I am the admin for
the progressive community blog in Utah. One of the other contributors (
Aramis) posted
this excellent diary about some of the pressures the Coast Guard is under. I thought you might enjoy his perspective on this Memorial Day.
I know Memorial Day is traditionally a day to remember the fallen solders and sailors, but I think we also need to remember those who are still serving us today.
I separated from the U.S. Coast Guard last summer after ten years of service, so you can imagine it holds a special place in my heart. The men and women of the smallest armed service perform a wide variety of missions everyday under some of the toughest conditions imaginable. With only 38,000 people, less than the NY police department, they struggle on to do their duty. These missions are performed using a worn-out and antiquated fleet, some ships dating back to WWII. Their aircraft are not much better off, some dangerously over extended on hours just to get the job done. Of the 40 largest navys in the world, our U.S. Coast Guard is the 38th oldest. Combine this with personnel shortages and shrinking budgets, and it becomes a nightmare scenario for our national security.
More on the flip....
Despite the shortfalls on equipment, however, the Coast Guard has performed amazingly well. During Katrina, the Coast Guard was the only federal agency that responded in a timely and efficient manner, rescuing thousands from the flood waters. They recently had their largest cocaine seizure in history. Over the last six years they have successfully taken on more and more missions, including deployments to the Gulf and Iraq.
I fear, however, that the strength of this vital organization is breaking. I felt it building over my last years in the service. Skilled people who I thought loved the job were leaving the service in droves. Patrols were getting longer and home times shorter. Maintenance periods were being shortchanged in the more dependable Cutters to cover down time for the broken ones.(Ships in the Coast Guard are called Cutters) This culminated in more and more breakdowns fleet-wide. The last ship I was on had to patrol the Bearing Sea off the coast of Alaska for two months with only one engine because they didn't have the time and money to repair the other one. Crew performance began to drop off as moral deteriorated. I saw more drug related discharges in my last year of service than all of the previous nine combined. Speaking to some of my old friends who are still in, things have only gotten worse.
The answer to all of these equipment problems was suppose to be "Deepwater". A massive, across the board plan to refit, or replace every piece of the aging fleet. It sounded great at first, but the Coast Guard didn't have the capability to manage such an undertaking on their own, so they outsourced it to a private contractor. (Here's where the alarms should start ringing)
It has been a disaster. Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman where put in charge of managing their own contract, which they ballooned to $24 billion and includes problems such as failed encryption technologies, which jeopardizes classified government information, and boats rendered unusable due to buckling and cracking hulls. Here's a great piece on it from 60 Minutes.
Let me just add something from personal experience here. I was stationed on one of the 110 foot patrol boats when they were putting around the idea to extend them 13 feet and install the stern launch small boat system. EVERYONE in the patrol boat community that I knew said this was a terrible idea, and that it would not work. They started that project knowing full well what would happen, and went ahead with it anyway. $100 million dollars later, and we have eight fewer boats to show for it. What a crock.
If you're interested in a run-down of the atrocious failures by Lockheed Martin, here is a scathing letter from Michael DeKort (a whistleblower who exposed this scandal in a Youtube video) challenging testimony by Lockheed Martin before two Subcommittees of the House Homeland Security Committee.
If these failures are not fixed quickly, I fear our Coast Guard will not be able to continue doing it's job of securing our thousands of miles of coastline and hundreds of ports and waterways. The men and women of the Coast Guard deserve better, and it is our obligation to keep them well equipped so they can answer the call when needed. That's what their motto "Semper Paratus" means. Always Ready.