Charleston Coast Guard Cutter Protecting Shipping in Med -- Coasties in the War --

CHARLESTON, S.C. - What was to be a six-week deployment to snag drug smugglers off South America will likely become more than six months protecting military shipping in the Mediterranean for the Charleston-based Coast Guard cutter Dallas.

"It's been eventful for us," the cutter's commander, Capt. Chris Colvin said by satellite phone from the ship on Friday. "So far we have not come under any hostile fire but it's been interesting."

The 378-foot cutter has been operating with the U.S. Sixth Fleet in the eastern Mediterranean.

Earlier, the Dallas provided escort for military supply ships moving through the Strait of Gibraltar amid concern terrorists might target such ships, some of which were loaded at piers not far from where the Dallas berths at the old Charleston Naval Base.

The cutter, with a crew of 175, left Charleston Feb. 8 for drug patrols and training exercises. Colvin told the crew before leaving there was a chance they might be deployed forward.

The call came while the Dallas was at sea. The cutter headed east with an HH-65B Dolphin helicopter and an air crew from the Coast Guard Station in Atlantic City, N.J.

Colvin said it's not clear when the cutter might return. "The target date might be in the August time period, but it might well be longer," he said.

For security reasons, he would not say specifically where the Dallas is operating. Nor would he say if the ship's crew is able to see the fiery trails of missiles launched at night against Iraq by the fleet.

"The best thing we have done is when we arrived at the Straits of Gibraltar, we were able to relieve a Tomahawk missile shooter to rejoin the battle force," Colvin said.

In the eastern Mediterranean, the arrival of the Dallas freed another Navy vessel with Tomahawks to take part in the battle, he said.

While the Coast Guard protects the nation's coastal waters, it's not unusual for units to be deployed elsewhere. Coast Guard vessels were in the Caribbean in the late 1790s, just a few years after the service was founded, Colvin said.

The Dallas served off the Balkans four years ago and, in 1995, participated with the USS Theodore Roosevelt battle group in operations off the former Yugoslavia. Commissioned in 1967, it also saw combat patrol off Vietnam.

One crew member, Chief Petty Officer Lisa Roberts, is due to be transferred to another Coast Guard unit in Virginia but asked the transfer be delayed until the Dallas returns, Colvin said.

"You can say it's a pride thing. I'm serving my country in a time of war with a great crew and I want my family to see us return to Charleston all together," the letter to Roberts' superiors read.

Admiral Thomas H. Collins
“This Is Our Time”
State of the Coast Guard Address
March 26, 2003

A year ago, if we had tried to imagine how much our world of work might change in the period of just twelve months, I doubt that we could have anticipated the scope and scale of the changes that were in store for us.

The events of the past week alone have been breathtaking in the speed and power with which they have taken place. Our nation has gone to war half a world away—a war that has extended to our own shores in a way that no previous war ever has.

Coast Guard forces have been valiantly engaged in support to the combatant commanders overseas in the Persian Gulf and in the Mediterranean. We have deployed 2 high endurance cutters, 8 patrol boats, 1 buoy tender, 4 port security units, strike team personnel, and 2 maintenance support units.

And here at home, Coast Guard units have been providing a significant security presence, patrolling vigilantly, working side by side with our partners in the Department of Homeland Security and other federal, state, and local agencies and the private sector to ensure the security of our nation.

We’ve activated nearly half of our selected reserves in support of Operations Neptune Shield, Liberty Shield and Iraqi Freedom . And our Auxiliary continues to provide an awesome presence throughout our Coast Guard—truly a model American volunteer organization.

I salute every member of our Coast Guard for the sacrifice, selfless courage, and professionalism that have been so clearly evident throughout the past year, and especially during the past week. Our thoughts and our prayers are with those who remain in harm’s way, and whose inspiring service compels me to say that I have never been more proud to wear the uniform of our great nation. I know there are many here who feel the same way.

The vivid images of the past week are still fresh in our minds. Although our attention has been drawn forcefully to the events of war and to the hope for nothing less than our complete victory, I’d like for us to think for just a few minutes about all the other accomplishments of the past year.

Each of these accomplishments alone might easily have caused us to be absolutely amazed in less turbulent times.

As I recount our most significant accomplishments please know that this speech is one of the easiest, and at the same time, one of the hardest to give. It’s easy in that there’s so many things to talk about, especially this year, that describe noteworthy accomplishments by Coast Guard men and women. And it’s hard for the very same reason … there’s so much to talk about. My challenge is to hit the highlights in the time allotted.

Think about it. Just 25 days ago, we reported to Secretary Ridge and became part of the Department of Homeland Security, an arm of the executive branch of our government that did not even exist a year ago. The enormous effort involved in that single transition—the largest re-organization of the federal government in sixty years—should be enough to mark this year as historic.

But there is so much more.

On November 24th of last year, the very same day that President Bush signed the law that established the new Department of Homeland Security, he also signed the Maritime Transportation Security Act of 2002.

The Maritime Transportation Security Act, or MTSA, is an extremely important law, both for the security of the global maritime transportation system and for the impact it will have on the Department of Homeland Security and the United States Coast Guard.

The MTSA addresses the critical need to focus on the security of America’s 361 seaports and the maritime transportation system.

It creates a comprehensive legislative framework to enhance the security of the global maritime transportation system. It does this through a systematic approach of defining responsibilities, creating standards, assessing vulnerabilities, and authorizing funds to address those vulnerabilities.

Furthermore, the MTSA provides a clear and fresh legislative mandate for the Coast Guard to initiate new rulemaking for maritime homeland security.

The Coast Guard worked very hard to lead the way to ensure MTSA’s provisions are consistent with port and vessel security regimes hammered out in another remarkable effort by the Coast Guard at the International Maritime Organization this past December. Yet another major success story of this past year.

Last summer, the President also unveiled the National Strategy for Homeland Security, which outlines plans to accomplish three broad objectives: to prevent terrorist attacks within the United States; to reduce America’s vulnerability to terrorism; to minimize the damage and recover from attacks that do occur.

It is a sound strategy that depends primarily on preventing future attacks by sharing information, securing our borders, protecting vital infrastructure, partnering with others at home and abroad, and preparing to respond quickly if necessary.

That sounds a lot like bracing for a coming storm at sea, doesn’t it? I think that’s why it makes so much sense to us.

Like a gathering storm, threats to our security at home have grown. Separately and collectively they pose dangers to our sovereignty, our economy, our environment, and our safety. All of them have a distinct maritime dimension.
We obviously need a maritime security strategy that supports the President’s broader homeland security strategy …. We have developed a comprehensive one in close cooperation our Department ..… one that will enable us to provide enhanced security in our ports and waterways while concurrently facilitating commerce.

The six principal elements of our maritime security strategy call us to:

· conduct enhanced security operations;
· strengthen our port security posture and reduce the vulnerability of strategic economic and military ports;
· create a more comprehensive awareness of threats and activities in the maritime domain;
· acquire and build Critical Security Capabilities, to include re-capitalization and modernization of our aging fleets;
· prepare our forces to transition easily between homeland security and homeland defense operations;
· and sustain a lasting partnership between the military and law enforcement communities, and between the public and private sectors, both at home and abroad.

We are executing this strategy aggressively, including currently supporting a code orange presence in our ports and waterways.

This is our time …. and we must rise to the challenge.

Our non-homeland security missions remain vitally important. And despite the enormous effort required to build and improve our Homeland Security capabilities—and that alone has been a tremendous lift—we have had some real successes in terms of operational excellence in performing our other vital missions.

For example, we had a near-record year in cocaine seizures. Our total amount for the year was the third largest of any previous year, including a 25,000 pound seizure that was the second largest maritime seizure ever recorded.

Search and Rescue continues to be vitally important to our seafaring nation. Just about two weeks ago, two New Bedford fishing vessels arrived safely back in port after encountering serious trouble at sea in stormy winter weather. One of the boats was in serious danger of flooding. The other had been left powerless and drifting by a broken drive shaft. Coast Guard cutters and aircraft assisted both of them safely back home.

I think it is also worth noting that the numbers of deaths in our nation’s most hazardous industry—offshore commercial fishing—decreased by nearly half in 2002 compared to the yearly average from the previous six years. That good news can be attributed at least in some part to partnerships we’ve developed with industry to improve safety, as well as the dedicated efforts of Coast Guard men and women around the country.

The icebreakers Polar Sea and Healy are now homeward bound from Antarctica, after smashing through 50 miles of ice more than a story high, and leading re-supply ships into McMurdo Station to sustain scientific studies of the Earth’s climate.

Our icebreakers in the Great Lakes and along the East coast had their toughest winter in a quarter century. The lake shipping season opens this week—about a week later than planned. Our crews have been instrumental in facilitating commerce, both on the Lakes and in the Northeast.

Shifting our attention for a moment to environmental protection, last year a grand jury indictment charged a corporate director, two corporate managers, a ship’s captain and first engineer for their roles in discharging oil directly into the pristine waters of Alaska from a fleet of large refrigerated cargo ships. The Justice Department and the Coast Guard are making it clear that environmental crimes will continue to result in criminal prosecution.

These are just a few of many examples that clearly illustrate the constancy of the operational excellence of our missions in the midst of dynamic change. Clearly, we must continue working diligently at all our missions, and with the continued support of the President, the Secretary, and Congress, we can…and we will.

This is our time.

The flexibility to embrace necessary change, while maintaining vital continuity in service, is crucial to our enduring commitment to operational excellence.

How do we sustain our operational excellence in this environment?

I believe firmly and without hesitation that the answer remains consistent in the watchwords of the Commandant’s Direction, which I set out upon taking the helm of the Coast Guard nearly a year ago. You know those watchwords very well by now, I’m sure:

Readiness … People … Stewardship.

We have been attending to those themes diligently during the past year with very, very good results.

America expects nothing less.

We will be ready in all our mission areas, with particular emphasis on maritime homeland security and search and rescue.

The current and future readiness of the Coast Guard is determined by the attention we give to properly training and equipping our units. It depends entirely on the obtaining the right capabilities, the right capacity, and right partnerships with others.

How have we done with improving readiness in the past year? My assessment is that, due in large measure to the strong support from the Administration and the Congress, we’ve made tremendous progress… but we still have a long way to go.

In the past year—for the first time in many years—we have restored our maintenance funding base, which will enable us to properly maintain our electronics and communications systems. That’s making a huge difference in readiness.

We’ve increased our investments in our search and rescue mission, by adding nearly a thousand new billets across the nation over the last several years and by re-establishing an active duty “A” school for boatswain mates.

The “A” school training system overall has increased to maximum capacity through night classes, hiring additional contract instructors, installing temporary classrooms, and training at contractor facilities.

Cape May is operating at maximum training levels to meet expected growth. Officer Candidate School has increased accessions by 50 percent, and Academy accessions have increased 12 percent this year. That’s great news, especially to our troops in the field.

In fact, we have added 2200 new billets this year, and the best news is that our retention rates are higher than they have been in many years.

In FY 02-03 we’ve added over 100 new boat allowances and 13 patrol boats … more are on their way.

Increased capacity will allow us to become as much a “presence” organization, as we are a response organization. We can’t afford to simply respond to emergencies. We must be in place to prevent them. It’s all about awareness, deterrence, and prevention.

This is our time.

In addition to increased capacity, we have seen real improvements in capability.

For instance, we have added four new Maritime Safety and Security Teams in key ports around the nation. Two more are coming this summer and, hopefully, six more in FY04.

Our out-conus counter-drug HITRON is batting a thousand! We have decided to build on that success by expanding that capability to in-conus homeland security applications and expanding our airborne use of force policy to apply to other rotary wing aircraft, as well.

We are continuing to improve our maritime domain awareness by increasing our capabilities to share information and by strengthening our partnerships with federal, state, and local agencies, as well as our industry partners.

In particular, our new status as a member of the National Foreign Intelligence Community gives us greater access to national systems. And I have established a new Assistant Commandant for Intelligence—into which we have folded our Coast Guard Investigative Service. We are also increasing our capabilities with two new Maritime Intelligence Fusion Centers, and with new Field Intelligence Support Teams in major ports.

But our readiness does not just depend on better capacity and capability. As much as we need them, we need the key partnerships that have already proven so valuable to our effectiveness. We need to further strengthen these relationships—both within the new Department of Homeland Security and throughout government and industry, at home and abroad.

We’ll need them to increase our readiness and to sustain our operational excellence across our mission portfolio.

Building effective partnerships was the key reason for our success at the International Maritime Organization this past December. Partnership will continue to be essential as we develop and implement our MTSA rulemaking effort over the next year. And our partnership with DOD/USN allows an effective two- way flow of capability to meet both expeditionary and domestic security imperatives … all in the national interest.

Capability … Capacity … and Partnerships—three key ingredients to being ready and sustaining operational excellence. We are more ready today then we were a year ago … and we’ll be more capable in the months and years ahead.

Good stewardship also contributes to operational excellence. Good stewardship means managing our resources with effectiveness and efficiency.

We have earned good marks here. The Comptroller General of the United States, Mr. David Walker, recently referred to us as “one of the best managed agencies in the federal government.” We have received clean financial audits three years in a row.

We must continue to earn and keep the trust of the American people by doing the very best with what we have.

We must also continually look to the future, and determine what we will need to answer the call. Good stewardship means developing and maintaining performance based plans…and we’re beginning to realize the fruits of our planning efforts in this area.

This is our time.

With the increases proposed in the President's fiscal year 2004 budget, the Coast Guard will be better positioned to respond to the Nation's future maritime homeland security and safety needs. The proposed budget is part of a multi-year plan that emphasizes modernizing, building, and sustaining both capacity and capability in all our mission areas—a plan that is vitally important to achieving our goals.

President Bush and Secretary Ridge have been strong advocates of this plan. We are working very hard to keep their support through measurable performance and operational excellence.

If the budget is enacted, by the end of FY04 we will have grown by over 4100 personnel and increased our overall budget by over $1.6B—a 30% increase over FY02. That should come as welcome news to anyone with interest in our ability to conduct our many missions, and with interest in preparing us for the future.

We are putting these increases to excellent use through sound stewardship. I think two major projects that we have in the works illustrate that point clearly.

In particular, the Integrated Deepwater System project will re-capitalize the Coast Guard’s aging cutters, aircraft, and offshore Command and Control network to help push out the U.S. borders and increase our Maritime Domain Awareness (MDA). It is a flexible program, able to meet emerging requirements for maritime security.

Our Rescue 21 project will serve as a maritime 911 system that provides both a distress network, and an integrated coastal command and control system, which will aid communication among agencies responding jointly to emergencies.

Both Deepwater and Rescue 21 will be interoperable. These programs and others are at the heart of providing a ready Coast Guard having the competencies and capabilities to respond to our missions across the board.

When Deepwater is complete, no longer will our cutters and aircraft operate as independent platforms, with only limited awareness of what surrounds them in the maritime domain.

Instead, they will have the benefit of receiving information from a wide array of mission capable platforms and sensors, and will be able to work easily in tandem with other cutters, boats, and aircraft.

That capability will truly transform our work.

One of our 110’ patrol boats, the Cutter Matagorda is now in the shipyards, becoming the first of our cutters to venture into Deepwater, so to speak. This historic occasion marks the advent of a new era. The changes that Matagorda will undergo in this yard period, as she is converted into a 123’ patrol boat, will make her stronger, faster, and far more capable of performing the many missions required of her in this new century.

In a similar way, the changes that the entire Coast Guard will undergo in the coming years will make us stronger, faster, and far more capable of performing our many missions, both here at home and abroad, when needed.

There are other examples of good stewardship and innovation that we should take note of.

In the past year, for example, we have engineered a high-speed data link that allows cutters to access the world wide web via satellite. That’s critically important to their ability to share information and conduct business at sea through e-Coast Guard.

We have also created assessment teams to measure the effectiveness of e-Coast Guard initiatives and the progress being made toward achieving the reality of an electronically integrated Coast Guard.

Furthermore, the Innovation Council sponsored a one-year pilot project aimed at using hand-held computers to support our boarding officers, inspectors, pilots, and others with a portable job performance aid. This new tool will enable field operators to record essential data digitally and allow it to be uploaded later to a central database, saving time and increasing the accuracy and speed of our operations.

These are but a few examples of dozens that I could give you to illustrate our efforts to maintain good stewardship.

Readiness and stewardship both really depend on one thing: the capability of our people to achieve them. Ultimately, our operational excellence depends on the men and women of the Coast Guard.

We cannot improve readiness and maintain good stewardship simply by building better ships, airplanes, and equipment. We can’t do these things without retaining the quality, depth and diversity of our people. Together, we must be willing and able to stand strong, though days ahead might be very hard—and I assure you, we will stand strong.

Our chiefs, our officers, and our civilian leadership will be essential to the sustained growth in depth and numbers that we must achieve in the next few years. They are all necessary to help every one of our members, but especially our junior members, achieve the professionalism our Service requires.

For example, we are paying keen attention to crew endurance management to ensure the safety of our people, while meeting the demands of a huge increase in operational tempo. To do that, we have developed state-of-the-art techniques for assessing crew endurance risks; we have instituted new crew endurance management principles into our operational doctrines; and we have established crew endurance management training at the Leadership Development Center for all prospective command cadre.

This year, we increased tuition assistance by 28 percent, to bring our program into parity with the Department of Defense.

We are also using technology to develop the skills of our people to the “point of use” in new and unprecedented ways, such as the E-Learning Initiative, SOCCOAST and SMARTFORCE.

The Joint Ratings Review is nearly complete, changing the ratings and advancement standards for more than a third of our petty officers, to bring them in alignment with the needs of the future.

There is a whole host of other changes that I could talk about if we had all day, such as the new Operational Dress Uniform, the Enlisted Professional Military Education Program, changes in age and training policies for selected reserve recruiting programs, changes to the Gliding Flexible Work Schedule, and service-wide leave carryover policies to make sure our people have the opportunity to rest and recover from the demands of the workplace.

All of these changes, and more, are designed to improve the quality of work and life for our people. There will be more coming.

Readiness…People…Stewardship.

Each of these is essential to our operational excellence…and none of them is independent of the others. They are intricately intertwined.

Most of us are familiar with the wide use of rope—or line, as we call it in our service. These three elements—readiness, people and stewardship—are like three strands twisted together to form a line, such as a mooring line, used to secure a boat or a ship to the pier.

The boatswains among us will know that three-stranded synthetic line is very resistant to abrasion, and although it may stretch a lot under load, it quickly returns to its proper length and shape when the load is released. The more stretch the line has, the better it can absorb impact.

Every once in a while, especially after the line has been used under heavy load, it is a real good idea to inspect each of the strands carefully along the entire length of the line to make sure it hasn’t weakened or deteriorated, and it is ready for the next big strain.

We have all been under a great deal of stress and strain lately. I know how hard everyone in the Coast Guard is working, whether active duty, reserve, auxiliary, or civilian.

We must continue to pay close attention to the three strands of Readiness, People, and Stewardship to make sure that we have the strength and flexibility that we need for the future.

This is our time.

I wish I could tell you exactly what tomorrow will bring.

If the past year is any indication, then we have many more changes in store. We have many initiatives on the table, and others to follow.

We have much to do to implement MTSA and the security amendments to SOLAS and the ISPS Codes designed to ensure better information sharing, better security plans, and more effective means of inspection and control of commercial vessels.

There is much yet to do to build out our homeland security capabilities and capacity, to integrate as a true team player with the new department, to develop mission standards of performance, and to increase our 7 by 24 presence in our ports and waterways. What is at stake here is not only our ability to meet security demands, but to sustain operational excellence across all our missions.

We must tend to our fisheries and other law enforcement missions, including counter-drugs and migrant interdiction, to ensure that our nation’s borders and resources are fully protected against potential violation—not just against terrorism.

We must realize our strategies and goals for MDA, if we are to provide the maritime security that our nation requires.

As part of that effort, we must make absolutely certain that our Deepwater and Rescue 21 programs stay on track, and that we vigorously pursue the goal of modernizing and re-capitalizing our aging fleets.

We should view all these challenges as glowing opportunities…especially the opportunity to grow and manage our workforce in a smart way. We must do so by keeping the training, professional development, education, and well being of our workforce as the highest priority. The “CG committed to our people and our people committed to the Coast Guard” -- the most important phrase in my “Direction”.

We must keep our quality advantage by investing in our people.

We have two examples of how that investment has paid off with us today … BMC Terry Lathrop of STA St. Clair Shores, the winner of the McShan inspirational leadership award and LCDR James Elliot of the D7 marine safety staff, the winner of the Witherspoon inspirational leadership award. Would Chief Latham and LCDR Elliot please stand so we can recognize you? Congratulations!

Ladies and gentlemen, this IS a time of enormous opportunities, as well as enormous responsibility and change. Our men and women … active duty, reserves, civilian and auxiliary are clearly equal to the task at hand.

This is our time ... We have much to contribute to both the safety and security of our great nation. It’s our calling …It’s our responsibility.

And while we have been … and will be … faced with transformational change, what has not changed, and what will not change, either in this time or in the future, are the things that must remain constant—our character as a maritime, multi-mission, military service, and our core values: Honor, Respect, and Devotion to Duty.

America needs a Coast Guard that will not change its ability to be always ready for anything—even the enormous changes that we have seen in the past year.

Change within Continuity…that is the key to remaining Semper Paratus!

And Semper Paratus we will remain!

Thank you very much.

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