The U.S. Coast Guard in Review

On 14 February 2008, standing before a packed audience at the National Press Club in Washington D.C., Coast Guard Commandant Admiral Thad Allen, entering his third year at the helm of America's smallest armed service, noted, the Coast Guard is leaning forward, poised to meet the demands of our new millennium as the Revenue Cutter service was 100 years ago. We are prepared to adapt in order to ensure safety, security, and stewardship of this nation and the world's maritime commons. . . . Much of what has been accomplished, however, is through the genius of our people. But there is a limit to what any organization can accomplish when the overall end strength has not changed materially in 50 years. Past successes don't guarantee future performance. We should honor the past; we should not operate in it.

Allen's words underscore the fact that the service has been stretched to its limit and beyond. Some would say that it is practically coming apart at the seams. In 2007 the high-endurance cutter Rush (WHEC-723), en route to a search and rescue of a Japanese balloonist off the Aleutian Islands in demanding 20-foot waves, had to turn back because of cracks in the hull. In December the service's oldest cutter, the 64-year-old medium-endurance cutter Acushnet (WMEC-167), lost her screw when it detached from its shaft. The ingenuity and creativity of the crew enabled the cutter to safely reach port, but once there another issue confronted them as no spare was available; a new custom propeller had to be built. [Note: The Coast Guard has requested permission to decommission this cutter within its 2009 Budget request.]

The offshore cutter fleet is just the tip of the iceberg in regard to material problems plaguing the Coast Guard. The service's shore infrastructure is aging, the inland buoy tender fleet, vital to sustaining commerce along the nation's inland rivers, is well beyond its designed operating life, and two of the service's icebreakers—which will play increasingly important roles in the opening arctic—are desperately in need of major overhauls. The service's ancient fleets are victims of hard use, delayed maintenance, and crews with a genius for finding innovative, makeshift fixes to material shortcomings. However, this genius has its limits as the Coast Guard spent more than $76 million on unexpected major repairs, equating to a 27 percent reduction in operational days for high-endurance cutters. The total delayed maintenance backlog for the Coast Guard rose to over $740 million in 2007 with the greatest deficiency in shore facilities ($631 million).

The significant wear and tear is not confined to cutters, infrastructure, and programs. The service's active, Reserve, Auxiliary, and civilian work forces are also approaching burnout. Despite constant mission growth, the size of the Coast Guard has remained virtually unchanged for more than 50 years. Following 9/11 the demand for services nearly doubled as the need to secure the nation's 3.4 million square nautical miles of maritime domain and the ever-expanding Marine Transportation System (U.S. seaborne trade is expected to double by 2025) were added to the missions of the already overburdened service. The workload doubled, but the size of the Coast Guard did not. One indicator of the impact from this work growth on Coast Guard personnel is that 2007 was a record year for lost leave.

Despite its material condition, 2007 was another banner year for the service. The Coast Guard seized a record $4.7 billion worth of cocaine, rescued over 6,000 immigrants, and surpassed one million lives saved since the service's beginnings as the Revenue Cutter Service in 1790. Still, perhaps the most significant event was the Coast Guard's acknowledgement that it can no longer do more with less.

Modernization

In response to the deteriorating material conditions, an overstressed workforce, and increasing mission challenges Admiral Allen has launched a campaign of modernization. The Deepwater program has been re-invigorated with the first cutters and aircraft of a new generation delivered in 2007. The Coast Guard expanded its partnerships with other maritime agencies nationally and internationally to share the load. Most important, the service is finally beginning to ask the administration and Congress for what it needs to get the job done right.

All of the Coast Guard's deployable specialized forces were combined into a newly commissioned Deployable Operations Group. Commissioned in July 2007, this new command, comprised of about 3,000 personnel, combines Maritime Safety and Security Teams, Maritime Security Response Teams, Tactical Law Enforcement Teams, Port Security Units, and the National Strike Force into a single command. The goal is to enhance the Coast Guard's ability to rapidly deploy specialized capability in response to all dangers that confront the nation.

In response to changing maritime threats the Coast Guard joined with the Navy and Marine Corps in issuing A Cooperative Strategy for 21st Century Seapower, emphasizing the global role of our maritime services and the need to integrate capabilities between the services and with our allies. This document described how the Coast Guard will work to safeguard the nation against "all hazards and all threats." According to Admiral Allen during testimony before the House of Representatives Appropriations Subcommittee on Homeland Security, the strategy further

discusses the Coast Guard's enduring roles, future challenges, and threats, and a systems approach for improving maritime governance. From these foundations, the strategy presents strategic priorities that build on the Coast Guard's strengths and best focuses its capabilities.

In 2007 the Coast Guard announced that it is developing plans to modernize and flatten its command and control and logistics structures. As a follow-on to "Sectorization," the combining of Coast Guard Groups and Marine Safety Offices into single Sector Commands, these plans call for formation of four three-star-level commands out of the current stratification of a Headquarters command over two Area commands.

The four new commands would all be national-level units reporting directly to the Commandant and Vice Commandant (a proposal to upgrade the Vice Commandant to a four-star position has been submitted). The plan is to split the current Headquarters into a Deputy Commandant for Mission Support to focus on logistical support to operations and a Deputy Commandant for Operations to conduct strategic planning for operations; and to convert the two Areas into a Forces Command to focus on training, equipping, and readying forces; and an Operations Command to oversee current operations.

Deepwater

After the 123-foot patrol boat debacle of 2006 and a restructuring of program management, the Deepwater program rebounded in 2007 with the arrival of new assets. The National Security Cutter Bertholf (WMSL-750) underwent successful pre-delivery sea trials. The first of the new Ocean Sentry HC-144A CASA Maritime Patrol Aircraft were delivered as were the first modernized HC-130H aircraft. All HH-65 Dolphin helicopter-equipped air stations are flying re-engined aircraft. The first HH-60 conversion to an HH-60T was completed and is undergoing evaluation. C4ISR upgrades to the legacy fleet paid dividends in terms of operational success in 2007, aiding in the tracking and interdiction of the M/V Gatun carrying more than 19.5 metric tons of cocaine.

There have been setbacks. Hull fatigue concerns might prevent the National Security Cutters from realizing their planned 30-year operational life span. The Coast Guard stated that it has identified an engineering fix in which it has 100 percent confidence. This will be retrofitted into the first two cutters and incorporated into construction of the rest.

Admiral Allen declared Rescue 21, the Coast Guard's program to upgrade its National Distress and Response System, "operationally ready." According to Allen, "Rescue 21 is taking the 'search' out of search and rescue." The system is now deployed to 11 regions along the East, West, and Gulf coasts. Full deployment is expected by 2011.

Search and Rescue

Despite a massive growth in other mission areas, search and rescue remains a foundation role of the service. The significance search and rescue holds for the Coast Guard was emphasized during its 4 August birthday celebration at Grand Haven, Michigan, a city that bills itself as "Coast Guard City, USA," when the service announced that 1,109,310 lives have been saved since its establishment in 1790. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff noted: "When things are at their worst, America's Coast Guard is at its best. . . . What began as a revenue enforcement agency with a fleet of ten cutters established by Alexander Hamilton more than 200 years ago has evolved into the world's premiere multi-mission, maritime and military service."

Never one to rest on its laurels, the Coast Guard saved more than 5,000 lives in 2007. One case of particular note was the grounding of the cruise ship Empress of the North in May off the coast of Alaska. The Coast Guard mounted a rapid response, removing over 200 passengers from the stricken vessel.

Law Enforcement

In 2007 the Coast Guard seized more than 355,000 pounds of cocaine. In response to this success, smugglers are adopting diverse and expensive (semi-submersibles, liquid cocaine, alternate routes) ways to get their product to our nation's shores.

On 17 March, the Coast Guard made the largest cocaine seizure in its history when the cutters Hamilton (WHEC-715) and Sherman (WHEC-720) seized 42,845 pounds of cocaine aboard the Panamanian-flagged M/V Gatun off the coast of Panama. The Gatun was first located by a Coast Guard HC-130.

In August 2007, Air and Marine Interdiction agents on board a Customs and Border Protection (CBP) P-3 Orion aircraft, working with the Coast Guard and the Navy, participated in an operation in the Eastern Pacific Ocean that resulted in the interdiction of approximately five metric tons of cocaine. CBP's surveillance aircraft tracked a semi-submerged smuggling vessel designed to avoid detection. Working together, the partners located, tracked, and coordinated the stoppage of this vessel, which was loaded with an estimated $352 million worth of cocaine, while taking four suspected smugglers into custody. The P-3 guided the Navy ship, with a Coast Guard law enforcement detachment on board, to the scene as the suspects scuttled the vessel along with most of the contraband. Coast Guard law enforcement detachment personnel made the arrests and seized 11 cocaine bales (1,210 pounds).

The Coast Guard, initially within District Seven, introduced the use of biometrics in its immigrant interdiction operations. In the Mona Passage, a 37-mile strait between the Dominican Republic's island of Hispaniola and Mona Island, Coast Guard personnel collected biometric data on 1,318 illegal immigrants. More than 270 matches and 95 prosecutions have resulted from this new program. The use of biometrics has been seen as a factor in the reduction of immigrant flow in 2007—down 50 percent. For the Coast Guard the primary concern during immigrant interdictions is the safety of life at sea.

The appearance of MH-65C Dolphin helicopters, also within District Seven, is the latest visible evidence of modernization in the Coast Guard. Replacing the MH-68 Stingray, the MH-65C now populates the Helicopter Interdiction Squadron (HITRON) based in Jacksonville, Florida. Deployed on board surface assets on patrol in support of counter-drug operations, the application of airborne use of force continues to yield positive results as shown by 2007's $4.7 billion worth of removals. Finally, the arrival of the 33-foot Special Purpose Craft-Law Enforcement (SPC-LE) gave the district's small-boat stations the speed, stability, safety, and agility necessary to chase down and interdict immigrant-smuggling "go-fast" vessels as well as other high-speed threats. Equipped with state-of-the-art electronic navigation, forward-looking infrared cameras, and shock attenuating seats for crew, the platform delivers the kind of performance to counter the growing threat of illegal immigration to the United States from the sea.

Coast Guard law enforcement efforts continued to expand to all segments of the world. For example, the North Pacific Coast Guard Forum provided an opportunity for the service to meet with delegations from Canada, Russia, South Korea, Japan, and China to discuss issues of mutual interest. The forum resulted in multilateral cooperation based on shared information related to combined operations, illegal drug trafficking, marine security, fisheries enforcement, and illegal immigration.

A good example of how successful the forum has been is the CGC Boutwell's (WHEC-719) interdiction of the 120-foot Lu Rong Yu 6007. The Boutwell had embarked a Chinese Fisheries Law Enforcement Command (FLEC) officer on a patrol as part of a multinational law enforcement action to combat illegal fishing in the international waters of the North Pacific. The specific target of the patrol was suspected high-seas drift net fishing approximately 500 miles east of Hokkaido, Japan. The Lu Rong Yu 6007 was initially detected by aircraft from Canada and Russia that radioed the information to the Boutwell and vectored in for the interdiction. The presence of the FLEC officer greatly facilitated the boarding. The Boutwell transferred custody of the vessel to the FLEC. The Coast Guard's liaison in China, Captain Barney Moreland, later participated in a drift net destruction ceremony with his Chinese hosts.

Military Operations

The Coast Guard continued to meet its obligations as the fifth armed service, participating in joint military operations with Department of Defense forces around the globe. Six Coast Guard 110-foot Island-class patrol boats remain deployed to the Southwest Asia area of operations supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom by protecting offshore oil platforms. Coast Guard Redeployment Assistance and Inspection Detachments (RAID) continued their deployments to forward operating bases in Iraq to assist military units returning home in the proper stowage of war materials for shipment. In the United States, Coast Guard forces continued to provide port safety and security support for war materials being shipped to Iraq and Afghanistan.

In 2007 the Coast Guard commissioned two single mission commands: Maritime Force Protection Units (MFPU) Kings Bay, Georgia, and Bangor, Washington. The sole purpose of these Navy-funded units is to escort the nation's Trident submarines transiting in and out of their homeports. The creation of these two commands was a unique step for a service that has emphasized its multi-mission capability. The MFPUs operate out of the bases as tenant commands.

Hazardous Spill Response

The most visible Coast Guard HAZMAT response in 2007 occurred in November when the M/V Cosco Busan hit the San Francisco Bay Bridge in heavy fog, spilling approximately 58,000 gallons of fuel into the bay's waters. The spill turned into a public relations crisis for the Coast Guard due to broad perceptions that the response had been delayed because of poor coordination by the service. The Coast Guard's initial Federal On-Scene Coordinator was replaced and the Commandant felt obliged to make a personal appearance to reassure the public of the service's commitment to the response.

Ironically, the Coast Guard also coordinated a large-scale oil spill response exercise in 2007. Coast Guard District Eight in New Orleans was the "cradle" for the Spill of National Significance (SONS 2007) exercise which encompassed 11 states, 6 Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regions, 14 Coast Guard units, and 160 state and local agencies. This level of participation and geographic expanse made the exercise the largest SONS event to date. The 2007 exercise, which ran from 19-21 June, simulated an earthquake along the New Madrid Seismic Zone that runs through the heartland and the inland river system, with the focus on oil and hazardous material response.

The SONS exercise program has been a significant part of the Coast Guard's all-hazards, all-threats approach to contingency planning and exercises related to hazardous material response. The exercise program has been mandated since the passage of the omnibus Oil Pollution Act of 1990 following the Exxon Valdez spill.

International Engagement

The Caribbean Border Interagency Group (CBIG) is the first formal multi-agency group working to protect America's borders in the Caribbean. CBIG was formed in 2006 in response to a marked increase in illegal immigrant activity coming through the Mona Passage. All of the CBIG member organizations—U.S. Customs and Border Protection, U.S. Coast Guard, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and the U.S. Attorney for Puerto Rico's office—had an interest in stopping the illegal activity transiting through the passage.

In 2007, the effectiveness of the CBIG continued to improve, with all partners participating in daily morning briefings, sharing intelligence to establish the probability of yolas filled with illegal immigrants launching based on weather and sea conditions, and to determine which government boats and aircraft will be deployed where. For example, Coast Guard planes fly during the day and CBP planes, equipped with radar and infrared systems to maximize detection capability, fly at night. What makes CBIG an effective enforcement tool is its ability to adapt to the threat because of coordinated intelligence and operations.

The melting of the arctic ice pack added to the complexity of issues confronting the Coast Guard. Beginning in 2007 the Coast Guard Seventeenth District in Juneau, Alaska, initiated Arctic Domain Awareness (ADA) patrols as part of a larger national security strategy.

The reason for this growing demand for emphasis was captured by former Coast Guard officer, now International Affairs Fellow at the prestigious Council on Foreign Relations, Dr. Scott G. Borgerson, who noted in the March/April 2008 edition of Foreign Affairs:

The arctic is melting and it is melting fast. This past summer, the area covered by sea ice shrank by more than one million square miles, reducing the Arctic icecap to only half the size it was 50 years ago. For the first time, the Northwest Passage . . . opened for shipping. . . . It is no longer a matter of if, but when, the Arctic will open to regular maritime transportation and exploration of its lucrative natural-resource deposits.

Borgerson went onto note that opening of arctic seaways would "usher in a new phase of globalization" by offering a new, shorter option for shipping, allowing for "greater international economic integration." In 2007 the United States faced a serious fact: the Coast Guard was the only armed service ready to make a significant impact in this region with vessels and personnel.

Marine Safety Mission

The Coast Guard's Marine Safety program received a lot of publicity this year as Congressman James Oberstar (D-MN) announced that he was proposing legislation to remove the marine safety component of the service and establish it as a separate entity. The basis for this announcement was a growing level of complaints regarding Coast Guard regulation of the maritime industry.

To provide a sense of magnitude of the Coast Guard's Marine Safety program, it ensures the safe operation and navigation of some 20,000 U.S.- and foreign-flagged vessels, protects more than ten million lives, and safeguards billions of gallons of oil and hazardous materials. 86 investigators conduct 14,000 casualty, suspension and revocation, and civil penalty cases annually to punish violation of U.S. law and determine regulatory and policy changes needed to prevent future marine casualties.

This regulatory effort requires marine safety engineers, other technical specialists, lawyers, economists, and environmentalists to develop required regulations, policies, and standards. Engineers are also used to review plans, systems, tonnage, and approve laboratories and equipment for construction of all U.S. vessels and offshore platforms. For verification of continued compliance with regulations and policies, 466 Coast Guard inspectors conduct more than 70,000 domestic vessel inspections and 10,000 port state control examinations annually.

The problem once again is that the workload is growing rapidly but the Coast Guard is not. In 2006, the most recent year for which figures are available, official Coast Guard documents noted that 6,868 oceangoing vessels made 64,997 calls at U.S. ports. Vessel calls were up 11.3 percent from five years earlier. Of the 2006 calls, 33 percent were by tankers, 30 percent by containerships, 19 percent by dry bulk vessels, 10 percent by Roll-on, Roll-off (Ro-Ro) cargo ships, and 6 percent by general cargo ships. While gas carriers accounted for only one percent of the calls, they were the fastest-growing segment over the last five years. This growth is expected to continue, actually doubling by 2025.

In addition to frequency of visits, the nature of commercial shipping is changing. The average size or deadweight tonnage (DWT) of vessels calling at U.S. ports increased by eight percent over the last five years. The average size of containerships was 17 percent higher than five years earlier. In terms of twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs), the average size of containerships increased by 23 percent—newer containerships have a higher TEU/DWT than older ones. Similarly, gas carrier DWT per call increased by 20 percent, while the average cubic meter capacity increased by 29 percent. On the positive side, in 2006, 53 percent of the calls at U.S. ports were by vessels less than ten years old, up from 45 percent five years earlier. Eighty-four percent of the tanker calls were by double-hull tankers, up from 52 percent from five years before.

With the rapidly growing U.S. Maritime Transportation System and no growth in the Coast Guard, it is little wonder that the Marine Safety program is faltering. Admiral Allen has proposed steps to improve the program. The question is, will this improvement be done in a "resource neutral" approach by pulling resources from other Coast Guard missions, or will the service realize real growth in personnel?

A Cry for Help

Admiral Allen, in his 2008 State of the Coast Guard speech, perfectly summed up the situation faced by the service, I have seen my service labor under the inferred motto to do more with less, for my lifetime in the service. The fact of the matter is there is a limit to what this Coast Guard can do with a work force that has not changed in 50 years except to be reduced on occasion. At some point, after all the organization and modernization efforts are considered, we need to take the next step and consider the size of the work force.

The task before the Coast Guard is daunting. There are more than 95,000 miles of coastline with 361 ports in the United States compared to 7,000 miles of land border. The U.S. maritime domain encompasses more than 3.4 million square nautical miles and contains some of the most valuable natural resources on the planet. On an average day in 2007, the service saved 14 lives, boarded 193 ships inspected 25 waterfront facilities, and administered 21 commercial vessel safety inspections. Yet the entire force of about 40,000 Coast Guard active duty men and women, 8,000 Reservists, and 7,000 civilians would only fill a portion of FedEx Field, home of the Washington Redskins.

The challenges facing the service are huge and growing rapidly as maritime commerce expands to meet demand. As for doing more with less, sometimes even the most ingenious, such as Scotty, the indomitable engineering officer on the original Star Trek series, had to tell Captain Kirk that the warp drive was broken. Like the crew of the fictional starship Enterprise, the Coast Guard continues to rise to the occasion, but even the most optimistic reader has to ask, how long can this last? Like Scotty, the Coast Guard has tried to make do, not wanting to ask for more. If it needed 1,000 people it would ask for 500 and rejoice if it got 200. For over two centuries the Coast Guard has responded fearlessly to cries for help. Now the service has finally begun to issue its own cry for help as stress cracks are appearing. Will anyone hear? Will anyone respond?