Coast Guard Role in Homeland Security

THE COAST GUARD ROLE IN HOMELAND SECURITY
"Semper Paratus" Always Ready (Coast Guard motto)

The Coast Guard is one of five U.S. military services and has broad responsibilities for three goals: maritime safety, maritime security, and maritime stewardship. An example of safety is search and rescue; an example of security is drug (or migrant) interdiction; and an example of stewardship is environmental protection. In 2002, the Coast Guard became part of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS). It is the smallest armed service of the United States, but it has more trained military personnel and equipment than most Navies in the world (40,000 active duty, 7,000 civilians, 10,000 reservists, and 30,000 auxilliaries). Seven (7) times the Coast Guard has been called up into war (by being made part of the U.S. Navy or Marine Corps) -- with France (in 1798), the Civil War, both World Wars, Vietnam, the Persian Gulf War, and Operation Iraqi Freedom. It is perceived, however, and rightly so, as a humanitarian organization by most of the world. Many countries routinely welcome or request a Coast Guard presence in their jurisdictions.

In terms of safety, the Coast Guard enforces vehicle construction standards (as well as navigation regulations) so that no substandard vessels threaten U.S. ports and waterways. Much of this safety function (which involves licensing and inspection) is focused on commercial (fishing) vessels, although recreational boating is also covered. When mishaps, accidents, or emergencies occur, the Coast Guard is the lead agency for search and rescue, and coordinates the efforts of other responders. Even on the open sea, the Coast Guard can engage in and coordinate search and rescue, via its partnership with the world's merchant fleet and administration of the Automated Mutual-assistance Vessel Rescue (AMVER) system. Other nations often call upon the Coast Guard for assistance with local capacity-building. When an accident occurs in U.S. jurisdiction, an investigative division files reports with the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB).

In terms of security, the Coast Guard operates much like a law enforcement agency (it is, in fact, one of the nation's oldest, dating back to the Revenue Cutter Service created in 1790). It possesses the authority to board any vessel (subject to U.S. jurisdiction) and make arrests as well as seizures. For drug interdiction, the Coast Guard is the lead agency; and for migrant interdiction, they are the co-lead agency along with Customs and Border Protection (CBP). Most migrant interdiction cases start out as safety operations since the presenting problem is often a severely overcrowded vessel. The three most common countries of origin in cases of (undocumented) migrant interdiction are: Cuba, the Dominican Republic, and Haiti. For counterterrorism operations, the Coast Guard is fairly unique as a military service which can be used in peacetime, crisis, and war, and they are, in fact, called upon for a variety of supporting functions by combatant commanders. Direct responsibilities include denying terrorists use of the maritime domain by protecting ports and waterways, preventing hazardous material releases, safeguarding and strengthening critical infrastructure, and serving as an intelligence asset for DHS.

In terms of stewardship, the Coast Guard strives to preserve the natural resources and heritage of coastal communities. They monitor trees, whales, fish stocks, furbearing animal populations, endangered species, and non-indigenous invasive species. They enforce laws on the discharge of substances and determine who or what is responsible for oil spills. To ensure efficient travel and commerce along the nation's waterways, the Coast Guard maintains over 51,000 aids to navigation (buoys). In addition, the Coast Guard operates the nation's fleet of Polar icebreakers.

Founded by Alexander Hamilton to be Treasury's "strong right arm" after the Revolutionary War, the Coast Guard, in those early days, were America's only armed ships. Then, and up to this day, reliance is upon a type of ship called a "cutter." A cutter is traditionally a fast, shallow-water, single-mast or single-stack craft that can be used for pulling along with sailing or steaming. By Coast Guard definition, a cutter is any vessel of 65 feet or more, powered by any means, for any waters, and which requires accommodations and a permanent crew. They generally have large hulls, and in practice are much larger (180-330 feet), like Corvette-class warships which are armed with medium- and small-caliber guns, surface-to-surface missiles, surface-to-air missiles, and underwater warfare weapons. Note however that the Coast Guard calls all its large boats such as the ones with helicopter decks "high endurance" cutters, the most common type being Hamilton-class.) All cutters usually carry smaller, deployable rubber outboats or outboards, and also somewhat by tradition, the word "cutter" is frequently used in reference to any boat used for law enforcement purposes.

The Coast Guard also has a fleet of over 200 fixed wing and rotary wing (helocopters) aircraft. The capability to detect oil spills from the air exists.

In the immediate aftermath of 9/11, not only were Coast Guard personnel among the first responders (helping to evacuate people by water), but security was heightened (and remains heightened) along the nation's coastlines and waterways. A Coast Guard strike force also participated in investigation of the Anthrax scare of 2001 (although the details of their involvement are not well known). With incorporation into DHS, the agency quickly seized on eliminating any possible maritime threat. Complete and total monitoring of all activity at sea is done at the National Maritime Intelligence Center (NMIC) which is an expanding state-of-the-art fusion center in Suitland, Maryland that it is best not to provide a link to (because visitors are logged and identified) but will be focused on as much as possible below.

The National Maritime Intelligence Center

Filling a singular niche in national defense by inhabiting the law enforcement, national security, military and maritime worlds, the NMIC is not only a fusion center that Coast Guard intelligence participates in along with its own fusion centers in Dam Neck, VA (MIFCLANT) and Alameda, CA (MIFCPAC), but serves primarily as headquarters for the Office of Naval Intelligence (ONI), the oldest and most senior member of the milint community. Naval intelligence is a topic deserving of its own lecture which comes later in the course, but it may be noted that Coast Guard and Naval intelligence have long worked together (since 1915) to do such things as break enemy codes, prepare first-order (requirements-driven) analysis products, and assist with tailored support to domestic and foreign agencies (such as the Secret Service and Interpol). Most Coast Guard intelligence and investigative functioning remain fixed and dispersed, however, in Field Intelligence Support Teams (FIST) throughout the nation's ports and within the CG-2 directorate headquarters in Washington DC. It is not widely known, but Coast Guard intelligence and investigative operations are intimately involved in such things as counter-espionage, cyberwarfare, VIP protection, background screenings, and TRICARE fraud examination (to name a few) besides striving for time-critical, actionable intelligence.

For intelligence purposes, the Coast Guard does not tolerate any anonymous maritime activity. Field intelligence is extensive and fed not only into the national fusion center but shared with other agencies on as as-needed basis. Further, Coast Guard intelligence is everywhere since the plan is to put intelligence specialists (a senior enlisted position formally created in 2006 and cranking out graduates since 2009) on all the Coast Guard's platforms, whether at sea on cutters, monitoring ship traffic and researching foreign ports ahead of mooring, or on shore, mapping trends on drug smuggling and illegal immigration routes and helping with search-and-rescue missions. Plans are to create officer paths within the intelligence specialist positions, a wise move since one of the problems with military intelligence in general is that, too often (especially with Naval intelligence), people take those assignments for a couple of years and then go on to something else. Clearly, Coast Guard intelligence has been playing a big role in homeland security since President Bush expanded its powers in 2001.

REFERENCES
Alkire, B. (2005). The U.S. Coast Guard's deepwater modernization plan. Santa Monica: RAND.
Beard, T. (2004). Coast Guard. NY: Universe.
Capelotti, P. (2003). Rogue wave: The U.S. Coast Guard on and after 9/11. Washington DC: U.S. Coast Guard Historians Office.
Helvarg, D. (2009). Rescue warriors: America's forgotten heroes. NY: Thomas Dunne Books.
Kennedy, H. (2003). "Coast Guard adapts to larger security mission." National Defense 88: 58-60.
U.S. Coast Guard. (May, 2009). Coast Guard publication 1 - U.S. Coast Guard: America's maritime guardian. Washington DC: U.S. Dept. of Homeland Security. [http://www.uscg.mil/top/about/pub1.asp]