The U.S. Coast Guard in 1990

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By Captain Lawson W. Brigham, U.S. Coast Guard

The year 1990 was special and full of challenges for one of the nation’s oldest ^ar|d most respected federal agencies. It ^was a special time because of the celebra- hons surrounding the Coast Guard’s bi­centennial, marking two centuries of ser- ^v>ce dating back to 4 August 1790 when Congress authorized a fleet of revenue cutters, forerunners of today’s Coast Guard. It was also a year of transition as a ^new leader, Admiral J. William Kime, look the helm as the Coast Guard’s 19th Commandant.

During 1990, the Coast Guard again demonstrated its multimission character, responsiveness, and flexibility, traits

In addition, the nation’s leadership quickly recognized the special national security role of the Coast Guard: its abil­ity to respond to Desert Shield and Desert Storm requirements for enhanced security in U.S. and Persian Gulf ports, and to the critical need for experienced boarding personnel for the naval embargo of Iraq.

In many respects, the Coast Guard’s annual budget process, although always spirited, was less intense and protracted compared with recent years. Perhaps this reflects a renewed appreciation in the Congress and the Office of Management and Budget for the Coast Guard’s major contributions to the nation’s well-being, particularly in the areas of maritime

The Year in Statistics

Each year the Coast Guard compiles key statistics for its major operating pro­grams, primarily for use in the budget process. However, these data also pro­vide a glimpse into the extraordinary range of functions that the service per­forms for the nation. For fiscal year 1990, the following accomplishments are significant:

► Search and Rescue: The Coast Guard logged 63,392 cases and conducted 82,400 sorties; it saved 3,900 lives, ren­dered assistance to 122,000 persons in distress, saved $1.1 billion in property, and assisted in protecting $2.15 billion

USCG

acknowledged by most as its key strengths. Wearing one hat, the service is Ihe nation’s primary maritime law en­forcement agency; in 1990, it kept pres­sure on drug smugglers through an in­tense air/sea interdiction effort Principally in the Caribbean, and it en­forced a multitude of fisheries laws throughout the huge U.S. exclusive eco­nomic zone. The Coast Guard is also the nation’s leading maritime safety and ma- ^r|ne environmental protection organiza­tion—amply illustrated by its efforts to implement the Oil Pollution Act of 1990, the reopening of Vessel Traffic Service New York, its response to major spills in the Northeast, southern California, and the Gulf of Mexico, and its continued coordination (as federal on-scene coordi­nator) of the summer 1990 cleanup effort tn the wake of the Exxon Valdez oil spill.

safety and environmental protection. Sig­nificantly, in 1990, appropriations from earlier years for new hardware continued to bear fruit: The last of 13 270-foot Fa­mous-class cutters, USCGC Mohawk (WMEC-913), was delivered. Major upgrades to the 378-foot high-endurance cutters and the 210-foot medium-endur­ance cutters progressed smoothly. The initial HH-60 Jayhawk helicopters (a fleet of 32 is planned) were delivered to Avia­tion Training Center Mobile for training and evaluation. A prototype 47-foot motor lifeboat was extensively tested during the year (See “New Lifeboat Goes on Sea Trials,” pages 105-107, April 1991 Proceedings). The service also con­tinued to press vigorously for new oil spill response equipment, a modem fleet of seagoing and coastal buoy tenders, and a third polar icebreaker.

While maintaining its role in drug interdiction, the Coast Guard responded to Desert Shield/Storm requirements for port security (here, patrolling near a prepositioning ship in Bahrain) and experienced board­ing parties (a LEDET Team prepares to board the Iraqi ship Zanoobia).

worth of property.

• Aids to Navigation: Coast Guard per­sonnel maintained 15,660 federal floating aids and 19,540 federal fixed aids; the service also authorized 44,600 private aids. Vessel traffic services accounted for 580,200 ship transits. And the Coast Guard issued permits and regulations for 136 bridges.
• Marine Inspection and Licensing: The Coast Guard inspected an estimated

31,000 U.S.- and 2,800 foreign-flag commercial vessels; it conducted 9,600 marine investigations of casualties, is­sued an estimated 26,000 licenses to Merchant Marine officers, and issued an estimated 25,000 seamen’s documents.

► Recreational Boating Safety: Coast Guard personnel conducted 2,100 factory visits and inspections; the Coast Guard Auxiliary enrolled 335,034 people in its boating education courses and conducted 278,706 courtesy marine examinations.

► Marine Environmental Response: Coast Guard personnel investigated 8,485 oil spills and 285 hazardous chemi­cal spills; the service monitored the cleanup of 1,900 oil and 121 chemical spills by various responsible parties; it

‘Not Your Typical Young Crowd’

Back in the United States, a four-year-old girl knew only that her grandmother had moved to a new home.

She was too young to understand that Grandma was manning a .50-caliber machine gun in her new “home,” a high-speed U.S. Coast Guard patrol boat skimming the water of the Persian Gulf port of Dammam, Saudi Arabia, on the lookout for terrorists.

“I called her on the telephone,” said Petty Officer 1st Class Sandy Mitten, 49, of Milwaukee, “and told her I was coming here. She said, ‘Are you going to a new home, grandma?’ and 1 said, ‘Yes.’”

That was September, when the 100 members of the 303rd Port Security Unit, including five women, shipped out from Wisconsin to Saudi Arabia, the first of three such units deployed to the Gulf and the first time in its 50-year history that the Coast Guard Reserve has been overseas.

The 303rd is not a combat unit; its 22-foot Raider patrol boats, powered by twin 150-horsepower outboard engines and armed with machine guns, are designed for harbor policing. But in a war zone, danger is everywhere. It came calling for the 303rd late one night shortly after the Gulf War began.

Most of the reservists were in their quarters when a tremendous explosion rang out directly overhead—a U.S. Patriot missile had connected with an incoming Iraqi Scud, raining debris on the harbor and the barracks roof. Everyone grabbed chemical suits and gas masks and took shelter in the hallway.

“The whole building just shook and the windows

bowed several inches,” Lieutenant Commander Gary Anderson, 48, of Sun Prairie, Wisconsin, said. “I could hear the pieces (of missile) sizzling as they hit the water in the harbor.”

“We took a pickup truck load (of shrapnel) off the top of our building,” he said. “All together, we removed four pickup loads from the compound,”

In the days and weeks that followed, the reservists ad­justed to the wailing sirens and flash of explosions. “There were a lot of people who were pretty shaken up the first few times,” Warrant Officer Nelson Lawrence, 49, of Oshkosh, said. “After the eighth or ninth time, people were saying, ‘Ah, nuts, I forgot my camera. I was going to get a picture.’ ”

The women of the 303rd, though conscious of the scru­tiny their role would receive, were equally confident of their abilities. “I am a sharpshooter with the M-16,” said Petty Officer 2nd Class Mary Fowlkes, 37, a physical edu­cation teacher from Milwaukee. “If it comes down to it and I’ve got to fire, I’m going to hit whatever I aim at.”

After their years of training on the Great Lakes, none of the women ever imagined she would be sent to a war zone. But neither would it have occurred to them to try to get out of the assignment. Sandy Mitten said her husband could not understand why she was being sent to the Gulf, or why she thought it was the right thing to do. “He just didn’t ever expect his wife would be coming over here,” Mitten said. “He doesn’t understand my patriotism.” She origi­nally joined the Navy and later the Coast Guard Reserves, because “I wanted to do something that made me feel good and I wound up feeling good not only about myself, but about my country.”

Petty Officer 3rd Class Mary Jane Gallagher, 32, of Milwaukee, said what shocked her the most was that she was ordered to the Gulf while her husband, a reservist in the same unit, was not. The assignments were based on required skills. “I got lucky I guess.” Mrs. Gallagher said sarcastically. She does administrative work for the unit. “It’s been hard for my husband,” she said. “When he looked on the map and saw where we are and where Iraq is, he was very worried. I’ve gotten a few tapes from him and I can hear him choking up.”

But the women generally feel it is appropriate for the military to exclude women from direct combat roles. Though reasons vary, most think their presence in combat would put too much of a burden on men, not because the women can’t take care of themselves, but because their presence makes men uncomfortable. “It has not been a problem to the women; it has been a problem for the

transfer operations, inspected more than sonnel held more than 100 readiness recent years).

also directly supervised 276 oil and 73 chemical spills that were federally funded cleanup operations.

^ Port Safety and Security: Port safety Personnel monitored more than 4,500 3,200 waterfront facilities, and con­ducted more than 21,000 harbor patrols nationwide. The Coast Guard also con­ducted 750 safety zone patrols and held 170 contingency drills. Port security per- mobilization exercises, performed more than 150 security zone patrols, and in­spected 2,100 communist-bloc ships under the special interest vessel program (almost double the number boarded in

. By Joan Lowy

men,” Mitten said, “I think the men overall are worried that the women will hurt themselves.” The men also had trouble adjusting to sharing toilet facilities with women and doing personal things in the presence of women. Mit­ten said.

The women of the 303rd, like others who served in the Gulf War, also had to adapt to many of the draconian restrictions placed on women in Saudi society. They were Prohibited from driving and were segregated to the backs of buses. They were hidden behind screens in restaurants, and some stores did not allow them to enter at all. On the street, they took frank stares from Saudi men, who con­sider any unveiled woman walking alone to be a prosti­tute. “You don’t accept it, you adjust to it—there’s a difference,” Fowlkes said.

But the women were proud of their military role. “I think this has been a real plus for women in the military in a combat situation,” Fowlkes said. “1 think we have shown that women can be part of war, that we are strong emotionally and strong physically.”

Like many reserve units, the members of the 303rd are Proud of their maturity and expertise. They average age 36, and many bring to their jobs special skills honed in civilian life. One of the unit’s engine mechanics, for ex­ample, works for OMC, the company that builds the 303rd’s outboard motors. A petty officer working on elec­trical systems in the boats has installed power plants all °ver the world.

“This is not your typical young crowd here,” Com­mander Thomas Johnson, 45, of Beaver Dam, said. “We have a wealth of experience, an element of maturity, and an acceptance of responsibility you don’t normally find.”

“If I had a bunch of young guys, I wouldn’t have nearly the same level of expertise,” said Warrant Officer Law­rence, a medical equipment salesman in civilian life.

The age and varying civilian occupations of the unit have also created a more egalitarian atmosphere than typi­cal in the military. For example, Lieutenant Commander Anderson, the executive officer, has been out slinging sandbags with the rest of his unit. A high school agricul­ture teacher, he remembers vividly when he got the word that he was headed for Saudi Arabia. He was at a Friday night high school football game when the public address system told him to report to the scorer’s table. “I knew exactly what it was,” Lieutenant Commander Anderson said. “Everyone was coming up to me and I said as many goodbyes as possible.”

For families unaccustomed to long separations, the 303rd’s deployment to the Gulf left tears and fear, particu­larly among the children. Anderson’s youngest daughter, an 11 year old, fearfully watched the television pictures of Scud missiles descending on Dammam. “She was afraid I was going to be killed. She started writing letters saying, ‘Daddy, please don’t come home dead. Be careful.’ ” He said his daughter saw a counselor for a while to work out her concern. “It got magnified because young children don’t understand what TV is all about. She would see something replayed over and over again on TV. She thought we were really getting hammered here when we weren’t,” Anderson said. He said that when he got the chance, he tried to call home in the evening when his daughters were home. “It helps for them to be able to hear my voice.” Although the port guarded by the 303rd was a prime terrorist target, Anderson believed the actual danger of a terrorist attack was slight. “This is a very high visibil­ity operation,” Anderson said. “It’s like parking the squad car in front of the liquor store. They’re not going to rob the store while the car is sitting there.”

The unit was on the lookout for small craft, particularly fishing vessels, that might be used for terrorist acts. Each Raider was manned by three guardsmen and a Saudi fron­tiersman, all carrying M-16 rifles, shotguns, and pistols, in addition to the boat’s .50-caliber machine gun. When the reservists intercepted a boat, the Saudi boarded it.

For some the duty was familiar. Lieutenant Kendel Feilen, 39, is a sergeant in the Milwaukee police depart­ment. Lieutenant Roy Owens, 43, of Green Bay, is a former submariner who served in Vietnam and is now a special agent for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. ‘ ‘There is a great carryover from the law enforcement re­sponsibilities we have at home,” Johnson, the unit’s com­mander, said. “It’s just that you are in an operational thea­ter that has been designed as a combat zone.”

Commander Johnson, who teaches government and economics to seniors at Beaver Dam High School, said one of the greatest rewards he had while serving in Saudi Arabia was the outpouring of letters from the community of Beaver Dam, particularly his former students.

“Eve received letters from students I haven't seen for 10 or 12 years,” said Johnson, who was an active-duty Coast Guard officer for four years before joining the re­serves. “It’s kind of a neat thing because sometimes you wonder how much of an impact you’ve had on people’s lives as an educator.”

• Ice Operations: Polar icebreakers de­ployed 281 days in Arctic and Antarctic waters in support of a broad range of U.S. national polar programs; domestic icebreakers assisted 290 vessels during operations on the Great Lakes and along the East Coast. In addition, the Coast Guard’s International Ice Patrol team plotted and tracked 841 icebergs off the Grand Banks.
• Enforcement of Laws and Treaties: Coast Guard units seized 96 vessels in drug-related cases; overall drug enforce­ment operations netted 27 tons of mari­juana and 30,181 pounds of cocaine. Coast Guard cutters operated 152,484 hours on drug enforcement, 62,726 hours on fisheries enforcement, and 16,864 hours on general enforcement (illegal migration, hijacking of vessels, and other unlawful activities). Coast Guard aircraft hours for drug, fisheries and general en­forcement duties were 26,126; 6,749; and 3,815 hours, respectively.

Desert Shield and Desert Storm

The Coast Guard displayed its unique­ness and flexibility throughout the crisis in the Persian Gulf. Both regular and re­serve Coast Guard units supervised the security for the safe loadout of ships bound for the Gulf from various U.S. ports. Coast Guard boarding teams, ex­perienced in interdiction and boarding techniques from drug enforcement opera­tions, deployed on board naval vessels to assist in enforcing the U.S. economic sanctions against Iraq. Coast Guard Re­serve port security units were also de­ployed to the Middle East, the first invol­untary overseas mobilization of Coast Guard Reserve units in the reserve’s 50- year history. Finally, the service led an interagency team to the Gulf to advise Saudi Arabia on the cleanup of the mas­sive oil spill in the Persian Gulf.

On 17 August, the Secretary of Trans­portation and the Commandant commit­ted Coast Guard boarding teams to Oper­ation Desert Shield. Responding to a request from the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the boarding teams were to embark in naval vessels and conduct boardings of mer­chant vessels by carrying out searches and inspecting documents and manifests, in support of the U.N. resolution. The teams would also train U.S. and allied navies in boarding techniques. On 30 August, the Coast Guard teams con­ducted their first boarding on an Iraqi vessel. And after the war commenced in January, these teams handled the first Iraqi prisoners of war. The Coast Guard conducted more than 700 boardings of merchant vessels during the conflict.

By mid-August, the initial group of Coast Guard Reserves was mobilized to report to several U.S. ports to assist in the loadout of the military sealift. On 22 August, following the President’s author­ization of the Secretary of Defense to call up members of the selected reserve, the Coast Guard ceiling for the reserve callup was established at 1,250. Port security units from Milwaukee, Buffalo, and

The Coast Guard led an interagency team to the Persian Gulf, to assist the Saudi government with the cleanup of the massive oil spills there. Two Hu-25 Guardian patrol aircraft were staged out of Bahrain to support the effort.

Cleveland, all from the Ninth Coast Guard District, were deployed to Persian Gulf ports during September and Novem­ber. Approximately 300 reservists and 50 regulars served in the theater of opera­tions, including a small cadre of liaison staff, vessel inspection experts, and ad­ministrative staff. (See “The Coast Guard Patrols the Persian Gulf,” pages 100-101, April 1991 Proceedings.)

Coast Guard expertise in environmen­tal response was called upon during Op­eration Desert Storm. On 18 January 1991, Iraq began releasing oil from vari­ous Kuwaiti facilities into the Persian Gulf. On 26 January, the President di­rected the Coast Guard to head an intera­gency team to assist the Saudi govern­ment in oil spill assessment and planning. The team included representatives of the Coast Guard, the Environmental Protec­tion Agency, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the Army

Corps of Engineers, the Department of Energy, and the Navy Supervisor of Sal­vage. The team was sent to provide over­all technical assistance following a re­quest from Saudi Arabia. On 13 February, two Hu-25 jet patrol aircraft from Coast Guard Air Station Cape Cod departed for Saudi Arabia for the intera­gency team to use. Both aircraft are , equipped with remote-sensing equipment to detect the extent of a spill. Two C-130 aircraft from Air Station Clearwater, each carrying parts and deployment packages, accompanied the Hu-25s. Arriving in the theater of operations on 16 February, the Hu-25 aircraft were staged out of Bahrain to support the oil spill response efforts.

The Oil Pollution Act of 1990

On 18 August 1990, President George Bush signed into law Public Law 101­380, the Oil Pollution Act of 1990 (OPA- 90). This law creates a comprehensive prevention, response, liability, and com­pensation regime for dealing with vessel and facility-caused oil pollution. Coming in the wake of the Exxon Valdez and other major spills in 1989 and 1990, OPA-90 substantially increases federal oversight of oil transportation by establishing new requirements for ship construction, crew licensing, and manning. It requires con­tingency planning, broadens federal en­forcement authority, increases penalties, seeks to enhance federal response capa­bility (particularly the Coast Guard’s), and creates a new federal research-and- development program. A major section of the law creates a one billion dollar trust fund that will be available to cover cleanup costs and damages not compen­sated by the spiller. Such sweeping legis­lation has tasked the Coast Guard with a broad range of initiatives that will have an impact on its maritime safety and ma­rine environmental protection roles for decades to come.

In 1990, the Coast Guard embarked on an intensive effort to implement OPA- 1990. It established a National Pollution Fund Center to develop and administer those parts of the new law dealing with vessel financial responsibility and the Oil Spill Liability Trust Fund. This new com­mand, with a staff of approximately 100, headed by a flag officer, was formed to fulfill these extensive responsibilities; it will be located in the Washington, D.C., area. The service also established a sepa­rate Coast Guard Headquarters staff, the OPA-90 Staff, to oversee and coordinate the multiple studies, regulation projects, and reports required by the act. A major regulatory project for double hull con­struction on tank vessels commenced in

August 1990; the Coast Guard published a notice of proposed rulemaking in the Federal Register in December 1990 to define the protective spaces that consti­tute a double hull.

Throughout the rest of the year, the Coast Guard also proceeded with plan­ning to establish a national response unit in Elizabeth City, North Carolina; the ^unit will exercise regional contingency Plans and command the service’s pollu­tion response strike teams. The Coast Guard is also creating ten regional re­sponse groups (one for each Coast Guard district), as well as a third strike team to be located in New Jersey. In addition, the service also assisted in the formation (and ^will chair) an Interagency Coordinating Committee on Oil Pollution Research. Throughout the year many other projects related to tanker safety and pollution pre­vention were under way.

Major Initiatives and Studies

During 1990, the new Commandant issued two influential documents to set the tone for his tenure. One is a “Coast Guard Vision Statement” that articulates Admiral Kime’s concise view of what the Coast Guard is (“the world’s leading maritime humanitarian and safety organi­zation”) and in what direction the service is headed. The statement emphasizes that the entire organization must foster an environment of continuous improvement. The Coast Guard also must be responsive to changing national priorities and must he strongly committed to providing for the welfare of all Coast Guard personnel and their families.

A more detailed instruction entitled "The Commandant’s Strategic Agenda” Was published servicewide in September. In it, Admiral Kime outlined a number of goals and policies to set the stage for Planning the Coast Guard’s future. He addressed four major roles (maritime law enforcement, national security, maritime ^safety, and marine environmental protec- hon) and two major internal concerns (personnel support and facility/hardware ntanagement). Within the introduction to the agenda the Commandant stated that he intended to “balance the emphasis among Coast Guard roles to better reflect °ur national priorities and allocate our limited resources among programs.”

Many important studies were under Way during 1990. A port needs study was being conducted to review 23 U.S. ports •o determine and prioritize their vessel traffic services and requirements. Ser­vicewide efforts were made to implement total quality management principles. A year-long study of women in the Coast

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