glass” cockpit. In the conversion, the aircraft ceases to be a Jayhawk, Lyons said. Though it’s not an official nickname – yet – aircrews are now calling the reworked aircraft a “Tango.” “It’s a totally new aircraft on the inside,” Lyons said. “What’s being installed is basically the same cockpit the Army has been using very successfully – it not only extends the life if the airframe, it increases capability as well.” The Coast Guard is gradually converting their fleet of Jayhawks as each aircraft goes through its regularly scheduled depot level maintenance. Elizabeth City currently has three of the new Tango models and two of the Jayhawks, but that is expected to change by the end of October when they’ll exchange the two remaining J models for Tangos coming out of refit. The upgrade includes installation of the Common Avionics Architecture System cockpit, which includes five multifunctional displays. So, what pilots now see are not only the aircraft’s flight controls, but much more including full screen display of radar, a Traffic Collision Avoidance System, forward looking infrared and even ability to see images from the hoist camera. Lyons says the new suite has simplified the process of flying for the pilots and the new displays allows them to safely fly while having a greater command of the overall mission as well. For example, he said, the Jayhawk did not allow for flying on autopilot while the Tango has that option – making it easier to fly search patterns. “Before we had to do it manually and that got quite tiring,” he said. “Now we can program that in to the computer and have time to give our attention to other things as well.” To become qualified in the Tango, pilots currently flying the Jayhawk go through a new flight-training syllabus to qualify in the new aircraft, but are also required to remain current in the Jayhawk as well, as the service will still be flying that aircraft during the conversion of the service’s complete fleet. Coast Guard Outlook 2010 57 5th district.indd 57 11/2/09 1:02 PM REGIONS DISTRICT 7 District 7 By J.R. Wilson oast Guard District 7 is generally thought of in connection the world. The goal is to bring Coast Guard personnel and cruise to two of its major missions: drug interdiction and migrant industry experts together to better understand each other. Cinterdiction; both have helped make it the most internationally “We need to understand the cruise ship industry and its needs focused district, regularly interfacing with 34 different Latin from the time a ship is built throughout its service life and ensure we American and Caribbean nations. are aligned with the needs of the industry, to not only support their It also is one of the largest districts, covering Georgia, South operations through the right amount of security, but to regulate the Carolina, 95 percent of Florida, and the entire Caribbean basin – industry, as well,” Branham said. almost 2 million square miles – with a force of some 11,000 people, “We have a number of cruise ship ports here, including two of the about half Coast Guard Auxiliary and the remainder active duty top in the world. On an average day, we put about 17,000 passengers or Coast Guard Reserve and civilian employees. Operationally, it through District 7 ports, with six or seven ships routinely calling on comprises air stations, six sectors – Charleston, S.C.; Jacksonville, Miami alone every week, so it is a huge amount of work.” Miami, Key West, and Tampa, Fla.; and San Juan, Puerto Rico; and Smaller recreational activities also are a major part of the district’s multiple subcommands. responsibilities. “I work almost daily with the Bahamas, Turks and Caicos, “We get a lot of scuba diving here, which is a challenge with so Haiti, Dominican Republic, Jamaica, Mexico, and, to some degree, many people in the water. We call the peak of the season the lobster Colombia, Panama, and lesser levels of engagement with a number mini-season – a two-day period when they let recreational divers in of others,” District Commander Rear Adm. Steve Branham said. before the commercial fishermen begin taking lobsters. This year we “We have bilateral agreements with 27 nations for law enforcement estimated 40,000 divers working from Palm Beach all the way around purposes. to Key West. You won’t see that type of thing happening in any other “Another unique aspect is the whole Sector San Juan, where you district,” he said. have a U.S. territory with a large number of citizens, not only in “The challenge is having a great number of divers out there, a lot Puerto Rico but also the U.S. Virgin Islands. You won’t find that of whom are infrequent recreational divers who get in trouble every characteristic in any other district except the 14th [Hawaii].” once in awhile. This year we counted five deaths in that area due to District 7 is, in fact, very active in all of the Coast Guard’s 11 some problem, from equipment malfunction to poor skills. And since missions but one – ice breaking. lobster mini-season ended, we’ve had another four die. We really “It’s really difficult to prioritize missions. The ones that probably work hard to educate the public and get the dive shops to make take the most of my time on a daily basis are illegal migration, drug people aware of the hazards they face out there.” smuggling, search and rescue [SAR], and all aspects of marine safety, Private boating also is a hallmark of Florida and the Caribbean, but I wouldn’t put those in any order of precedence,” Branham said. ranging from one-man kayaks to 150-foot super yachts. “Aids to navigation is also a big one, especially challenging in the “We also get a lot of repair work here and a lot of island trade remote areas of the Caribbean. But each is important and I wouldn’t coming into Miami, such as small freighters up to 200 feet long put one of those above the others. and small companies, which often have equipment or qualification “Clearly, illegal migration and narcotics garner a lot of headlines. problems,” Branham said. “We have a very strong relationship with And, of course, ports, waterways, and coastal security also is top the Georgia and South Carolina Department of Natural Resources, tier. Each mission takes a lot of personnel and resources, whether Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, and Florida cutters or aircraft, full time or Auxiliary. The Coast Guard Auxiliary, Department of Law Enforcement marine units to enforce laws on for example, does huge work for us with respect to boating safety, boating safety and operating boats while intoxicated. given our very large and active boating population.” “In addition, on an average day in the district, we have District 7 also has a major relationship with the cruise ship approximately 100 commercial ships calling on our ports. Routinely, industry, including creation of a new Cruise Ship National Center a little better than half of that is container traffic; another good of Expertise in Miami, one of the primary cruise ship nodes in percentage carry petroleum products – one of the largest refineries 58 Coast Guard Outlook 2010 7th district.indd 58 11/2/09 12:32 PM DISTRICT 7 REGIONS Coast Guard personnel offload approximately 2,500 pounds of marijuana, with an estimated street value of $1.6 million, at Coast Guard Base Support Unit Miami, Fla., Oct. 3, 2009. Crewmembers from the CGC Venturous seized the drugs along with four suspected smugglers in the Caribbean Sea Oct. 1, 2009. in the world is located in St. Croix. Ships also bring LNG [liquified convey illegal migrants, primarily out of Cuba, to the U.S. and Mexico natural gas] into Puerto Rico and the Port of Savannah, [Ga.], which for as much as $10,000 a head. That’s a pretty lucrative business, if is now one of the top container ports in the country, rapidly growing you can get away with it, especially using stolen, disposable boats.” and already beginning to rival Long Beach, [Calif.].” A major concern – and operational mission – for the Coast Guard In addition to its international partners, the district’s law is not simply interdicting illegal migrants, but saving their lives at enforcement and security missions require close cooperation with sea. a wide range of other U.S. agencies, including Customs and Border “On the Haitian side, they are still leaving primarily in very Protection, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the Transportation primitive sailboats they have been using for island trade for decades, Security Administration, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the probably centuries. Most are overloaded. We recently had one hit a Drug Enforcement Administration, and U.S. Attorneys’ offices in reef off the Turks and Caicos and sink. We recovered about 118 alive, Miami, Tampa, and Puerto Rico. but believe, from interviews with survivors, who really don’t know “This year, to date, the migrant flow out of Cuba is down fairly exactly, that there may have been 200 aboard,” he said. significantly, which I attribute to a really aggressive interagency “There are an estimated 40,000 to 60,000 Haitians in the Bahamas enforcement campaign and to political and economic uncertainty in now, many looking for opportunities to come to the U.S. So smugglers both countries. With respect to Haiti, on the other hand, numbers will get a go-fast boat of some kind and try to make it across the are up,” Branham said. Straits of Florida from the Grand Bahamas or Bimini with a load of “Things have changed from as recently as a few years ago, when Haitians. That’s a pretty short run, but, trying not to get caught, they people were coming, especially from Cuba, aboard rafts and home- often force people into the water when they get close to the beach, if built boats. Today, it is more of a smuggling operation, where the we don’t intercept them first. And we are fairly successful, but some smugglers are stealing boats from south Florida and using them to do make it and, all too often, people drown.” U.S. Coast GuardU.S. photo by Petty Officer 3rd Class Nick Ameen Coast Guard Outlook 2010 59 7th district.indd 59 11/2/09 12:33 PM REGIONS DISTRICT 7 A boatcrew from CGC Harriet Lane transports Haitian migrants. The Harriet Lane’s crew interdicted and repatriated 247 Haitian migrants in April 2008. District 7 includes migrants caught at sea in its SAR “Rescue 21 is now fully built out in the 7th District, numbers, even if their boat is still afloat, “because we truly which gives us tremendous capability to take the search believe we save their lives when we interdict them,” Branham out of SAR with an automatic direction-finding capability added. “At least 100 migrants have died at sea trying to get to and automatic recording of all radio conversations for the U.S. in the past year – and for every one that has died, we playback. If I get two lines of bearing from two different probably saved 10, which is a significant accomplishment.” antennas in the Miami AOR [area of responsibility] that Another unusual duty performed by District 7 is protecting says they have a problem, I can send an aircraft to U.S. Navy assets. that position and be very confident there is something “We have a maritime force protection team in Kings Bay, happening that needs our help,” he explained. Ga., with the singular task of protecting U.S. Navy high-value “That is combined with the 406 [megahertz] EPIRB units that operate in the area. They work very hard to make [emergency position indicating radio beacon], which sure nothing happens to those assets,” Branham noted. “The bounces a signal off a satellite that tells us who and when Navy knows we’re good at it, which is why it is primarily someone is in trouble. Every boater should have one. In my Navy-funded, but done by Coast Guard personnel.” view, that is as essential to a recreational boater as a life With all of the agencies working together with the Coast jacket; it vastly improves the likelihood of being rescued Guard on so many missions in District 7, it was only logical by taking out the guess work.” to create a sector-based operations center for them. Located From the Cruise Ship National Center of Expertise in Charleston, Project Seahawk provides a state-of-the-art to Seahawk, Rescue 21 to international and interagency command center for interagency planning and execution of cooperation, District 7 is on the cutting edge of efforts joint operations. to enhance Coast Guard mission success in an area “That should be the blueprint for the rest of the country that tends to challenge the limits of Coast Guard on how multiple agencies come together to share information capabilities. and coordinate operations in one place,” Branham said. “We “We’re working very closely with industry and our have a similar, but less robust and growing capability in the interagency partners to bring the right technologies to bear Port of Jacksonville.” for better situational awareness, on the ocean and in our Another major new asset now in operation is Rescue 21, ports, to properly apply the assets we have to higher risk an advanced command, control, and communications system issues,” Branham concluded. “That’s really the toughest created to better assist mariners in distress. part of managing any organization.” U.S. Coast Jennifer GuardU.S. Johnson photo by PA1 60 Coast Guard Outlook 2010 7th district.indd 60 11/2/09 12:33 PM anadarko.indd 1 10/19/09 1:44 PM REGIONS DISTRICT 8 District 8 By J.R. Wilson istrict 8 is headquartered in New Orleans, La., and exercised in D8, most recently conducting a security exercise on the encompasses 26 states; the Mississippi, Missouri, Illinois, Louisiana offshore oil platform. DTennessee, and Ohio rivers and their tributaries; the majority The security exercise on the Louisiana offshore oil platform of the Gulf Coast; and the offshore oil and gas energy sector. began as a tabletop exercise on Feb. 4, 2009, and became a full- Running from Perry, Fla., to the U.S.-Mexico border at Brownsville, scale exercise, April 22-24, in New Orleans that included Coast Texas, and from the Gulf of Mexico to the Canadian border, the 8th Guard operational commands, the Federal Bureau of Investigation Coast Guard District was created May 30, 1996, with the merger of (FBI), and personnel from the LOOP. The full-scale exercise the original 8th and 2nd Districts. This brought the nation’s major integrated the Maritime Security Response Team, supporting heartland, inland river system, and the Gulf Coast under a single Deployable Specialized Forces, the FBI, and Coast Guard tactical area of responsibility. commander and included the vertical insertion of personnel on Within this wide-ranging and geographically diverse district, the LOOP Marine Platform. This exercise was safely conducted in Coast Guard men and women conduct all of the service’s 11 missions. close cooperation with representatives from the LOOP to ensure This includes monitoring the icing in the northern rivers, that operations were not interrupted at one of the largest offshore conducting maritime security for military out-loads and critical oil transfer facilities in the United States. Conducting exercises infrastructure security, the day-to-day safety and prevention missions, like this is one way the Coast Guard ensures it is prepared to and search and rescue (SAR). The 8th District also conducts migrant respond and partner with maritime stakeholders in real life interdiction, counter-narcotic law enforcement, and the important response operations. stewardship missions of living marine resources enforcement and Some notable response operations included the spring 2008 pollution response. extensive flood-recovery operations in the western rivers. The upper The district’s work has come to be known affectionately as Mississippi River and the Illinois and Missouri rivers, as well as “Operation Gumbo” due to its wide array of challenges ranging from some of their major tributaries were affected by significant flooding responding to floods in the north to hurricanes along the Gulf, oil during this period. Rivers were closed a combined total of more spills that can impact our nation’s ability to move products, as well than 40 days due to floods that affected in excess of 750 miles of as our marine environment, and the day-to-day requirements of SAR waterways, 760 bridges, 11 locks and dams, and more than 95 marine and aids to navigation (ATONs). facilities, including a harbor closure in St. Louis, Mo. The states of “In 2008, there were more major events in D8 than other districts Iowa, Illinois, and Missouri were declared disaster areas with an experience in several years,” said Rear Adm. Mary Landry, District 8 estimated property damage greater than $3 billion. Thousands of commander. However, the 8th District did not respond alone; instead, tow boat/barge transits were affected up and down the inland river the district benefited from the adaptive force-packaging concept the systems with an estimated economic impact of $1 billion. The Coast service put in place based on lessons learned from both 9/11 and Guard conducted joint rescue operations and property protection Hurricane Katrina, under the command title Deployable Operations activities in the affected areas resulting in 52 lives saved. More than Group (DOG). The district’s team was able to integrate support 3,500 ATONs were affected by flooding and their restoration was from the DOG, as well as other districts in the Atlantic area and a key driver in re-establishing maritime commerce critical to the even Coast Guard headquarters. The DOG had already trained and national economy. 62 Coast Guard Outlook 2010 district 8.indd 62 11/2/09 2:41 PM DISTRICT 8 REGIONS Petty Officer 3rd Class Christopher Wheeler, a U.S. Coast Guard rescue swimmer, radios to a Coast Guard HH-65 Dolphin helicopter during a search and rescue case in Fargo, N.D., March 26, 2009. A Coast Guard airboat is behind him. The 8th District also served as operational commander in a joint Hurricane Gustav battered the Florida, Mississippi, and Louisiana response with the 9th District in the spring of 2009 during the Red coasts, making landfall just south of Houma, La., Sept. 1, 2008, River flood response. leaving 1.5 million homes in Louisiana without power. Thirty-four In the stewardship arena, District 8 experiences a significant parishes were declared disaster areas and storm surges reached number of hazardous material spills due to the numerous facilities 11 feet, causing greater than $1 billion in damage, including major that line our waterways and the volume of shipping in the Gulf and damage to several Coast Guard stations. Gustav also triggered the along our intercoastal waterway and western rivers. In July 2008, largest evacuation in U.S. history. By mid-day Aug. 31, 2008, 96 Sector New Orleans responded to the collision of the chemical tank percent of offshore oil production in the Gulf of Mexico had ceased, ship Tintimora and the tank barge DM932 on the Mississippi River, and personnel were evacuated from 626 production platforms and causing a discharge of more than 6,730 barrels of No. 6 fuel oil. The 100 oil rigs. spill impacted more than 100 miles of the lower Mississippi River Ike made landfall Sept. 13, 2008, decimating both Galveston Island and affected four major ports, more than 1,000 commercial vessels, and Bolivar Peninsula, Texas, and other low-lying areas. With a 15- 205 regulated waterfront facilities, nine community drinking-water to 18-foot storm surge and 100 mph winds, damage resulted in $27 intakes, and four navigational locks, resulting in an impact in excess billion of destruction and was the third most costly hurricane in U.S. of $1 billion to the national economy. In total, 187,000 gallons of history, impacting 6 million people, destroying 3,400 homes and was oily liquids were recovered from on-water skimming and shoreline responsible for approximately 40 deaths. The 8th District’s response cleanup involving 220 response vessels, 12 skimming vessels, the employed 2,470 Coast Guard personnel from 192 units. Personnel high volume open sea skimmer barge, and more than 155,000 feet of saved 235 lives through 365 aviation sorties including more than boom deployment. The incident command post was composed of a 100 persons from Bolivar Peninsula in gale force winds as the storm multi-agency teams with more than 2,300 people from federal, state, approached. Sector Houston-Galveston also investigated 18 marine and local agencies, including service members from 20 different casualties, conducted nearly 300 vessel salvage cases, and handled units. And, in July 2009, the district worked an offshore pipeline leak, 250 maritime pollution events. Operations were conducted to resume in which skimmers and Environmental Protection Agency-approved commerce in this vital region as soon as possible. The Houston Ship disbursements were deployed to mitigate the impact. Channel was open to shallow draft traffic in two days and deep Later in 2008, Hurricanes Ike and Gustav battered the Gulf Coast. draft traffic in just four days. More than 200 of 265 Coast Guard- U.S. Coast GuardU.S. photo by Petty Officer 3rd Class Brandon Blackwell Coast Guard Outlook 2010 63 district 8.indd 63 11/5/09 3:37 PM REGIONS DISTRICT 8 regulated facilities were approved for operation within three weeks of the storm’s passage and 14 of 16 major refineries were approved for operations prior to their ability to receive cargo. An unprecedented ATONs’ restoration effort repaired or rebuilt 98 percent of the 1,340 discrepancies within two weeks. In addition to natural disasters, District 8 must also contend with preparing for and defending against those that are man-made. “We just went through a national-level exercise, NLE09, in which we simulated attempts by terrorists, using small explosive- laden boats, to hit oil and gas refineries on land and in the Gulf of Mexico. This was an exercise that included players from the president and his Cabinet all the way down to the deck plates with federal, state, local, and private-sector energy interests. Although not a field exercise with actual deployment of resources, DHS [Department of Homeland Security] did a fabulous job of planning and managing the simulation so that we all felt the pressure of the decisions we would need to make in managing risk to protect our nation’s critical infrastructure while mitigating the overall impact to the economy. Unlike 9/11 where every port in the nation was closed for several days, and agencies were not able to readily share or communicate intelligence information, the Maritime Security Act of 2002 and the work done by everyone in maritime security and intelligence-sharing allowed us to examine how we might focus our security efforts in a geographic region, and an infrastructure sector, while allowing other activities to proceed as normal. While we focus a tremendous amount of energy and effort Coast Guard HH-60 Jayhawk 6031 from Air Station Elizabeth City, on prevention, we must balance that with preparing to respond. N.C., flies over flooded areas in New Iberia, La., Sept. 14, 2008. Intelligence is the key component in prevention and the exercise Helicopter crews began flying over flooded areas looking for signs gave us a chance to see how we have come a long way since of people in distress after Hurricane Ike reached the Gulf Coast, causing tremendous devastation to many areas in Louisiana and 9/11, but more importantly it showed us what we could do to Texas. Coast GuardU.S. photo by Petty Officer 3rd Class Jaclyn Young R&M American Marine Products R&M American Marine Products is a reliable partner when it comes to the production and mounting of wall, floor and ceiling systems, prefabricated cabins, wet units, window boxes, doors and marine furniture. Whether for passenger vessels, container ships, offshore platforms or naval vessels – the R&M products are of guaranteed high quality and manufactured in the US. R&M American Marine Products, Inc. 3285 Northeast Parkway % Brooksville % FL 34604 USA Phone: +1 352 345 48 67 % Fax: +1 352 345 48 68 email: [email protected] www.rmamp.com district 8.indd 64 11/5/09 3:38 PM DISTRICT 8 REGIONS After Hurricane Gustav, the road leading to the Coast Guard Aids to Navigation Station in Dulac, La., was covered with water Sept. 3, 2008. Damage was widespread following the storm, which included flooding, loss of electricity, and structural damage to countless homes and businesses in Louisiana. take things to the next level. NLE09 also provided opportunities support of the departments of Transportation and Commerce or to examine how we might respond to mitigate the economic and working to keep the energy sector up and running after a storm societal impact of an incident,” explained Landry. in concert with the departments of Interior and Energy – we find “The district, and the Coast Guard, must make the most efficient ourselves interfacing on a daily basis with the broad spectrum of and effective use of limited resources, without overlaps or gaps. We users and stakeholders in the maritime arena. We keep in constant must constantly work across the various sectors to ensure we are dialogue with these agencies to ensure we understand their needs working in unison. ‘Are we better than we were during 9/11 and in the maritime domain. We also directly interface with the maritime Katrina?’ Absolutely. But we still have areas we can improve on community on a daily basis so that we can understand all the issues and certainly management of information and providing the critical at hand. And the whole time we are doing the work with and on elements of that information to the right people at the right level at behalf of external stakeholders and the American people, we are the right time is an evolving capability,” Landry stated. rebuilding internally so that we can evolve to meet the mission As evidenced from this broad range of activities, the 8th District requirements,” Landry said. offers an opportunity to engage in all 11 mission areas of the Coast So whether it is the exhilaration that comes from saving lives, Guard. “When doing our work in the areas of safety, security, and or the important behind-the-scenes work of rebuilding shore units stewardship, we call ourselves the honest broker among many impacted by the storms, D8 offers something for everybody. “We have competing interests. Our work in the maritime domain actually has to be flexible in understanding the important and unique role we us representing many federal Cabinet-level agency equities – whether have in the maritime domain on behalf of the Coast Guard and the it is facilitating commerce or conducting fisheries enforcement in Department of Homeland Security.” U.S. Coast GuardU.S. photo by Petty Officer 3rd Class Etta Smith Coast Guard Outlook 2010 65 district 8.indd 65 11/2/09 2:42 PM REGIONS DISTRICT 9 District 9 By Craig Collins hen the district that calls itself “Guardians of the Great Breaking the Ice Lakes” claims to be unique compared to the other Coast W Guard districts, it may have a case. The freshwater Economically, the Great Lakes region is one of the most important environment provides widely shifting mission requirements between areas in North America. Approximately 70 percent of the nation’s summer and winter. These seasonal demands require the district’s automobiles are produced in the Great Lakes basin, and much of guardians to shift gears, adapt, and learn additional qualifications the nation’s steelmaking capacity remains in the region. The Great that don’t exist in all other Coast Guard districts. Additionally, there Lakes are used today as a major mode of transport for bulk goods, is a higher environmental sensitivity in a freshwater ecosystem. including taconite iron concentrate, grain, potash, and coal. Headquartered in Cleveland, Ohio, where the U.S. Lighthouse From December to April, the major obstacle to this commerce Service built Ohio’s first lighthouse in 1829 at the mouth of the and transport is ice. The 9th District’s fleet of icebreakers, including Cuyahoga River, the 9th District is responsible for all Coast Guard the CGC Mackinaw, five 140-foot Bay-class cutters, and two 225- operations throughout the five Great Lakes, the St. Lawrence foot multi-mission buoy tenders, is the busiest in the nation, and Seaway, and parts of the surrounding states – an area that includes the facilitation of cold-weather navigation is the main driver of its 6,700 miles of shoreline, 1,500 miles of international border with ice breaking mission, according to Cmdr. Kevin Dunn, chief of the Canada, and spans an area from upstate New York to northern 9th District’s Waterways Management Program. Minnesota. “Much of U.S. industry is centered around the Great Lakes, and In the 9th District, approximately 7,700 active-duty, Reserve, the fact that you can move something by ship, which is much civilian, and volunteer men and women serve a region that contains less expensive than by a train or by truck, offers a competitive one-tenth of the U.S. population and more than one-fifth of the advantage,” said Dunn. “So if they can keep their ships moving for world’s fresh lake water. The district is divided into four Sector a longer period of time, that reduces stockpiling costs, and it also Commands: Detroit, Sault Ste. Marie, Buffalo, and Lake Michigan reduces the number of ships that have to be in the Great Lakes (in Milwaukee, Wis.); it includes two air stations in Detroit and fleet. There are a lot of economic advantages to keeping ships Traverse City, Mich., where the Coast Guard’s HH-65 Dolphin moving.” helicopters carry out multiple missions, including search and rescue Much of the Coast Guard’s Great Lakes ice breaking operations (SAR) and law enforcement. The district contains 47 smallboat are conducted at what Dunn calls “choke points,” bottlenecks that stations, more than any other district in the United States. Some form at places like the Straits of Mackinac or the Detroit River, of these units have flat-bottomed airboats, adapted from use in the where ice is most likely to form. In an average ice season, the ice southern swamps that can travel over land, water, or ice, and are breaking fleet enables the movement of 20 million tons of cargo, crucial to the ice rescue mission or flood relief assistance. accounting for about 15 percent of the Great Lakes’ annual $2 On an average day in the Great Lakes, the Coast Guard saves 15 billion total. lives, responds to 90 SAR cases and 11 oil or hazardous substance Navigation isn’t the only reason for ice breaking on the Great spills, services 140 aids to navigation, and saves $2.8 million in Lakes. In conjunction with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the property. Coast Guard occasionally breaks “ice dams,” masses of ice and 66 Coast Guard Outlook 2010 9th district.indd 66 11/2/09 4:25 PM DISTRICT 9 REGIONS The CGC Neah Bay (WTGB 105, a 140-foot Bay-class tug) breaks ice in the Great Lakes area approximately 50 miles east of Grosse Isle, Mich., Jan. 21, 2009. The Neah Bay, homeported in Cleveland, Ohio, participated in the 9th Coast Guard District’s Operation Coal Shovel. Under tactical command of Sector Detroit personnel, Operation Coal Shovel performs ice breaking operations in all of Lake Erie, the Detroit River, Lake St. Clair, the St. Clair River, and a majority of Lake Huron. debris that cause water to pool and flood communities during the winter. In recent years, the area’s traditional ice fishermen have spring melt, along navigable waterways. Icebreakers also facilitate increasingly shared the ice with a newer generation of visitors who, the Coast Guard’s other missions, such as SAR and emergency with the use of snowmobiles are all-terrain vehicles, often venture assistance to passenger ferries or the region’s many isolated several miles out onto lake ice. communities. The Coast Guard has always made the attempt to rescue people “We have island communities here in the Great Lakes,” said who have either fallen through the ice or become trapped on Dunn, “and if one were cut off and couldn’t get their fuel delivery, drifting floes, but given the growing number of winter visitors to or they’re getting ready to run out of heating oil or something the ice, the 9th District has recently standardized the training like that, we would facilitate that. That would be a high priority courses for its ice rescuers and formed a center of expertise, the Ice for us.” Capabilities Center of Excellence, at Station Saginaw River, Mich., which has historically been among the busiest smallboat stations Ice Rescues during the ice season. One of the largest and most dramatic ice rescues in U.S. history The people of the Great Lakes have always treasured the region’s occurred in February 2009, when a slab of ice 8 miles long and recreational opportunities, and they are renowned for their love of 1 mile wide broke free of Ohio’s Lake Erie shoreline, stranding U.S. Coast GuardU.S. photo by Air Station Detroit Coast Guard Outlook 2010 67 9th district.indd 67 11/5/09 3:39 PM REGIONS DISTRICT 9 Petty Officer 3rd Class Kent-Erik Hedberg, Marine Safety Detachment Massena, N.Y., peers through a refractometer at a sample of ballast water from the M/V Eider, in Montreal, Canada. The U.S. Coast Guard inspects all vessels’ ballast water before they enter the Great Lakes to prevent invasive species from inhabiting the fragile ecosystems. about 130 fishermen. Chief Greg Zerfass, executive petty officer at Holding the Line Against Invasive Species Station Marblehead, Ohio, was among the Coast Guard rescuers on hand. The Great Lakes, home to the nation’s largest freshwater ports, “It was about 60 degrees that day, and we had a strong south form the front line in an intense environmental battle against wind,” he said. “It was a busy day.” the encroachment of non-native plant and animal species in Station Marblehead’s specialized airboats enabled Coast Guard U.S. waters. In the past few decades, several non-native species, rescuers to ride across the ice and ferry people to an evacuation including the zebra mussel, the sea lamprey, the Eurasian ruffe, point on the southern edge of the ice floe, where helicopters from and the round goby, have been discovered in the Great Lakes, Detroit and Traverse City helped transport them to dry land. apparently introduced by the release of ballast water taken in at “Our unit was able to pull 92 people off,” Zerfass said, “and the rest freshwater ports in other parts of the world and then released into were rescued by other agencies or managed to get off on their own.” the Great Lakes. The lone fatality of the day was a 65-year-old man who died of Since 2004, the Coast Guard has overseen a mandatory ballast heart failure after falling through the ice in an attempt to find a water management program to prevent the introduction and safe crossing. spread of these non-native species, which have proven extremely The district’s airboats, along with three Dolphins and 47 destructive to the economies and ecosystems of the Great Lakes. personnel, proved useful about a month later in response to mass To ensure compliance with this program, which essentially flooding on the Red River in Minnesota and North Dakota. The first requires ships to either retain ballast water or to discharge aircraft and crew were launched within six hours of the request for it into the saline environment of the ocean during transit, the help, and within 24 hours, they were rescuing the first half-dozen Coast Guard has joined with Transport Canada, the St. Lawrence flood survivors. Seaway Management Corporation, and the Saint Lawrence Seaway “We found during Hurricane Katrina and some other flood Development Corporation to inspect nearly every ship that enters operations that the airboats work really well in environments where and leaves the Great Lakes via the St. Lawrence Seaway. In 2008, you couldn’t have enough water to run a normal boat,” Zerfass said. 99 percent of the ships coming into the Seaway from overseas were “These airboats only require about 6 inches of water to run in. They inspected, with 96 percent through direct sampling, a dramatic are a good way of getting people supplies, evacuating people, or increase from 74 percent a year earlier. Of those inspected, 98.6 getting around in flooded streets.” percent of the ships were found to be in compliance. U.S. Coast GuardU.S. photo by Petty Officer 3rd Class William B. Mitchell 68 Coast Guard Outlook 2010 9th district.indd 68 11/2/09 4:26 PM DISTRICT 9 REGIONS The current inspection system is a solid one, and has finally achieved a level of completeness that has reduced the chance of aquatic invasive species being introduced through ballast water to an extremely low level, but it’s not perfect according to Cmdr. Tim Cummins, deputy of the 9th District’s Prevention Division. “The Coast Guard’s long-term goal,” said Cummins, “is to determine an environmentally protective, concentration-based ballast water discharge standard, allow industry to develop equipment to meet that standard, and then get that equipment approved and on the vessels.” Aquatic nuisance species were hardly on the radar when the Coast Guard’s predecessors first began operating on the Great Lakes nearly two centuries ago, but 9th District’s personnel, like the people of the region they serve, have proven resilient and ready. When the venerable symbol of the 9th District, the Mackinaw, was retired in 2006 after earning such nicknames as “Queen of the Lakes” and the “Great White Mother,” it was promptly replaced by a state-of-the-art buoy tender/icebreaker that, like the Coast Guard, is designed not for one mission, but for several, including SAR, buoy tending, domestic ice breaking, homeland security operations, pollution response, law enforcement, and public affairs. The current Mackinaw is a fitting symbol for the 9th District: proud of its tradition and nimble enough to adapt and meet new challenges. Petty Officer 2nd Class Joshua Kaiser awaits rescue during ice rescue training in Bay City Park, Mich. The training was part of the Coast Guard’s annual Ice Rescue Train the Trainer course U.S. Coast GuardU.S. photo by Petty Officer William B. Mitchell at the Ice Capabilities Center of Excellence. #ORPORATE (EADQUARTERS #RESCENT 4OWING -OBILE (UTCHINSON )SLAND 0ATTERSON 3TREET . 2OYAL 3TREET TH &LOOR 0/ "OX .EW /RLEANS ,OUISIANA -OBILE !LABAMA 3AVANNAH 'EORGIA ./,! CRESCENTTOWINGCOM MOBILE CRESCENTTOWINGCOM SAVANNAH CRESCENTTOWINGCOM 3HIP $OCKING (ARBOR 4OWING 3ERVICES !LONG THE -ISSISSIPPI 2IVER -OBILE AND 3AVANNAH 9th district.indd 69 11/5/09 9:31 AM REGIONS DISTRICT 11 District 11 Guardians of the Gateway to the Pacific By Craig Collins he Coast Guard’s history on the West Coast began during the the District 11 in July 2009. He also noted that if the containers were California Gold Rush in 1848, when the Revenue Cutter C.W. lined up end to end, they would encircle the Earth and overlap it by T Lawrence was sent to San Francisco to exert the authority another 5,000 miles. of the U.S. government and fulfill a characteristically multi-mission role, in which its captain and crew acted as judges, customs agents, Securing the Ports – at Home and Abroad rescuers, scientific surveyors, and law-and-order men who, among other things, put down several mutinies among the riotous crews of Given the strategic significance of these assets, port safety and the region’s merchant ships. security have become an area of extreme focus for the district. Fittingly, it is a town on the east shore of San Francisco Bay – One of the Coast Guard’s handful of Port Security Units (PSUs) – Alameda, Calif., just south of the Port of Oakland – where both deployable units organized for sustained force protection operations the Coast Guard’s Pacific Area Command and District 11 are overseas – is stationed next to the Port of Los Angeles, in San Pedro. headquartered today. The district encompasses California, Nevada, When not deployed, PSUs may operate in U.S. territorial waters under Utah, and Arizona. In its leadership role in U.S. counter-drug activity, the Coast Guard, or in foreign waters as part of the Naval Coastal the district’s area of operations extends over the vast Eastern Pacific Warfare Squadron. area to the coasts of Central and South America. In December 2008, PSU 311 became part of an effort to increase There are 2,600 active-duty, Reserve, and civilian personnel Coast Guard support of U.S. military operations when it was deployed who work at 48 different units under three Sector Commands: San to Kuwait for a seven-month deployment that ended July 1. The unit Francisco, San Diego, and Los Angeles/Long Beach. In fiscal year was part of a joint forces operation with the U.S. Navy and U.S. Army, 2008, the district’s units responded to 2,614 search and rescue cases Combined Task Force 56.5, in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom. – saving 503 lives and $14 million in property – conducted 2,572 The task force was charged with providing harbor defense and port commercial vessel inspections and 2,243 Port State Control boardings, security for Kuwait and maritime approaches to Iraq, including Iraqi and issued 8,942 merchant mariner documents and licenses. oil platforms. District 11 contains several of the nation’s largest ports – the At home in California, the 11th District recently became the first to ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, which account for 40 percent have two air stations with armed helicopters, as a further roll-out of of the nation’s cargo imports, rank first and second in port size, its Airborne Use of Force (AUF) program for deterring terrorist attacks. respectively, while Oakland is the nation’s fifth largest. The weight Air Station San Diego, given its proximity to the maritime border, was of the container cargo that entered the ports of Los Angeles and the first in California to install AUF equipment – gun mounts, M14T Long Beach last year was 24.5 times the weight of the Hoover Dam, rifles, and machine guns – on its helicopters, and to train gunners in according to Rear Adm. Joseph Castillo, who assumed command of AUF. Air Station San Francisco followed in early 2009. 70 Coast Guard Outlook 2010 district 11.indd 70 11/2/09 6:24 PM DISTRICT 11 REGIONS With a sizeable port – Oakland is the fifth largest in the nation – along with high ferry-traffic volume and an iconic structure such as the Golden Gate Bridge, all of which need protection, the San Francisco Bay Area became a prime candidate for AUF capability, said Cmdr. Samuel Creech, commanding officer of AirStat San Francisco. As Cmdr. Joe Buzzella, operations officer and lead helicopter pilot at AirSta San Francisco, points out, the AUF capability is intended for one thing only: “We now have the ability to shoot out of our aircraft and stop a terrorist attack, if we perceive one, on a major vessel or infrastructure here in the United States.” The Coast Guard’s pilots and marksmen receive intensive training to help them identify and respond to a terrorist situation. Marksmen are selected only after passing a rigorous screening. They then engage in blank-firing exercises, which includes role-playing on the ground and in the air. They hone their skills by undergoing live-fire training over an aerial practice range about 150 miles south of San Francisco. Despite the potential drama of armed helicopters and terrorist attacks, Castillo is eager to point out the preventive work quietly performed every day in the 11th District. “Our port security missions are vital, but so are the safety missions,” he said. “You could tie the port up with a ship that grounds or sinks in the harbor entrance, the same as you could with an attack of some kind. I think our prevention work will only grow in importance as time goes on.” A Leading Role in Drug Interdiction The Airborne Use of Force has been a Coast Guard capability since 1998, but has only recently become an anti-terrorist measure. It began as a counter-drug measure, to enable aerial marksmen to fire warning shots over drug-running boats and, if the suspected traffickers cannot be persuaded to stop, to fire directly at their engines. In recent years, Coast Guard aerial marksmen have become increasingly involved in the eastern Pacific, as activity in the Transit Zone – the maritime approaches to the United States from Central and South America – has gradually shifted there from the Caribbean. This shift, said Capt. Kevin O’Day, chief of response for the District 11, has placed Crewmembers of the CGC Aspen prepare to offload 207 bails of marijuana to a pier in San Diego, Calif., March 22, 2009. The Aspen’s crew, a C-130 crew from Air Station Sacramento, much of the U.S. counter-drug effort and Maritime Safety and Security Team Galveston personnel worked with the Mexican navy directly under the district’s jurisdiction. to seize more than eight tons of marijuana and four smuggling suspects. “The Coast Guard is the lead, and we use our own cutters and Navy frigates as platforms to carry our law enforcement teams,” said O’Day. “We’re the tactical U.S. Coast Henry GuardU.S. photo by PA3 G. Dunphy Coast Guard Outlook 2010 71 district 11.indd 71 11/2/09 6:24 PM JHQHUDODWRPLFVLQGG 30 DISTRICT 11 REGIONS commander for the ships when they are on a case, directing their actions through intercept, and then we’re in charge of the post-seizure logistics and case package preparation.” The year 2008 was a landmark year in the fight against one of the most recent trends in drug smuggling: the self-propelled semi-submersible (SPSS). Barely visible on the ocean’s surface and nearly undetectable by radar, the SPSS runs almost even with the waterline, and is outfitted with a valve that enables the crew to flood the sub, sinking it and its cargo, and floating free. Over the past 12 months, O’Day said, the district has been involved in 15 separate SPSS cases. Until 2008, said O’Day, SPSS drug cases promptly became search and rescue operations once the evidence – typically, tons of cocaine – had been sent to the bottom of the ocean, but that has changed thanks to a pair of successful covert operations, orchestrated by the 11th District. In September 2008, Coast Guard Law Enforcement Detachments conducted stealth boardings of SPSS craft, capturing both the smugglers and their contraband – about 7 tons of cocaine. The smugglers of a self-propelled semi-submersible (SPSS) drug-trafficking vessel In October 2008, Congress passed the Drug prepare to abandon their boat before being intercepted and detained by the Coast Trafficking Vessel Interdiction Act of 2008, Guard approximately 150 miles northwest of the Colombia-Ecuador border Jan. 8, 2009. which makes it illegal for an SPSS to operate A dozen suspected drug traffickers were apprehended in the eastern Pacific Ocean covertly in international waters – for any reason. following the interception of three SPSS vessels within nine days, which included the Jan. 15 interdiction by the crew of the San Diego-based CGC Chase. The legislation gives the Coast Guard authority to board an SPSS at any time. On Jan. 15, 2009, the San Diego-based CGC Chase interdicted another SPSS, and in July 2009, the district’s new CGC Bertholf intercepted four drug-running boats off the coast of Guatemala. Four alleged smugglers were taken into custody during the operation, during which the Coast Guard worked MDH closely with Guatemalan officials. HEADSET “I think our international outreach with our Fits underneath most helmets partner nations is the key to our success,” including said O’Day. “We have operational procedures PASGT, MICH in place with Ecuador and Colombia, and we and ACH have bilateral agreements with many countries. Panama is an important partner, because of its logistic location. A lot of these go-fasts from PORTABLE Colombia stay along the shoreline and cut into TRANSCEIVER Panamanian waters. That relationship is one of For wireless, hands-free our most significant, just because of where the communication drugs are falling right now.” To Castillo, the district’s fight against illegal drug smuggling is but one example of how it fulfills its mission. “The most important thing CREW we do is save lives, of course,” he said. “And CONNECTION POINT sometimes we do that by stopping drugs and the Wired access & poison they bring to our kids and other people in power to support the United States. Sometimes we do it by pulling ANR headwear and charge portable somebody out of the water. But sometimes we ▲▲ ▲ ▲ ▲ ▲ transceivers do that by putting an aid to navigation in place complete, integrated intercom system with wired/wireless functionality that keeps the vessel from running aground designed and tested to meet the and hurting somebody. Sometimes we do it most demanding marine conditions RADIO by tank-vessel examination, to make certain it Crew net-centric VoIP platform INTERFACE/ isn’t going to blow up and kill people. We have Communication NMEA 0183 connectivity INTERCOM CONTROL incredible people in this district, and tremendous Interconnects onboard System robust protection against RFI/EMI radio systems, crew partnerships, both internal to the United States connection points, and portable transceivers and with our foreign partners, that help us get GENTEX ELECTRO-ACOUSTIC PRODUCTS the job done.” 2456 Brown Avenue 5 Manchester NH 03103 USA 5 TEL: 603.657.1200 5 FAX: 603.657.1201 www.lvissystem.com/uscg0904 U.S. Coast GuardU.S. photo Coast Guard Outlook 2010 73 district 11.indd 73 11/2/09 6:25 PM REGIONS DISTRICT 13 District 13 Guardians of the Pacific Northwest By Craig Collins he first Russians and Europeans to explore the coast of the Yaquina. The rough surf demands a different breed of Guardians, Pacific Northwest in the 1700s encountered some of the many of whom are trained at the National Motor Lifeboat School T roughest seas in the world: stormy weather, driven south from (NMLBS), a unique Coast Guard training center that is the only school Alaska, drove breakers onto a narrow continental shelf where they for rough weather and surf rescue operation in the United States. The ran head-on into mountain river currents, unbroken by deltas, that NMLBS is recognized internationally as a center of excellence for spewed like flumes into the ocean. The sediment deposits at the the operation of heavy boats; the district’s coastal fleet contains not mouths of these rivers formed treacherous “breaking bars,” where 25- only the newer, state-of-the-art, 47-foot motor lifeboat, with a sealed to 30-foot surf was not uncommon. The region promptly earned the cockpit and self-righting hull, but also the four “old workhorses” – name “Graveyard of the Pacific,” and in its recorded history, about 52-foot self-righting boats, in operation since the 1960s, that, given 2,000 large ships have sunk on or around the bar of the Columbia their range of 1,200 miles, have proven invaluable as towing vessels. River – where the Pacific Northwest’s first life-saving station was AirSta Port Angeles recently launched an initiative to export its established in 1877, at Cape Disappointment. surfman training to other installations, in order to enable its trainers Today, those conditions drive much of the work of the U.S. to go where the weather is. At stations Coos Bay and Umpqua River Coast Guard’s 13th District – an area encompassing the states of on the Oregon coast, surfmen have undergone several days of surf Washington, Montana, Oregon, and Idaho. The word “surf” has training in swells as high as 18 feet. In the meantime, the district permeated the language of the district. Most of its coastal smallboat has put together a standard curriculum for exportable surfman stations are “surf stations,” where surf greater than 8 feet occurs at training, to encourage more Guardians to earn their Surfman Badges. least 10 percent of the year, and the crewmembers who venture out The NMLBS’s air counterpart, the Advanced Helicopter Rescue to lend assistance to mariners are “surfmen.” School, at AirSta Astoria, is where helicopter pilots and crews are Headquartered in Seattle, Wash., much of the district’s work is trained for rescues in conditions that involve cold water, high seas, focused on the area’s major port complexes of Portland and Puget and rocky cliffs. A distinguishing characteristic of the work in the Sound, where its two sector commands are located. The coast is Pacific Northwest is the proximity of tall mountain peaks to the administered by three different installations: Group/Air Station Port coastal areas, and the Coast Guard is called upon regularly to conduct Angeles, on the Strait of Juan de Fuca at the mouth of Puget Sound; search and rescue operations in inland mountain areas throughout Group/AirSta Astoria, at the mouth of the Columbia River; and the region. In fact, several of its HH-65 Dolphin helicopters were Group/AirSta North Bend, at Coos Bay on Oregon’s southern coast. upgraded just two years ago to enable them to climb higher in the peaks throughout Washington’s Olympic Peninsula. The Graveyard of the Pacific In the past year, AirSta North Bend has taken steps to improve its own mountain flight training. In coordination with the pulp Most of the 13th District’s surf stations are located near the and paper manufacturer, Weyerhauser Company, the station has breaking bars of rivers such as the Columbia, Umpqua, Chetco, and established a mountain training area that provides a challenging, 74 Coast Guard Outlook 2010 district 13.indd 74 11/2/09 12:59 PM DISTRICT 13 REGIONS Coast Guard personnel from Maritime Safety and Security Team 91107, homeported in Honolulu, Hawaii, provide a security escort for the Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS John C. Stennis, homeported in Bremerton, Wash., as it transits Puget Sound Sept. 14, 2009. Puget Sound is the 13th District’s area of responsibility, where the Coast Guard operates the largest Vessel Traffic Service in the United States. safe, and realistic opportunity to prepare North Bend aircrews for the these losses, the 13th District launched Operation Safe Crab, a types of cases they are likely to encounter in the area. voluntary dockside inspection program, at the beginning of the 2007- Of course, the Coast Guard prefers to avoid situations in which 2008 crab season. “We’re trying to board as many of the vessels as people require rescue from the rugged peaks or rolling surf of the we can before they leave the pier,” he said, “to ensure all their safety Pacific Northwest. Its regulations and vessel safety programs are gear is up to speed and that everybody is ready to go. It’s a voluntary designed to keep mariners, commercial fishermen, and recreational program if you’re boarded in port.” boaters safe off the coasts of Washington and Oregon. According to Capt. Bruce Toney, chief of contingency planning Guarding the Ports for the district, the service has recently focused its attention on the region’s river bars. “There have been some looks into potential ways The port systems of the Portland and Seattle areas are among the to regulate which boats – which sizes and capabilities – are going to nation’s most significant. The Port of Portland’s marine terminals be allowed to cross a bar at a given time,” he said. “That’s kind of an export the largest amount of wheat from the United States, and it is ongoing project, to make breaking bar operations safer, and working the fifth-largest port for tonnage. In Puget Sound, the Coast Guard with industry and the recreational boating community.” operates the largest Vessel Traffic Service in the nation, monitoring Despite the Bering Sea crab fisheries’ reputation for containing 230,000 vessel movements a year over an area of 35,000 square miles the “Deadliest Catch,” Toney said, the Dungeness crab fisheries of that includes ports such as Seattle, Tacoma, Olympia, Everett, and Washington and Oregon have statistically been the most dangerous Bellingham, and extends to Cape Flattery, at the northwestern tip in the nation, with several vessels lost in recent years. To combat of the Olympic Peninsula. Vessel transits in the area are comprised U.S. Coast GuardU.S. photo by Petty Officer 2nd Class Zac Crawford Coast Guard Outlook 2010 75 district 13.indd 75 11/2/09 12:59 PM REGIONS DISTRICT 13 mainly of large commercial and government craft – freighters, container ships, tankers, tugs, fishing vessels, tour boats, and the nation’s largest ferry system, which carries 24 million passengers annually. Some of these transits involve the nation’s most valuable naval assets. “A lot of activity in the 13th District is centered on providing security escorts for naval vessels,” said Toney, “whether it be submarines or what we call the high-value vessels, particularly aircraft carriers, and the various military sealift command ships coming in with military outloads of, say, cargo headed to the war zones or retrograde material, such as damaged equipment, being brought back. We spend a large number of operational hours, particularly our patrol boat fleet here in Seattle, providing those security escorts to Navy assets.” The 13th District escorts include a unit known as a Maritime Force Protection Unit, one of only two in the nation formed and trained specifically to escort Trident ballistic-missile submarines to and from their homeports. According to Capt. Ted Lindstrom, the retired commander of the CGC Healy who today works in the 13th District’s Enforcement Branch, one of the greatest challenges posed by Puget Sound is the labyrinthine maritime border its islands and channels form with Canada. “Up here, the border runs between Vancouver Island and the San Juan Islands,” said Lindstrom. “And there’s a lot of boating traffic that’s just up there, enjoying the area, whale watching or fishing, and one minute they can be on the Canadian side and the next minute they can be on the U.S. side. And if they don’t have a good chart plotter, they may not even know that. A lot of bad guys use that to their advantage.” In August 2009 alone, Coast Guard and customs officials seized a shipment of ecstasy coming across the Strait of Juan de Fuca to Neah Bay, as well as a marijuana shipment in the San Juan Islands that had come from Canada. In the same month, Ryan Alexander Jenkins, suspected of killing his wife in San Diego, fled into Canada through the unusual U.S. exclave of Point Roberts, a tiny appendage of land hanging below the 49th parallel south of the Vancouver suburbs. By skirting the busy border checkpoint at Blaine, Wash., said Lindstrom, Jenkins “used the porosity of the maritime border up here to make his escape.” In May 2009, to increase interoperability in enforcing the international border, the United States and Canada formalized Shiprider, a joint-patrol program that has been in place, off and on, since 2005. Shiprider places Coast Guard personnel and Royal Canadian Mounted Police together on patrol boats. Students and instructors at the Coast Guard’s National Motor “When we do that jointly,” said Lindstrom, “we can enforce Lifeboat School (NMLBS) in Ilwaco, Wash., operate 47-foot the laws on both sides of the border from the same platform. motor lifeboats in heavy surf. NMLBS is a unique Coast Guard We don’t use this tactic or tool every day, but we have been training center that provides instruction on operating in rough spearheading it and developing it here in Seattle to deal with surf and weather, and is the only training facility of its kind the challenges we experience on the border. And we know in the United States. that it’s going to be a key security element to the upcoming Vancouver Winter Olympics in 2010.” Such collaboration and interoperability is an important goal in Sector Seattle, as it is throughout the Coast Guard, standing watch there at the center. We have the Navy in accord with the Safe Port Act of 2006. The new sector presence there for the submarine movements here in Seattle. command building, completed in 2006, includes the state-of- We’ve got U.S. Customs and Border Protection there helping the-art Joint Harbor Operations Center (JHOC), the fourth such us in vetting the ships that are coming into port, making sure U.S. facility jointly established by the Coast Guard and the they’re secure and safe, and we have the Washington State U.S. Navy with the goal of increasing interoperability among Patrol standing watch with us.” all key federal, state, and local maritime stakeholders. Tumbarello expects other state and federal agencies to “The JHOC has made us much more efficient in terms come on board as the JHOC’s capabilities gain renown – of our capability,” said Cmdr. Leonard Tumbarello, deputy furthering the 13th District’s reputation as Guardians of the commander of Sector Seattle. “It’s not just the Coast Guard Pacific Northwest. Photo by Petty Officer 3rd Class Jeff Pollinger 76 Coast Guard Outlook 2010 district 13.indd 76 11/2/09 1:00 PM :KHQ\RXKDYHWRJRRXW EULQJV \RXEDFN HOHFWULFGULYHV\VWHPV 0DLQ3URSXOVLRQ 7KUXVWHUV :LQFKHV ZZZDYWURQFRPPDULQHKWP 'RFNVLGH&UDQHV MAINE MARITIME ACADEMY A COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING, SCIENCE & MANAGEMENT IN CASTINE, MAINE World Wide. Hands On. High Tech. Ocean Rescue Systems The Training Vessel “State of Maine” /(9(/ /(9(/ Continuing Education s ,IMITED -ASTER LAUNCH TENDER s 9ACHT -ASTER s -3,%0n-ARITIME 3ECURITY FOR -ILITARY s &ACILITY 6ESSEL #O 3ECURITY Course Offerings &IRST