The U.S. Coast Guard today

Naval War College Review, Spring, 2004 by Thomas H. Collins

   The men and women of our Coast Guard are showing once again that
   you are "always ready." You're always ready to serve with courage
   and excellence. You are always ready to place your country's safety
   above your own. You shield your fellow Americans from the danger of
   this world, and America is grateful.

   PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH, 31 MARCH 2003

The first anniversary of the U.S. Coast Guard's realignment under the Department of Homeland Security in March 2003 provides an appropriate opportunity to reflect on the extraordinary events that have transpired since that transition and to consider their implications for tomorrow's Coast Guard.

We are all well aware that the terrorist events of the last two years have substantially changed the national security environment in which our armed forces serve our nation. In fact, these factors of change are elements of a new range of transitional and nonstate cultural threats (drugs, illegal migrants, piracy, illegal fishing, and organized crime, along with terrorism) that have been gathering momentum over the last decade or so. The breadth of security threats directed at our nation has grown not only more expansive but more complex--driving the need for the armed services to make a "transformational" examination of the capabilities and capacity (force structure) needed to address them. We in the U.S. Coast Guard, although aligned organizationally outside the Department of Defense, are no less impacted by these winds of change, especially in terms of mission relevance and our emphasis on the need for a transformational approach to our capabilities and capacity so that we may deal effectively with evolving national security requirements.

The Coast Guard's roles as a military service, as a federal law-enforcement agency, as a regulatory authority of maritime transportation systems, and as a member of the new Department of Homeland Security place it squarely at the center of national initiatives to reduce security risks to our nation. Coast Guard operations over the past year reflect these dynamics and were as challenging as any in its 213-year history. These realities suggest that 2003 was a watershed for today's Coast Guard. I use the term advisedly, because the past year represents a true dividing line between our past and our future with respect to our continued role as a maritime, military, and multimission service.

Confronting new demands of homeland security and the global war on terrorism, the Coast Guard supported Operation LIBERTY SHIELD to defend the nation's ports, waterways, coastlines, and critical infrastructure. Deployed Coast Guard forces executed Operations ENDURING FREEDOM and IRAQI FREEDOM as American and coalition forces liberated the people of Afghanistan and Iraq. At the same time, we successfully met unabated and unrelenting demands in our multiple mission areas of search and rescue (SAR), marine safety, environmental protection, drug and illegal migrant interdiction, fisheries enforcement, aids to navigation, and domestic and polar icebreaking.

On 1 March 2003 the Coast Guard moved smoothly from the Department of Transportation into the new Department of Homeland Security (DHS) as part of the largest reorganization of the federal government in more than fifty years. We used the largest budget increases in Coast Guard history to raise operational readiness rates in our aging inventory of cutters and aircraft. We continued to build tomorrow's readiness by executing the two largest acquisition programs in Coast Guard history, Rescue 21 and the Integrated Deepwater System. We led the international effort to adopt a new comprehensive maritime-security code and issued expansive domestic security regulations for ports and vessels in response to the Maritime Transportation Security Act of 2002.

The dual threads of change and continuity are woven into the fabric of the Coast Guard's performance of today's missions and its anticipation of tomorrow's. On the one hand, the changes that the Coast Guard is experiencing today are of epic proportions by any measure. The Coast Guard must lead that change--to seize its opportunities by transforming itself so as to be ready to address tomorrow's challenges. At the same time, we in the Coast Guard must implement transformation initiatives within a framework that allows us to hold fast to the core characteristics and values--honor, respect, and devotion to duty--that have defined the very essence and success of our service to the nation throughout our history and will continue to do so in the future.

Our steady strategic focus on people, readiness, and stewardship will sustain the Coast Guard through today's challenges, transform it to meet evolving demands and the uncharted future that stretches ahead, and preserve its enduring character.

MULTIMISSION FLEXIBILITY

During the protracted legislative discussions and debate leading to the passage of the Homeland Security Act of 2002, there was discussion of the Coast Guard's ability to sustain performance in all of its traditional missions after it was realigned under the Department of Homeland Security. Fortunately, a critical infusion of significantly increased funding, resources, and people over the past two years has enabled the service to make tremendous progress improving readiness and restoring its performance in non-homeland security mission areas. The past year's operational highlights tell the story.