[PJeffQ]

This picture was on the main page at Charleston.net

[FreedomFarmer]

"...a three hour tour."

[ContemptofCourt]

An hour and 40 minutes is a good response? And the guy finds the boats tied up to the pier? Did I miss something here?

[My2Cents]

Vessels in the program will fly a yellow flag with the words "Don't Tread on Me."

I love it.

[pabianice]

That is not a "gunboat." Sounds like the reporter/newspaper needs some Navy 101.

[pabianice]

THIS is a gunboat (coastal patrol boat USS Sirocco):

[Squantos]

Little Creek SBU 20 doing a little over the horizon ride has spooked the locals maybe ???.......LMBO !

Stay Safe !

[Skwidd]

It's pretty easy to do this sort of thing in Charleston and then go crazy when there is a "failure."

I'm in the Navy and I work here at the Nuke school in Charleston. There is the old main base, which shut down in the early 90's, and the Weapons Station, which houses the Nuke school and various other small commands. Save for the occasional supply ship (AO or AE), there are no ships here. The Coast Guard has a post near here, but I have no idea what they do.

Interesting factoid--shortly after 9/11, 20/20 wanted to do an expose on the "faulty security of the nation's military bases." They picked Charleston (an easy target, I admit) and tried to hire a boat to get them as close to the Weapon Station as possible. The locals they were trying to hire alerted the military, who sent people out to question them. Oddly enough, this "report" never aired.

[SuziQ]

The Coast Guard and local maritime interests recently formed a "volunteer port security force," a program to use professional mariners to identify unusual activities in area waterways.

I saw this and thought about you. Is this the kind of work you are doing?

[Nam Vet]

Gimme a good ol 'Swift Boat' anytime (PCF - Patrol Craft Fast) Twin 50 cal. turret and a piggyback 50 cal -Browning/81mm morter astern. What they call firepower.
http://swiftboats.net/

Nam Vet

[68-69TonkinGulfYachtClub]

Coast Guard Auxiliary Members PING

[68-69TonkinGulfYachtClub]

We Need You -- In the wake of the recent attacks on the United States, the Coast Guard Auxiliary will be called upon to provide essential services to the Coast Guard as they focus more heavily on their military missions.  We will need all the help we can get.  You needn't own a boat or even be an experienced boater, since our missions are wide-ranging.  For information about existing Auxiliary missions and the Auxiliary in general, go to our Join the Auxiliary webpage.  You will find there a form through which you can ask that a local Auxiliarist make contact with you to explore the ways in which you can assist Team Coast Guard
and, in the process, do something for our country in its hour of need.
Age 17 and up (no upper age restrictions) Click Here for details.

[StopGlobalWhining]

What if, as a result of the Navy denial of ships in the area (a la TWA 800), and the fact that they weren't flying a flag, the Coast Guard just blew those ships out of the water?

Isn't that what they should have done? If those ships were terrorists, perhaps we'd have another USS Cole type incident to talk about tonight.

[dixie sass]

Something is terribly wrong when the OOD or the CO of the Naval Weapons Station is unaware that four military vessels like that are in the area. Because of the Navy's inefficient behavior there could have been lost of life.

What is these boats had come up river and approached an area guarded by Marines with orders to shoot to kill?

What if one of the Coast Guard Units had fired on and blown up on to the boats.

How stupid!