Many people—including some within our service—do not realize the breadth of the contributions that the Coast Guard makes to our country as well as to countries around the world. Beginning in the late 1980s, a small group of individuals within the Coast Guard set out to change this situation. Their efforts have come to fruition in 2002 with the release of Coast Guard Publication One: America's Maritime Guardian. A capstone document, Publication One is the first official publication to explain who we are, what we do, and how we operate.
Publication One provides an in-depth view of our service. It examines the nation's enduring maritime interests and the Coast Guard's five major roles-maritime security, national defense, maritime safety, protection of natural resources, and maritime mobility—and their constituent missions.
The publication also recounts our history, highlighting how we came to be the service we are today. It illustrates how the Coast Guard accumulated new roles and missions and, in the process, developed a distinct character, one shaped by our core values of honor, respect, and devotion to duty and by our military, multi-mission, and maritime character.
These characteristics, analyzed in detail for the first time in Publication One, make the Coast Guard unique among the U.S. armed services and all other government agencies. At the broadest level, the Coast Guard helps defend the United States from attack, upholds U.S. sovereignty, enforces U.S. laws, and contributes to the safety and well-being of the United States and its citizens at sea. On a functional level, we operate across organizational and conceptual boundaries to achieve national maritime goals. We are a law-enforcement agency, but we also perform important humanitarian functions. We have regulatory duties, but we also are called on to operate and fight alongside the U.S. Navy. We are an arm of the federal government and act in support of national aims, but we do so in cooperation with numerous agencies and organizations at the state, local, and international levels. We are a guardian of the U.S. maritime resources and littoral regions, but we also operate far from U.S. waters in the pursuit of national goals.
Publication One enumerates the fundamental, broad principles—the doctrine—that guide our operations in support of national objectives. In the absence of a formal capstone doctrine publication, much of what we have published has been in the area of tactics, techniques, and procedures. However, like every other armed service, we have internalized some broad assumptions, often unstated, about the nature of what we do. Those assumptions have shaped our operations, in both peacetime and wartime, and have formed what constitutes an underlying doctrine, whether we recognized it as such or not.
Publication One articulates the key operational principles that have become part of our unwritten Coast Guard culture. They include:
- Clear objective—Directing every operation toward a clearly defined and attainable objective
- Effective presence—Having the right assets and capabilities at the right place at the right time
- Unity of effort—Ensuring every Coast Guard unit has a clear understanding of the overall objective and the role that each organization, unit, and individual is expected to play in meeting that objective
- On-scene initiative—Emphasizing the importance of personal initiative and of giving our people latitude to act quickly and decisively—within the scope of their authority—without waiting for direction from higher levels in the chain of command
- Flexibility—Adjusting to a wide variety of tasks and circumstances
- Managed risk—Ensuring every unit is properly trained, equipped, and maintained for the mission and employing any unit only within the limits of its capabilities
- Restraint—Emphasizing Coast Guard people are under a special obligation to exercise their enforcement powers prudently
These principles constitute the Coast Guard's doctrine. They are our common approach to thinking about operations, not a set of strict, prescriptive rules. With training and experience, however, this shared outlook leads to consistent behavior, mutual confidence, and more effective collective action, without constraining individual initiative. Doctrine also contributes to clarity of thought in times of crisis or emergency, and our actions in the wake of the 11 September attacks have been guided by the principles discussed in Publication One.
It is my fondest hope that Publication One will enable every Coast Guard man and woman, our civilian employees, and our volunteers to serve their country more effectively, with a better understanding of our enduring strengths and values, and an enormous sense of pride in their service and themselves.