All who have worn the uniform with a shield insignia on the sleeve or shoulder board proudly relate to the motto Semper Paratus. "Always Ready" embodies the spirit of the men and women who comprise the deceptively small Coast Guard. During the nearly 210 years since the launching of the first small vessel for the Revenue Cutter Service, the forerunner of today's Coast Guard, there has been a continuous record of accomplishments made with an "all in a typical day's work" attitude. But all is not well with the fifth member of the armed forces of the United States, and Admiral Jim Loy, the Commandant, readily acknowledges that immediate and significant changes are necessary if the Coast Guard of the future is to carry on the good work that the American public relies upon and continues to expect.
National Defense
By law, the Coast Guard is "a military service and a branch of the armed forces of the United States at all times." The Coast Guard maintains a high state of readiness to operate alongside and as a specialized service within the Navy, and the U.S. Atlantic and Pacific Maritime Defense Zones (Navy commands) are headed by Coast Guard Vice Admirals who are also the operational commanders of all Coast Guard forces in the field. Coast Guard Port Security Units (PSUs) are a critical part of the Harbor Defense Command within the Naval Coastal Warfare organization, which provides security for ships and waterfront facilities at U.S. and foreign ports designated by theater Commanders-in-Chief (CinCs). Manned by 140 reservists and 5 active duty personnel, each PSU has 6 armed 25-foot Boston Whaler boats, outfitted with two 175-hp engines. They provided port and waterside security in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia during Desert Shield and Storm, and have deployed to Korea, Turkey, Portugal, Panama, and Egypt for exercises in recent years.
The equivalent of two high-endurance cutters (WHECs) or medium-endurance (WMECs) cutters, one from each coast, is committed each year for operations under the command of theater CinCs. During 1999, the 378-foot USCGC Midgette (WHEC-726) participated as an integral component in the six-month deployment of the USS Constellation (CV-64) Battle Group. Cutters are routinely tasked with furthering U.S. national-security goals by visiting ports, and conducting exercises and professional military exchanges with navies and coast guards of many nations. In his Posture Statement, delivered before the Senate Armed Services Committee on 29 February 2000, U.S. Commander-in-Chief Europe, General Wesley Clark , stated, "The Coast Guard provides unique expertise in fields such as maritime border security and law enforcement, search and rescue, port safety, and marine environment protection. While I recognize the need for Coast Guard resources in the Western Hemisphere, much could be done to promote good relations and professionalize maritime services. . . .with increased Coast Guard support to our Theater."
International activity extends far beyond tasking by the CinCs. The Department of State funds a wide variety of activities aimed at strengthening the maritime capabilities of emerging nations and helping countries improve their humanitarian, law enforcement, safety, and environmental efforts. Most recently, five Coast Guardsmen were sent to Mozambique to coordinate boat Operations and multiunit/multinational rescue efforts as part of Operation Atlas Response. Coast Guard officers are assigned to embassies in the Bahamas, Barbados, Colombia, Dominican Republic, Haiti, Mexico, Panama, Trinidad and Tobago, and Venezuela. Several more are expected to be requested during the next few months.
One of the newest additions to peacetime engagement assets is the USCGC Gentian (WIX-290), a former 180-foot buoy tender, now operating as the Caribbean Support Tender (CST). The CST provides a mobile platform with on-board berthing, shops, tools and technicians for professional training, maintenance and logistical support for equipment and boats as she rotates visits to countries across the region. Funding for the operation of the CST and her missions comes from the Coast Guard, Department of State, and the U.S. Southern Command, as well as participating nations. Based in Miami, Florida, its permanent crew of 45 will be Coast Guard, along with representatives from Caribbean nations, providing a unique opportunity for members of the maritime community of the Caribbean region to serve together.
Law Enforcement
Of the several elements under the mantle of maritime law enforcement, perhaps none is more intricate than interdiction of illegal immigrants. Attempting to reach the United States and seeking the opportunity to participate in a free environment do not project the image of a criminal act.
Today, smuggling of illegal immigrants has become a lucrative undertaking. An administration policy dating from 1994 affords a permanent welcome to those whose feet actually touch the sand of a U.S. beach, but still requires the Coast Guard to stop—and return to the country of origin—those who are detected prior to that. That policy (dubbed "wetfoot/ dryfoot") created a very different law enforcement task. Gone are the days when those found quietly acquiesced and accepted the failure of their journey. Within sight of the beach, some will do whatever they can in order to not be taken into custody and returned home. Threats and actual attempts with lethal objects to injure Coast Guard personnel who are merely attempting to enforce the law are a recent phenomenon.
The vicissitudes of policy notwithstanding, the trend is unmistakable. More people, many from countries far from our shores, are trying to enter the United States without permission. In fiscal year 1999, 4,826 migrants were interdicted. During the first five months of fiscal year 2000, more than 1,700 were prevented from landing ashore. With a national policy which calls for interdiction as far from U.S. territory as possible, and the Coast Guard being the only federal agency with law enforcement jurisdiction in both U.S. waters and on the high seas, cutters have been dispatched far and wide in response to intelligence reports of ships suspected of smuggling migrants.
In January, the USCGC Munro (WHEC-724) intercepted the M/V Wing Fung Lung 200 miles west of Guatemala, with 244 Chinese migrants on board. The smuggler crew disabled the ship and set her afire, then attempted to seize a weapon from the officer they confronted in the boarding party. In March, the USCGC Thetis (WMEC -910) boarded a 110-foot fishing vessel 200 miles west of Ecuador with 250 U. S. -bound Ecuadorian migrants on board. The number of Chinese who pay huge sums of money, or agree to years of "slave" labor (or worse) in return for passage, grows each year.
A March-June 1999 surge in the number of migrants from the People's Republic of China was focused on the island of Guam, where U.S. laws are fully applicable. More than 20 vessels, each with 75-150 migrants on board, were interdicted. To augment the Coast Guard patrol boat and 50-year-old buoy tender, one medium-endurance cutter, one 225-foot buoy tender, a patrol boat and a C- 130 aircraft from Hawaii were sent to Guam during the May-September period. Migrants intercepted before reaching Guam were taken to the nearby Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, which is not subject to the same laws, for processing and eventual return to China. The number of attempts dropped dramatically. The deployment of those assets exacted a toll—the temporary loss of all oil spill clean-up capability in the Hawaiian area, cancellation of Coast Guard participation with 15 foreign nations in the Pacific Compass exercise, and a reduction of one-third in Western Pacific counter-drug forces.
The Coast Guard continues as lead agency for transit zone drug interdiction on the water, and shares that responsibility with the Customs Service for the air. The Department of Defense has the lead for detection and monitoring, but DoD aircraft and ship hours have been declining even as maritime smuggling has increased. The closing of Howard Air Force Base in Panama, and the subsequent denial of continued use of that facility for staging of surveillance aircraft, significantly reduced the aircraft time in the prime transit areas of the Caribbean Sea. Fewer Navy ships committed to carrying Coast Guard law-enforcement detachments are yet another reduction in assets available. At the same time, the Coast Guard is experiencing reduced readiness of its cutters and airplanes.
During fiscal year 1999, in its multiyear Steel Web campaign, the Coast Guard seized 112,000 pounds of cocaine and 61,500 pounds of marijuana in the six-million-square-mile maritime transit zone, which includes the Caribbean Sea, the Gulf of Mexico and the Eastern Pacific Ocean. Results from the first five months of fiscal year 2000 are on a track that will exceed those amounts. Noncommercial vessels (fishing boats, coastal freighters, and fast boats) carry as much as 80% of the drugs, and recent trends show a growth of drug trafficking in the waters of the Eastern Pacific Ocean off the coasts of southern California and Mexico.
The Steel Web strategy has been to "surge" assets to a particular transit area for a period, forcing smugglers to shift their routes, then retain a presence sufficient to deter immediate resumption when the surged forces are pulled back for rest and maintenance.
A major change in method of delivery on the water became evident several years ago with the advent of "go-fast" boats which are generally less than 40 feet in length, capable of carrying a ton of drugs as far as 700 miles at speeds up to 60 knots. Difficult to detect by sensors or visually, go-fast activity increased tenfold between 1995 and 1999, and constituted 85% of known events in 1998 and 1999. Despite intelligence cueing, which plays an important role in approximately 70% of total interdictions, surface assets could not match the speed and unarmed helicopters could maintain surveillance only for a short period before having to break off and refuel. Smugglers enjoyed a success rate of almost 90%.
Any serious attempt to stop the go-fasts would require a drastic change in capabilities. In a major departure from tradition, two leased helicopters were operated by Coast Guard pilots and crewmen trained in specific tactics using nonlethal weapons but also equipped and proficient in marksmanship with machine guns and .50 caliber sniper rifles for disabling engines.
Complementing this new capability, new high-speed boats were acquired to be forward deployed and supported by two former Military Sealift Command vessels. With seats for six, a weight of 18,000 pounds fully loaded, two Yanmar 420-hp diesel engines, a light machine gun mounted forward, and a top speed "in excess of 50 knots," the deployable pursuit boats are more than a match for their opponents.
Dubbed Operation New Frontier, the combination of armed helos and pursuit boats has been successful beyond all expectations. After honing their skills and proving their tactics with immediate results during daylight operations in the Caribbean Sea in late summer, 1999, Secretary of Transportation Rodney Slater and Admiral Loy announced the success of the new initiative at a press conference in Washington, D.C. in September. Since then, the tactics have been expanded to include night operations, with truly impressive results. By the latter part of March 2000, the tally read Coast Guard-6, druggies-0, with 6 boats, 3,000 pounds of cocaine and 11,710 pounds of marijuana seized. Having established a return on investment of more than ten to one (value of drugs seized vs. cost of the program) the Coast Guard has requested $17 million in their fiscal year 2001 budget to expand the capability and incorporate the operating costs in its counterdrug budget account.
Living Marine Resources
The 200-nautical-mile Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) contains one-fifth of the most productive marine areas of the world. One-third of federally managed fish stocks are considered overfished but the worldwide demand for fish protein is growing, so incursions into the U.S. EEZ by foreign fishing vessels will continue to increase. The Coast Guard is the only federal agency capable of enforcing national and international laws and agreements covering a wide range of marine life, including marine resources that migrate between EEZs and the high seas.
Under the 1995 Straddling Fish Stocks and Highly Migratory Fish Stocks Agreement, the Coast Guard is allowed to board foreign fishing vessels party to any mutual international agreements. The most resource-intensive area for enforcement is along the Russian/ U.S. EEZ border in the Bering Sea, far removed from support bases and notorious for bad weather and sea conditions. Last year, the number of incursions into the U.S. side by foreign fishing vessels increased to 90, from an annual average of 12, requiring two high-endurance cutters and daily C-130 aircraft flights during peak periods of activity. For the entire year, only half of the number of ships and aircraft required to adequately protect fishing areas and, even more important, to enforce our nation's sovereignty could be provided. A U.N. moratorium on large-scale high seas drift-net fishing remains in effect, but the number of known violators seeking salmon in the wide reaches of the North Pacific continues to grow. The diversion of a cutter to apprehend a violator observed by aircraft hundreds of miles from the EEZ will sometimes occupy several weeks time, far removed from patrol areas. Domestic areas must be patrolled to ensure compliance with myriad, often complex, regulations and restrictions, governing not only fish but numerous protected marine species, such as right whales, turtles, seals, manatees, and even coral reefs. Coast Guard personnel who board and inspect fishing vessels at sea must be properly trained and current in requirements and restrictions on fishing gear, as well as what and how much may be caught. In 1999, more than 2,600 attended courses at Coast Guard Regional Fisheries Training Centers and teams of trainers held sessions on board cutters in their home ports just prior to scheduled departures for patrol duties.
The grounding of the Exxon Valdez a little more than a decade ago triggered passage of the Oil Pollution Act of 1990, directing the Coast Guard to embark on far-reaching efforts to reduce the amount of oil discharged into the water and mitigate the effect of any spilled. The results have been dramatic: a reduction from 6.4 gallons to 1.4 gallons of oil spilled per million gallons of oil shipped. While most of the oil spilled on the water is the result of inadvertent actions during normal transportation or transfer operations, there have been instances where discharge of pollutants was intentional or perpetrators disclaimed responsibility. In such cases, the Coast Guard becomes a sleuth, documenting the extent and determining the origin of the spills. The owners of the tanker vessel Command paid fines totaling $9.4 million for a spill of 3,000 gallons off the California coastline last year. In a landmark case covering multiple intentional discharges of oily water, dry cleaning fluids and other solvents by eight Royal Caribbean cruise ships—beginning with a discharge at sea in 1994 that was videotaped by a Coast Guard aircraft—Royal Caribbean Cruises, Ltd. agreed to pay a total of $27 million in fines for polluting waters from Alaska to the U.S. Virgin Islands. A recent Government Accounting Office report credits the cruise industry for having a stronger commitment to pollution abatement.
Maritime Safety
Commercial fishing continues as the most hazardous of occupations in the United States despite ongoing efforts by the Coast Guard to reduce the number of sinkings and improve the survival rate of the crewmembers of boats lost or abandoned at sea. On 27 January 1999, a Fishing Vessel Casualty Task Force was chartered to "perform a fast-track examination of commercial fishing industry operational and safety issues that may have contributed" to the December-January loss of 19 fishermen in ten boats that sank off the East Coast. The report, ominously titled Dying to Fish, concluded that while most casualties are preventable, safety standards are low—to the point "where a lax approach to vessel condition, operator knowledge, and other safety factors has defined the industry standard"—and that the rash of tragic accidents and deaths was "indicative of historic casualty types and rates." Unfortunately, the Coast Guard lacks authority to conduct safety inspections of vessels and equipment dockside, there are no mandatory standards of competency for operators of fishing vessels less than 200 gross tons (the overwhelming percentage), and there is a long record of objection by the fishermen and their elected representatives to any changes.
The Coast Guard is called to assist fishing vessels roughly 3,000 times each year, with an estimated cost of $21 million dollars. Both Coast Guard Area Commanders have ordered new initiatives to improve safety by increasing outreach to the fishing community, numbering 110,000 vessels, by emphasizing the value of voluntary safety inspections at the dock, and by boarding identified high-risk vessels at sea (authority the Coast Guard does have) and terminating the voyage of those considered unsafe because of material condition or inadequate safety equipment for the crew.
Recreational boating is one of the most popular—and growing—avocations of the American people. An aggressive program of education in safe boat operation and voluntary inspections for safety equipment, by Coast Guard Auxiliary and U.S. Power Squadron members, helps to reduce accidents and resultant injuries or loss of life. Although comprising only 12% of the more than 16 million boats operating in coastal and inland waterways, personal watercraft were involved in 40% of accidents in 1999. In response to some persistent prodding by the Coast Guard, manufacturers have voluntarily agreed to limit the speed of their future models to 65 mph and several design changes to improve handling characteristics have been identified.
Not-So-Typical Days
Best known for its rapid response and stellar performance to those in peril on the sea, the Coast Guard answered the call more than 50,000 times in the coastal zone and saved more than 4,000 lives. When Hurricane Floyd ravaged the East Coast in September, the huge areas of devastation overwhelmed the capabilities of the U.S. Air Force, responsible for inland search and rescue. For two days, Coast Guard Air Station Elizabeth City, North Carolina, took charge and coordinated the rescue-and-assistance efforts in the vicinity of Tarboro, North Carolina. Additional aircraft from seven Coast Guard air stations and 12 DoD activities saved or assisted more than 2,000 people. Coast Guard HC-130 aircraft overhead provided on-scene direction to as many as 25 aircraft conducting rescue or relief missions and more than 400 people were hoisted by Coast Guard helicopters from positions of immediate danger. On a much less gratifying note, Coast Guard surface and air units were first on scene at the widely publicized crashes of airplanes at sea: John F. Kennedy, Jr., near Martha's Vineyard and Alaska Airlines Flight 261, off the California coast.
Personnel Issues
To the American public, it may seem that the Coast Guard is always there when needed. The ranks and rates, however, know that on more and more occasions the Coast Guard is almost always ready. On rare occasions, but more frequently than the old hands recall, it is actually not ready. There are several bright spots, but the overall situation is far from good and the fixes are going to be neither quick nor easy.
There are not enough people to do all the work. The Coast Guard reduced its force, military and civilian, by more than 5,000 people during 1994-98, to the same level that existed in 1967. Whether called "rightsizing" or "downsizing" the impact on the workforce was extreme. No tasks were eliminated, no missions were reduced, and the cumulative $400 million cuts in annual operating funds worsened an untenable situation.
For most of its history, recruiting had been a non-problem for the Coast Guard, but in these times of high economic growth with low unemployment, an overhaul of the recruiting system was required. Recruiters were doubled in number, and for the first time, ten Coast Reserve recruiters added to the program. In only one year, the results have been amazing. The shortage of enlisted personnel, more than 1,000 below the 35,000 authorized level 18 months ago, has been reduced by more than half and is expected to be eliminated by the end of fiscal year 2000. Reenlistment of first-termers is higher than 50%, but in some seagoing rates lower than desired. Officer recruitment has become more difficult. For the first time, Aviation Career Continuation Pay has been offered to fixedwing pilots, mitigating but not eliminating the shortage of aircraft commanders. The Coast Reserve component, marking its 59th anniversary in February, is totally integrated into active duty units, and provided more than 119,000 days' augmentation in fiscal year 1999. Aggressive recruiting resulted in reaching its authorized level of 8,000 in August 1999, but the fiscal year 2000 budget only provided funding for 7,400.
Personnel costs account for two-thirds of the operating costs, and reduction of those costs has been the primary expectation in every recapitalization program. Replacement of the buoy-tender fleet is well under way, and much has been made of the savings anticipated through reduction of both the number of ships and the size of each crew. While the performance of both the seagoing and coastal tenders has proven their design, the crews are not sufficiently sized to maintain the optempo associated with their missions of aids to navigation, search and rescue, domestic ice operations, marine environmental protection, and law enforcement—and still conduct much of the required routine maintenance of the ship.
Hands-on operating experience quickly highlighted the result of a perhaps too-zealous implementation of a mandate to reduce manning. A just-concluded study verified the need for additional workforce and has recommended expansion of the existing shore-based Maintenance Augmentation Team to become a Cutter Support Team. The team is envisioned as a department of the ship, albeit shorebased, under direction of the tender's commanding officer, and its members would rotate for duty at sea and for watch standing in port during a five-year tour.
Readiness, in every aspect of the term, has declined throughout the service. Fixed-wing aircraft availability has decreased from traditional levels of near 80% to less than 60%, for both HC-130 and HU-25 types, at the same time deployments of both fixed- and rotarywing crews have increased by more than half. Major cutters and small boats, alike, suffer from a shortage of spare parts and a lower experience level of maintenance personnel. As platforms grow older, more of the budget goes to repairs, and more is asked of the work force in order to meet established goals and schedules. The Coast Guard's most overlooked community has traditionally been the small boat stations. High turnover of personnel has drastically reduced the level of experience, and 50% of the service's most demanding billets (surfman) are vacant or filled with less-qualified coxswains. A recently chartered Project Kimball will "identify the issues and problems affecting mission performance, develop solutions, and effect beneficial changes."
Recapitalization is going well in several areas, including the aforementioned buoy tender program, the 47-foot motor life boats, and 87-foot coastal patrol boats. The new icebreaker Healy (WAGB-20) is conducting at-sea trials. Funding for the long-awaited replacement for the Great Lakes icebreaker Mackinaw (WAGB-83) is in the fiscal year 2001 budget. The National Distress Reporting System Modernization Project is proceeding on schedule and interim improvements at selected units have been made. The Coast Guard takes justifiable pride in being an excellent steward of our nation's resources. Indeed, a recent report by the Government Performance Project rated the organization highest (four As and one B) among 20 federal agencies evaluated. There is a strong commitment to strategic planning and the use of business plans.
Master Chief Petty Officer of the Coast Guard Vince Patton, asked to describe the feelings of those he so capably represents, said "I think the pulse of the enlisted personnel right now is mixed." He points out that, in the eyes of the junior enlisted, the Commandant has "opened up the blinds" in making the true situation known to all who will listen, and they have great confidence that he has their best interests at heart. "When we get requests, from junior petty officers, for copies of the Strategic Plan, you know they are interested," he said.
Readiness and the Future
Restoring readiness will require improvement to conditions which are in many ways a result of the "uniqueness" of the service. The Coast Guard is a military service, but not in the Department of Defense, a situation that sometimes results in great frustration, because the living and working conditions for the average Coastie may be very different from those in the other four services. There is a great deal of difference between living in government quarters on a large military base in a low-cost area with medical and other support facilities readily available at no charge to the user, compared to living "on the economy" in high-cost areas, having to fend for oneself using programs ill-designed for that scenario. The Coast Guard remains far behind in quality-oflife issues such as support for child care, housing, medical, tuition assistance, and bonuses. Fully funding personnel costs to parity with their DoD military brethren would go a long way toward better retention of the Coast Guard active duty workforce and certainly make recruiting easier.
The unique authority to enforce U.S. laws is exercised with great discretion and effectiveness by Coast Guard personnel. The Department of Justice, however, is neither a provider nor a contributor to the consideration of funding for Coast Guard law enforcement activity. The Commandant recently imposed a reduction in "non-emergency cutter and aircraft deployment schedules" in recognition of the lowered state of readiness and the need to reduce the burden that had been unfairly placed on the backs of the men and women in uniform. The decision came hard and he conceded that "it marks a cultural shift in the Coast Guard—a willingness to admit there are limits on what we can accomplish, and a new awareness that the short-term pride in doing more with less comes at a price we shouldn't always be willing to pay." The reduction must be taken in order to achieve and sustain sufficient readiness to respond to search and rescue emergencies, but the reduction in Coast Guard presence on the high seas will undoubtedly mean more illegal drugs will not stopped, more illegal migrants will reach our shores, and more foreign fishing vessels will harvest our marine resources.
Improving readiness is primarily a piece-by-piece process. Shaping the future is entirely different. It would be difficult to find a critic of what the multimission Coast Guard does, and the recently released report of the Interagency Task Force on U.S. Coast Guard Roles and Missions, titled "A Coast Guard for the Twenty-First Century" provides a resounding accolade. The task force was established by Presidential Executive Order and directed special attention to the deep-water missions which take place beyond the coastal zone—more than 50 miles from shore. The major cutters and aviation assets conducting those missions are old—compared with similar maritime services around the world, the Coast Guard ranks 39th of 4L The anticipated cost for replacement of whatever assets are needed is well above the level of acquisition funding the Coast Guard has received over the past decade. The Coast Guard has begun the replacement process, called the Integrated Deepwater System. Three consortiums have presented conceptual designs and are now working on functional designs for the "system of systems" that will best meet future requirements.
The need for continued services is irrefutable. The aging fleet of ships and aircraft is obvious. The actions taken by the Coast Guard to begin the process for acquisition of appropriate Deepwater capabilities, for the anticipated missions in the year 2020 and beyond, have been verified by an independent task force, and accorded "reinvention laboratory" status by the administration. Shaping the future of the Coast Guard would seem to be a matter of Admiral Loy informing the American people, and their elected officials, of the state of affairs, emphasizing the past record of stewardship and the continuing return on investment of the nation's oldest continuous seagoing service. The Coast Guard will hopefully forever be comprised of men and women who know only one degree of readiness: Semper Paratus.
Before retiring in 1991, Admiral Thorsen was Commander, Coast Guard Atlantic Area, and Commander, U.S. Maritime Defense Zone Atlantic. He is a consultant, serves on the boards of several business and nonprofit organizations, and is a Senior Fellow at the Center for Naval Analyses.