More and more the Coast Guard is deploying worldwide to support national objectives and international engagement—port security units, here practicing shiphandling, are a familiar sight in foreign harbors. An Expeditionary Operations Command would ensure that resources would be available to meet pulse and surge operations within today's smaller personnel resource base.
Since the fall of the Soviet Union, the threats facing the United States have become multipolar and more asymmetrical. The 1999 Annual Defense Report notes, we live "in a world in which the United States has no single dominant threat that defines the orientation of its military forces nor a potential peer competitor until after 2015." "Joint Vision 2020" adds, "The global interests and responsibilities of the United States will endure, and there is no indication that threats and responsibilities to our allies will disappear."
This change in both enemy and mission focus has affected all five armed services, none more than the U.S. Coast Guard. Demand for U.S. military assets has meant more deployments worldwide in support of national objectives and international engagement initiatives. In December 2000, Port Security Unit 309 deployed to the Arabian Gulf, as a result of a presidential call-up, and a Coast Guard law enforcement team has maintained a constant presence in the Middle East in support of U.N. sanctions against Iraq.
Events such as the bombing of the USS Cole (DDG-67), renewed fighting in the Middle East, continued deterioration of the medical and political infrastructure in parts of Africa, and major natural disasters have increased the need for the special skills the Coast Guard can provide.
At the same time, the Coast Guard's personnel resources have decreased and our obligations at home—from narcotics interdiction to pollution response, search and rescue, and fishery enforcement—have remained significant. The service routinely has been stressed to solicit and deploy ad hoc elements for a range of special operations, such as the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, Hurricane Floyd in 1999, and OpSail/TallShips and the International Naval Review in 2000.
All of these events have resulted in a serious gap in the Coast Guard's ability to meet its statutory and military requirements.
The Coast Guard needs to be able to deploy forces rapidly, wherever and whenever a mission occurs. With worldwide commitments and a smaller asset base, we no longer can assume that we will have a resource staff located where a threat might emerge. Flexible force packaging has emerged as an effective approach to conducting current and future operations.
An Expeditionary Operations Command (EOC), as the single resource provider for emergent events, would afford the Coast Guard a greater ability to meet current and short-fused mission requirements. This change would enhance the service's ability to meet pulse and surge operations within its current personnel resource base.
What Would the EOC Do?
The mission statement for the Expeditionary Operations Command would be simple: "The EOC will ensure flexible packaging and delivering of forces to conduct emerging Coast Guard/joint operations, including worldwide deployment of Coast Guard personnel and equipment in support of the National Security Strategy, National Military Strategy, and the commanders-in-chief's theater campaign objectives."
As a service we once explored the concept of a battle command. The battle roster port security unit identified active-duty members who would come together during a major contingency operation. Unfortunately, although the concept was great on paper, it did not provide the battle command members a chance to "practice" before they "engaged," and as any good coach knows, a team needs a chance to develop synergy to be successful.
The EOC takes the battle roster concept to the next level. It would be a flexible organization that could respond quickly, matching threat and tempo, and most of the assets needed to form it already are available. Primarily, a little reorganizing would free the resources needed to achieve this goal.
Currently, Coast Guard resources are fragmented between several commands and programs, but all are linked by an increasing demand that they be rapidly deployable, expeditionary in nature, and easily meshed with DoD or other government agencies. Consider the following deployable units that support different mission areas:
- Tactical Law Enforcement Teams/Law Enforcement Detachments—maritime security
- Helicopter Intercept Squadron (Huron)—maritime security
- International Training Division—maritime security and national defense
- Maritime Interception Operations—national defense and maritime security
- Port Operations and Defense—national defense and maritime security
- Port Security Units—national defense and maritime security
- Strike Teams—protection of natural resources
This hodge-podge of deployable teams was created over time in response to specific mission needs. They need to be reorganized and retrained to gain efficiencies in asset allocation and mission execution.
So how do we achieve an EOC in an environment of limited personnel and funding resources?
- Establish a cadre command element composed of various departments, such as operations, logistics, and support.
- Consolidate the support requirements and resources of the different organizations into the EOC, allowing for the merger of these units under one umbrella command.
- Bring the bulk of the various components under one roof, strategically located near major transportation, preferably an international hub, to reduce costs and provide faster response.
- Assign the EOC the following responsibilities:
- Tactical Law Enforcement Teams/Law Enforcement Detachments—counternarcotics operations, alien interdiction, maritime intercept operations, and pulse operations
- International Training Division—counternarcotics training for foreign governments, maritime training for foreign governments, to include the Caribbean support tender
- Area Maritime Law Enforcement Training Teams—standard training and qualifications for area and district units
- Seventh District Tactical Law Enforcement Teams—training and law enforcement operations
- Hitron—law enforcement operations
- National Strike Teams—worldwide pollution incident response
- Port Security Units—sustained defense contingency operations, small-scale contingencies, military operations other than war, and deployed port operations, security, and defense
- Mobile Support Units—forward-based logistics and engineering support for patrol-boat operations worldwide
- Establish and assign to the EOC a Port Security Center of Excellence, Fast Boat Center of Excellence, and Less-than-Lethal Technologies and Tactics Center of Excellence
This does not all have to be accomplished at once. The EOC could be implemented over a multiyear cycle, bringing the units first under a single operational control, and then moving toward a limited number of geographic locations as facilities are identified and acquired.
The EOC's advantages are many. Most important, the command would support one of the Coast Guard's strategic goals, agility, which directs that we "imbed greater agility in both operation and logistics processes and systems to anticipate and respond rapidly to new threats, risks, demands, and opportunities." In addition, it would:
- Allow the Coast Guard to meet various operational demands with trained, equipped, and experienced individuals within an increasingly constrained budget environment
- Increase our ability to change strategies and capabilities to meet emergent threats
- Stop the scavenging of personnel from other commands for pulse and surge operations, which today burdens already strapped operational units, increases personnel temporary active duty (TAD) days, and hurts quality of life
Such a dramatic change in deployable Coast Guard force packaging is not without challenges. There is collateral damage, some real and some perceived, that would need to be managed. Placing all deployable units under a single command, for example, creates a very unique unit, where personnel always are traveling to a different place to work, unless it's their time "on the bench." Military members always have known they are subject to such requirements, but creating an entire unit dedicated to rapid response would signal a significant internal environmental change. Other considerations must be anticipated and managed as well, but there are just too many benefits to be gained to let that stop us.
Captain Gibson is the Operations Division Chief, and Captain Peterson his Reserve counterpart at Coast Guard Atlantic Area. Commander Vitullo is Deputy Branch Chief for Port Security and Law Enforcement, and Lieutenant Commander DiRenzo is Operation’s Division’s Regional Strategic Assessment Coordinator, also at Coast Guard Atlantic Area in Portsmouth, Virginia.