In 2011 the U.S. Coast Guard continued its mission by responding to devastating hurricanes, floods, and droughts; interdicting maritime threats to our nation; supporting defense operations around the world; and seeking solutions to its expanding responsibilities in the Arctic.
Recapitalizing the Fleet
This year the service decommissioned two of its Hamilton-class high-endurance cutters and accepted its third national security cutter (NSC), the USCGC Stratton (WMSL-752), into in commission, special. With their improved all-weather capability and sophisticated command-and-control systems, these 418-foot NSCs bring significant new capabilities to the Coast Guard. The Stratton was commissioned on 31 March 2012.
The Coast Guard’s first three fast-response cutters (FRCs) were launched in 2011. Designed to replace the service’s aging fleet of 110-foot patrol boats, the first of this class of 154-foot patrol boats, the USCGC Bernard C. Webber (WPC-1101) got under way in November for builder trials; initial reviews have been very positive. Capable of 28-plus knots and multi-day endurance and armed with stabilized remotely operated 25-mm chain guns, the FRCs will significantly improve the service’s littoral response and security capabilities. The service plans to build 58 FRCs. The first six will be homeported in Miami.
While the NSCs and FRCs represent two poles of the Coast Guard’s offshore fleet requirements, the middle is under development. Well over half of the service’s medium-endurance cutters have been in operation for more than 40 years and also must be replaced. Their successor, the maritime security cutter, medium, also known as the offshore patrol cutter, is moving toward a request for proposals. Having the right mix of high-, medium-, and low-endurance cutters allows the Coast Guard to operate as economically as possible, applying the right capability to the right mission without losing effectiveness.
The Arctic
The discussion of fleet recapitalization comes in the context of the Coast Guard’s ever-increasing mission demands, most notably in the Arctic. With the receding icecap increasing maritime activity there, the service continues to expand its collective presence and operations. Operation Arctic Shield, a series of exercises intended to test the capabilities of Coast Guard ships, boats, and aircraft in the region, led the list of activities conducted by the service’s units with federal, state, and local partners. More than 250 Coast Guard members deployed to support the operation from April through September.
The USCGC Healy (WAGB-20), one of the nation’s three polar icebreakers, completed a seven-month western Alaska patrol performing continental-shelf surveys with the Canadian coast guard ship Louis S. St. Laurent. The event that drew the most attention during her deployment was the rescue mission the Healy and the Russian ice-capable tanker Renda completed, delivering 1.5 million gallons of fuel to Nome, Alaska. The city was forecast to run dangerously low on fuel oil as severe winter conditions had halted normal supply-chain systems. By the time the Healy returned to her homeport of Seattle, she had been on patrol for 254 days.
The Healy’s unusually long patrol was necessary because the only other two polar-capable icebreakers, the Polar Star and Polar Sea, remain nonoperational. The Polar Star is undergoing a major overhaul and is scheduled to have her first patrol in January 2014. The Polar Sea is set to be decommissioned in Fiscal Year 2012. An analysis of high-latitude missions by the Coast Guard found that the service requires three heavy and three medium icebreakers.
Disaster Response
In the Midwest, record-level rainfall from two major storms combined with snowmelt to create some of the worst flooding along the Mississippi River in 100 years. The flooding required the Coast Guard to control river traffic and rescue citizens. Working with the Army Corps of Engineers, Coast Guard District Eight in New Orleans and its many sectors along the western rivers orchestrated a delicate balance between safety and sustaining the flow of vital commerce through a series of waterway closures. At the same time, disaster-area response teams, along with other Coast Guard units and state and local responders, worked around the clock to save those caught by the flooding rivers. By early May 2011 the teams had rescued 22 people.
In August Hurricane Irene made landfall in North Carolina, ravaging more than 1,000 miles of U.S. coastline all the way to New England. Coast Guard Atlantic Area, along with District Five co-located in Portsmouth, Virginia, and District One in Boston, not only felt the force of the storm, they coordinated the maritime response across a ten-state region. A key task was to lead the federal search-and-rescue response under the National Response Framework (Emergency Support Function–9). The service also conducted damage-assessment flights and restored aids to navigation to re-open the many vital commercial and military ports along the East Coast.
In October, the nearly 1,500 people of Tokelau, a territory of New Zealand located in the South Pacific, were in desperate need of drinking water because of a severe drought. The New Zealand government requested U.S. assistance. The Coast Guard’s 225-foot buoy tender Walnut averted a potential disaster by transiting 350 miles from American Samoa to bring 36,000 gallons of water to Tokelau with a seven-person New Zealand assessment team.
Search and Rescue
Search-and-rescue operations have been the cornerstone of the service, which saved 3,804 lives in FY11 alone. The first case in 2011 drew the public praise of Bahamian Prime Minister Hubert Alexander Ingraham, who thanked the Coast Guard for a successful nighttime rescue of the nine crewmembers and nine passengers, including one child, from the 150-foot mail boat Legacy, which had run aground in rough seas. A Coast Guard helicopter from Operation Bahamas, Turks and Caicos, located on Andros Island, led the rescue.
In the Pacific, the case that received perhaps the most press attention in the United States was the rescue of the pilot of a private aircraft forced to ditch off Hawaii. The twin-engine Cessna was traveling from California to Hawaii when it ran out of fuel 13 miles from the Hawaiian coast. Coast Guard Air Station Barbers Point launched two helicopters to assist. The first aircrew instructed the pilot on how to make an emergency water landing and guided him in. The second helicopter positioned itself near the projected landing site to speed the recovery of the pilot, who survived with only minor injuries.
The Great Lakes region is not often considered when it comes to Coast Guard search and rescue. But it is served by the Coast Guard’s Ninth District and has one of the nation’s largest recreational boating populations and thriving maritime commercial activities. The apex of the district’s search-and-rescue season is the Fourth of July weekend. During that weekend in 2011, multiple service assets and members of the Coast Guard Auxiliary saved 16 lives, assisted 379 people, saved or protected $2.9 million worth of property, and conducted 591 vessel-safety boardings.
Maritime Security
Coast Guard maritime-security operations continued to occupy many of the service’s resource hours. In Fiscal Year 2011, the Coast Guard conducted 10,735 small-vessel security boardings, escorted 2,515 high-capacity passenger vessels, and screened nearly 29 million crewmembers and passengers prior to their arrival in U.S. ports. From the screenings, more than 275 individuals associated with terrorism or criminal activity were identified for additional vetting. The service continued to conduct other routine security operations such as port-security patrols, escorting high-value Navy assets and vessels carrying hazardous cargo through population centers, and conducting security inspections of maritime facilities in the United States and overseas.
Counterdrug Mission
The pace of counterdrug operations continued to increase in both the eastern Pacific and the Caribbean. Coast Guard forces interdicted a total of 102.5 tons of narcotics during FY 2011.
One measure of the pace of counterdrug operations is the milestone achieved by Coast Guard Helicopter Interdiction Tactical Squadron Jacksonville, Florida (HITRON). In December, HITRON, the “force from above,” passed the $10 billion mark in illegal narcotics interdictions. Marksmen from HITRON helicopters employ disabling fire to halt go-fast boats that would otherwise outrun pursuing Coast Guard surface assets. HITRON aircraft have done this 209 times in their first 13 years of operation to support the counterdrug mission, preventing more than $10 billion in illegal drugs from reaching the United States.
Another sign of the expanding drug threat was the first interdiction of a self-propelled semi-submersible (SPSS) in the Caribbean by the USCGC Seneca (WMEC-906). In August, a Customs and Border Protection aircraft spotted the SPSS off the coast of Honduras. A Coast Guard helicopter and pursuit boat from the Seneca intercepted it. The SPSS crew scuttled the craft, but not before the Coast Guard recovered a quantity of cocaine. In July an FBI dive team operating from the USCGC Oak (WLB-211), with support from the Honduran navy, found the sunken vessel and recovered 7.5 tons of cocaine worth more than $180 million.
The Seneca’s SPSS interdiction was the first of three in the Caribbean over a six-week period. The USCGC Mohawk (WMEC-913) accomplished the other two. The Mohawk seized 16 tons of cocaine with a street value of $480 million, detained eight suspects, and was the first to fire warning shots against an SPSS. On the more traditional side, the USCGC Gallatin (WHEC-721) interdicted four vessels and disrupted another smuggling operation, seizing more than 5.5 tons of cocaine and marijuana (with a street value of $100 million) while detaining 25 suspects during a single patrol in the Caribbean.
Counterdrug operations were equally busy in the eastern Pacific. In November the service interdicted more than a ton of cocaine and arrested 12 suspects during three separate missions. The USCGC Bertholf (WMSL-750) and Boutwell (WHEC-719) were both successful. Off the coast of Panama, the Bertholf intercepted a go-fast, netting two bales of cocaine and three suspects who were turned over to the National Air Service of Panama, the country’s maritime service. Two days later, the Bertholf recovered cocaine jettisoned from a speedboat they were pursuing. Not to be outdone, the 42-year-old Boutwell intercepted the fishing vessel El Soberano, which was towing another vessel approximately 230 miles west of Ecuador. The Boutwell’s boarding team found 40 bales of cocaine weighing more than a ton and detained nine individuals on board the two vessels.
The USCGC Waesche (WMSL-751) was equally successful in intercepting two drug-smuggling vessels in a 48-hour period. The first interdiction occurred when the cutter’s embarked helicopter spotted the fishing vessel Miss Jacky about 300 miles southeast of Puntarenas, Costa Rica. When the helicopter arrived, the fishing vessel crew began jettisoning bales. A boat from the Waesche recovered more than one-half ton of cocaine, and the five crewmembers were transferred to Costa Rican authorities. Only 24 hours earlier the Waesche had intercepted another vessel carrying cocaine, but the details have not been released for security reasons.
The Seattle-based USCGC Midgett (WHEC-726) rounded out the year intercepting an SPSS 335 miles off of Costa Rica. No movement was at first observed. A boat from the Midgett came alongside and tried by various means to communicate for more than three hours, without response. As night fell, a hatch on the vessel opened and a member of the crew emerged. Eventually, the boarding team was able to persuade three other crewmembers to come out as well. When the boarding team entered the vessel it found 300 bales of cocaine weighing more than 6.5 tons.
Migrant Interdiction
The service also continued to prevent immigrants from entering the country illegally. In FY 2011 Coast Guard crews intercepted 2,474 migrants. The mission this year was more demanding because of an increase in the number of Cubans seeking to enter the United States illegally. As the newspaper El Nuevo Herald reported, 1,700 Cubans attempted to reach this country in 2011, reversing a three-year downward trend. Of these, 1,000 were intercepted at sea.
In another instance, in May the medium-endurance cutter USCGC Vigilant (WMEC-617) intercepted two Haitian sail freighters and one motor vessel carrying 38, 114, and 37 migrants, respectively, attempting to enter the United States illegally. After stopping the vessels from proceeding toward national borders, Vigilant safely transferred all 189 migrants, including 20 children and 29 women, to the cutter, where crew members provided food, water, shelter, and medical care. Based on each of the vessels’ poor seaworthiness and deteriorating weather conditions, it was doubtful the passengers would have safely completed their intended voyages. The migrants were eventually repatriated to Haiti.
Supporting Defense Missions
The Coast Guard continued to provide specialized support to each of the geographic combatant commanders. While support to U.S. Central, Africa, Pacific, and European commands are highlighted here, the most active partnerships are with U.S. Northern and Southern commands (see sidebar, page 94).
U.S. Central Command. Coast Guard Patrol Forces Southwest Asia (PATFORSWA), as Commander Task Group 55.1, is responsible to Commander, U.S. Naval Forces Central Command/Commander, 5th Fleet for maritime infrastructure protection and interception and security operations. Their principal focus is to protect two Iraqi oil platforms in the northern Persian Gulf. The Middle East training team provides recurring training for PATFORSWA members but also supports theater-security cooperation efforts, providing professional engagements with personnel from regional navies and coast guards.
Two Coast Guard deployable operations group advanced interdiction teams supported Commander Task Force 150 and 151, conducting counterpiracy operations. Another deployable operations group force in theater unattached to PATFORSWA was Port Security Unit 307 out of Tampa, Florida. The team was embedded with the Maritime Expeditionary Security Squadron of Commander Task Force 56 conducting port-security operations in Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates. The Coast Guard’s redeployment assistance inspection detachment deployed forces in various locations in Kuwait, Iraq, and Afghanistan assisting DOD units with the safe redeployment of hazardous materials and customs support.
U.S. Africa Command. The USCGC Forward (WMEC-911) completed a three-and-a-half month deployment to West Africa to support Africa Command’s maritime law-enforcement partnership program. The Forward conducted training and maritime operations with naval forces from Cape Verde, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Liberia, and Gambia. With teams from those countries on board, the Forward conducted 19 maritime law-enforcement boardings resulting in the seizure of 10 vessels and 75 tons of fish and issued 30 citations totaling $450,000. The Forward’s crew also provided 550 hours of community service, refurbishing schools and a hospital. Eleven Coast Guard auxiliarists visited five countries to provide linguistic and training support for Africa Partnership Station.
U.S. Pacific Command. The service’s participation in joint planning and exercise engagements with Pacific Command resulted in the first Coast Guard appendix to a U.S. 7th Fleet operations plan. Coast Guard Senior Reserve Rear Admiral John Welch led an 11-member team that participated in the joint U.S. and Republic of Korea exercise, Ulchi Freedom Guardian, which simulated the deployment of Coast Guard cutters, patrol craft, and port-security units. Coast Guard Pacific Area also conducted real-time planning with Pacific Command in tracking the high-interest vessel MV Sun Sea as it approached the United States. Finally, the service supported Pacific Command’s Joint Task Force 519 for Operation Tomodachi, the U.S. response to the earthquake and tsunami that devastated Japan.
U.S. European Command. The service provided a search-and-rescue expert to support exercise Arctic Zephyr, which explores the effects of climate change and increased activity in the Arctic and seeks to strengthen relationships with Arctic nations. Search-and-rescue provides a nonthreatening platform to explore such issues.
Marine Safety and Environmental Protection
The Coast Guard responded to the 431-foot barge Davy Crockett, which had been abandoned on the banks of the Columbia River in Washington state. Over a ten-month period the service worked with state and local responders to remove more than 2,000 tons of steel, 40,000 gallons of oil, and 4,850 pounds of asbestos. The effort cost more than $20 million to complete.
While public attention to the crisis has diminished, the Coast Guard continued to manage the response to the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. By late 2011 the service still had 102 men and women coordinating the shoreline cleanup. But this highlights the problem of how to determine when a response has transitioned to remediation and when leadership should be handed over to the Environmental Protection Agency or other appropriate agency.
Deepwater Horizon also has drawn much attention to how the service would respond to a similar spill from rigs planned in the waters off Cuba. The potential threat extends well beyond the Florida coast and is gaining the consideration of federal and state leaders at all levels. It is expected that the Spanish oil company Repsol YPF, S.A., will begin drilling this year in Cuban waters.
In 2011 the Coast Guard continued its environmental mission by protecting valuable and vulnerable fisheries from illegal activity by domestic and foreign poachers. Coast Guard districts One and Five conducted a joint operation in the mid-Atlantic region with the Maritime Intelligence Fusion Center Atlantic and the National Marine Fishery Service to counter illegal scallop fishing in the Hudson Canyon Closed Area. By monitoring fishing activity, the joint team was aware that fishing vessels were realizing poor catches while scalloping inside the Elephant Trunk Access Area. Suspicions were raised when some vessels returned with large catches after allegedly fishing there. The team used a Coast Guard HC-130J to identify and compile evidence against three ships operating illegally.
This case highlights a new operational and tactical intelligence-driven enforcement system the Coast Guard and its partner agencies are using to improve identification of fishing vessels with a higher risk of engaging in unsafe or illegal operations. The system ensures a more effective use of enforcement assets that minimizes boardings on fishing vessels operating properly.
Coast Guard living marine resources operations also extend beyond our exclusive economic zone to enforce international law designed to protect migratory fish such as tuna. In FY 2011, the service conducted 102 boardings of foreign fishing vessels. In a 2011 case the Coast Guard seized the 140-foot fishing vessel Bangun Perkasa 2,600 miles southwest of Kodiak, Alaska, for illegal high-seas drift-net fishing. Japanese authorities had observed the vessel using drift nets and alerted the Coast Guard, which diverted the USCGC Munro (WHEC-724).When the Munro arrived on scene her crew observed the Bangun Perkasa using a drift net that exceeded three miles in length. After boarding the vessel they discovered more than ten miles of drift nets on board. The vessel was ultimately determined to be stateless and was seized.
The use of drift nets is particularly harmful to the tuna population, which is vital to the very survival of many smaller Pacific nations. The importance of this fishery is reflected in the extensive international cooperation that has matured over the years to defend it—as the Bangun Perkasa case demonstrates.
Other 2011 News
• High above Earth in the International Space Station retired U.S. Coast Guard Captain Dan Burbank sent holiday greetings on YouTube. A career Coast Guard aviator, Burbank is commander of Expedition 30 and the service’s second astronaut.
• The USCGC Alder (WLB-216) assumed duties as the service’s Christmas tree ship, and delivered 1,200 trees to underprivileged families from Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan, to Chicago—a Coast Guard tradition since 1912.
• Petty Officer Second Class Leon Doniphan, assigned to the USCGC Alert (WMEC-630), was headed home from the ship on 10 September 2011 when he was made aware that a young girl was in danger of drowning under a navigation buoy in the Columbia River near Astoria, Oregon. While others watched from shore, Doniphan dove into the water, swam 40 feet to the young girl, placed her on his back, and successfully swam to shore against a strong current that threatened to drag them under the buoy.
• Coast Guard Sector Guam continued its tradition of support for the village of Merizo, donating more than 300 Christmas gifts as part of the Sister Village program.
For decades the Coast Guard’s infrastructure has been permitted to decay while the mission demands on the service have continued to increase. Only now is it receiving some relief as new boats, cutters, and aircraft replace some of the most ancient in the fleet. Still, much infrastructure remains in disrepair. Meanwhile, those whom the service regulates or combats are outpacing it by using emerging technology, increasing the capability gap. With significant budget cuts on the horizon, senior leadership will have to make careful choices, or that gap will widen at an even faster rate.
Dr. DiRenzo and Mr. Doane are retired Coast Guard officers, lecture at the Joint Forces Staff College, and are frequent contributors to Proceedings. Dr. DiRenzo also teaches at American Military University in that school’s graduate intelligence studies program.
Coast Guard Defense Partnerships in the Western Hemisphere
While the Coast Guard continues to provide active support to each of the combatant commanders, the service’s fullest partnerships exist with U.S. Northern and Southern commands. The closeness of these partnerships is driven by a host of overlapping missions. Three of the most prominent are homeland security and defense, counterdrug and defense support to civil authorities, and theater-security cooperation. To achieve the most effective and efficient execution of these missions requires a high degree of mutual support between the Coast Guard and the two geographic combatant commanders.
U.S. Northern Command
The Coast Guard’s partnership with Northern Command is founded on the concurrent missions of maritime homeland security and homeland defense. Effective execution of these missions requires synchronization to ensure effective interoperability and the most efficient employment of limited resources. To that end, the two Coast Guard area commanders also serve as Commander, Defense Forces East and West, respectively. In addition, the Northern Command staff has the largest contingent of assigned Coast Guard personnel among the combatant commanders. With significant budget cuts to both the Department of Defense and the Department of Homeland Security on the horizon and new missions in the Arctic, this partnership will become even closer, requiring greater efficiencies through merging overlapping capabilities.
U.S. Southern Command
The relationship between the Coast Guard and U.S. Southern Command is symbolized by the assignment of both a Coast Guard two-star admiral as Southern Command’s J3 and in Southern Command’s counterdrug Joint Interagency Task Force (JIATF) South, where a Coast Guard two-star also commands. Using Coast Guard, Customs and Border Protection, and DOD assets, JIATF South detects and tracks drug smugglers originating in South America—a vital capability for initiating the interdiction of these smugglers by the United States or partner-nation law enforcement.
Theater-security cooperation is a second major area of mutual support between the Coast Guard and Southern Command. A great example of this partnership was the multinational training exercise Trade Winds 11, which involved several Caribbean nations. The USCGC Diligence (WMEC-616) led the afloat training while members from a variety of the service commands and 25 members of the Coast Guard auxiliary provided small-boat training. This marked the largest international deployment by the auxiliary in its history.