The Multimission U.S. Coast Guard Ready, Aware, and Responsive – with Renewed Focus on Mission Execution

03 The Multi-Mission 16.08.2006 7:46 Uhr Seite 96 NAVY PROFILE GORDON I. PETERSON AND SCOTT C. TRUVER1 THE MULTIMISSION U.S. COAST GUARD READY, AWARE, AND RESPONSIVE – WITH RENEWED FOCUS ON MISSION EXECUTION The U. S. Coast Guard is a unique gov- ‘SENTINELS OF THE SEA’ responsibilities over the past two centuries – ernment agency – one whose 216-year becoming what Adm. Thad W. Allen, the history continues to exert a dominant The Coast Guard originated when the U.S. service’s current Commandant, has described as Congress created the Revenue Cutter Service in a ‘clearing house’ for multiple maritime mis- influence on its character, values, and 1790 as a component of the U.S. Treasury sions. The modern Coast Guard came into being mission performance. Owing to its mil- Department. It was Secretary of the Treasury in 1915 when the U.S. Life-Saving Service was itary structure, law-enforcement author- Alexander Hamilton who first referred to the combined with the Revenue Cutter Service. The ity, and humanitarian functions, the youthful service as ‘sentinels of the sea’ for its 1930s saw the Lighthouse Service become part crew of a distinctively painted orange- law-enforcement responsibilities enforcing U.S. of the Coast Guard, and in 1942 the Bureau of striped, white-hulled Coast Guard cutter tariff laws, protecting shipping from pirates, and Marine Inspection was realigned under the Coast will not find it unusual to perform a intercepting smuggled good – including human Guard (which was placed under Department of wide variety of maritime and naval mis- contraband. the Navy control during WW II, as it had been The Coast Guard has, perhaps, the most during WW I). sions during a single cruise. unusual history of any U.S. maritime service Each of the Coast Guard’s five principal stra- owing to the way it has assimilated disparate tegic roles and 11 mission areas today may be 96 NAVAL FORCES IV/2006 03 The Multi-Mission 16.08.2006 7:46 Uhr Seite 97 NAVY PROFILE Fig. 1: Each of the U.S. Coast Guard’s five Coast Guard’s historian notes that cutters on laying the foundation for a more capable Coast principal strategic roles and 11 mission areas escort duty during the Normandy invasion res- Guard. Few anticipated just how critical this today may be traced to its evolutionary cued more than 1,500 in the waters off France development would prove to be until the terror- development since 1790. The service’s alone. ist attacks of 9/11. responsibility for maritime homeland security has assumed high priority since 9/11. Coast Guardsmen, active and reserve, also Subsequently, in March 2003, the Coast Here, in New York harbour, a 25-foot “Defender” served with distinction during military opera- Guard was realigned intact into the new Depart- class security boat from Coast Guard Maritime tions in the Cold War – from Korea to Vietnam, ment of Homeland Security (DHS) as its larg- Safety and Security Team 91106 keeps watch off the coast, in ports, and on inland waterways est agency. In the view of Adm. Allen, signifi- over passenger vessels and high profile landmarks – and in Operations DESERT SHIELD and cant advantages have been realised by this reor- during the 2004 Republican National Convention. (Photo: Courtesy U.S. Coast Guard / DESERT STORM in 1990 and 1991. ganisation. “This is the right department for us PA3 Kelly Newlin) The Coast Guard has experienced two major to be in”, he told NAVAL FORCES, citing far post-war realignments under executive branch more effective cooperation with all DHS agen- departments. In 1967 it was transferred from the cies and a host of initiatives contributing to traced to this evolutionary development. Dur- Treasury Department to the newly created improved homeland security. ing time of war, operational control of the Coast Department of Transportation (DOT). As the Guard may be transferred to the Department of 20th century drew to a close, it was not uncom- ROLES AND MISSIONS the Navy as the President may direct, but the last mon to hear critics of this arrangement call for Not surprisingly, the Coast Guard’s maritime time this occurred was during WW II – a trans- the Coast Guard to be transferred to the Depart- security role expanded considerably since 9/11 fer that lasted from November 1941 until Janu- ment of Defense. Increasingly, the Coast Guard as part of a concerted U.S. effort to implement ary 1946. had become a ‘bill payer’ for other agencies a security strategy aimed at creating a layered The Coast Guard served shoulder-to-shoul- within DOT owing to the significant level defence extending well to seaward from U.S. der with the Navy with distinction during WW (approaching 70 percent) of ‘fenced funding’ shores. In 2005, President Bush approved a new I and II. During the latter conflict, its patrol boats (i.e. protected budget line items) in DOT’s bud- National Strategy for Maritime Security, an sank 11 enemy submarines and, on shore, Coast get for U.S. air, rail, and federal highway overarching plan developed jointly between the Guard port security and beach patrols on foot systems. All too frequently, it seemed, DOT Department of Defense and the Department of and horseback protected U.S. harbours and budget cuts were absorbed by the Coast Guard’s Homeland Security. Its supporting plans seek to coastlines. Coast Guardsmen were assigned to accounts for operations, maintenance, and acqui- reduce U.S. vulnerability to terrorism and secure 802 cutters, 351 naval ships, and 288 Army ves- sition. U.S. maritime borders. The Coast Guard and the sels. The service’s crews manned amphibious As a result, during the 1970s and 1980s the U.S. Navy are now actively collaborating to ships in the Pacific and Europe during every Coast Guard became renowned as an agency that develop new maritime and naval strategies to major U.S. amphibious invasion of WW II. The did more with less – rallied by its motto Semper guide their operations during the post-9/11 era. Paratus, always ready – even as its ranks of officers and enlisted personnel fell in numbers The United States Coast Guard is a mili- Fig. 2: The Coast Guard served as part of below the size of the City of New York’s Police tary, multimission, maritime service with- the Navy during World Wars I and II. In addition Department. Cutters launched during WW II still in the Department of Homeland Security to important convoy escort duties and other combat operations, Coast Guard crews took to sea – well past their fifth decade of com- and one of the five branches of the U.S. manned amphibious ships in the Pacific and missioned service by the late 1990s. Other armed forces. Its core roles are to protect Europe during every major U.S. amphibious ageing legacy cutters, designed for the threat the public, the environment, and U.S. eco- invasion of WW II. Here, U.S. Marines express environment of the 1960s and 1970s, became nomic and security interests in any mari- their appreciation to the Coast Guard for its increasingly obsolete, technologically deficient, time region in which those interests may be support during the liberation of Guam in 1944. (Photo: Courtesy U.S. Marine Corps) unreliable, and unsafe. a risk, including international waters and Forward-thinking officers, including future America’s coasts, ports, and inland water- Commandants like Adm. James M. Loy, recog- ways. U.S. Coast Guard nised the service was rapidly heading for shoal water if its inventory of cutters, boats, and air- Collaborating with the U.S. Navy and other craft was not replaced. As a result, formative U.S. agencies and international partners in its steps were taken to plan the service’s s progres- maritime security mission and law-enforcement sive modernisation and recapitalisation through role, drug smugglers are interdicted, apprehend- the Integrated DEEPWATER System acquisi- ed, arrested, and returned to shore for prosecu- tion. Revalidation of the service’s vital contri- tion. Last year, the Coast Guard prevented more butions to the nation’s maritime security, nation- than 338,000 pounds of cocaine from entering al economy, and defence came in 1999 when an the United States by sea – an all-time maritime interagency task force concluded that all Coast Guard roles and missions supported national pol- 1 icies and would endure into the 21st Century. Capt. Gordon I Peterson, USN (Ret.) is North America editor of NAVAL FORCES and a Sen- The task force judged the DEEPWATER Pro- ior Technical Director with General Dynamics gramme to be a near-term national priority, stat- Information Technology. Dr. Scott C. Truver is ing, “Planning for and modernising these capa- Group Vice President for national security pro- grammes, General Dynamics Information bilities must begin now.” This led to the Technology, and directs its Center for Security programme’s eventual contract award in 2002, Strategies and Operations. NAVAL FORCES IV/2006 97 03 The Multi-Mission 16.08.2006 7:46 Uhr Seite 98 NAVY PROFILE record. Additionally, the Coast Guard intercept- investigations back into prevention programs, The Coast Guard’s protection of the marine ed 9,500 undocumented migrants attempting to frequently in the form of revised regulations and environment takes many forms – including enter the United States illegally by sea – a 100 safety standards. emergency response teams called away in the percent increase over 2001 and the second high- Working with other nations and agencies, event of a major spill of oil or other hazardous est number in any non-mass migration exodus including the International Maritime Organisa- substances and the enforcement of laws aimed over the past 20 years.

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