Seapower/Coast Guard

Sea Power, Jan 2002

The United States Coast Guard is a military, multimission, maritime service within the Department of Transportation and one of the nation's five armed services. Its core roles are to protect the public, the environment, and U.S. economic and security interests in any maritime region in which those interests may be at risk, including international waters and America's coasts, ports, and inland waterways. The Coast Guard provides unique benefits to the nation because of its distinctive blend of military, humanitarian, and civilian law-enforcement capabilities.

Beginning with a military skirmish with France in 1798 and continuing to recent operations in the Middle Eastand including every war in betweenthe Coast Guard has helped defend the nation in combat. Today, Team Coast Guard stands ready with an active-duty force of 35,000 men and women, augmented by 8,000 Coast Guard Reservists, 34,000 volunteers in the Coast Guard Auxiliary, and a civilian workforce of 5,500.

Strategic Goals

To improve its services to the public, the Coast Guard has set strategic goals for each of its five key mission areas. Following are brief summaries of each:

Maritime Safety: Eliminate deaths, injuries, and property damage associated with maritime transportation, fishing, and recreational boating.

National Defense: Defend the nation as one of the five U.S. armed services. Enhance regional stability in support of the National Security Strategy, using the Coast Guard's unique and relevant maritime capabilities.

Maritime Security: Protect America's maritime borders from all intrusions by: (a) halting the flow of illegal drugs, aliens, and contraband into the United States through maritime routes; (b) preventing illegal fishing; and (c) suppressing violations of federal law in the maritime arena.

Maritime Mobility: Facilitate maritime commerce and eliminate interruptions and impediments to the efficient and economical movement of goods and people, while maximizing recreational access to and enjoyment of the water.

Protection of Natural Resources: Eliminate environmental damage and the degradation of natural resources associated with maritime transportation, fishing, and recreational boating.

These strategic goals are used for tracking program performance and making sound resource decisions. They also offer a blueprint for thinking broadly about the Coast Guard's ability to influence future national security issues positively and to meet the needs of a seafaring nation. Following is a more detailed explication of the programs and policies related to the achievement of the service's strategic goals.

Maritime Safety

The Coast Guard's motto is Semper Paratus (Always Ready), and the service is always ready to respond to calls for help at sea. The Coast Guard answers every one of those calls.

In 2000, the Coast Guard responded to 40,264 calls for assistance-from a broad spectrum of the public ranging from recreational boaters in distress to the captains of freighters sinking in gale-force winds. During that same year-on a share of its operating expenses totaling $342 million-the service saved more than 3,400 lives and more than $80 million in property.

Search and rescue (SAR) is perhaps the Coast Guard's best-known mission area; the service is recognized by the international SAR community as the world's leader. When the rescue alarm sounds, Coast Guard personnel are ready to confront the inherently dangerous maritime environment, frequently going into harm's way to save others.

The Coast Guard works closely with other federal, state, and local agencies, and with foreign nations, to provide the world's fastest and most effective response to distress calls. It also maintains a vessel-tracking system called AMER (automated mutual assistance vessel rescue) that allows it to divert nearby commercial vessels to render assistance when necessary.

During the past decade, the number of American lives lost each year in boating accidents and on commercial vessels has declined significantly. The Coast Guard's Marine Safety Program promotes safety through both its regulatory and inspection roles, inspecting merchant vessels and licensing their masters and crews. The Coast Guard has established a goal of achieving a 20 percent reduction in: crewmember deaths and injuries on U.S. commercial vessels; passenger deaths and injuries; and the number of collisions and groundings in the waters under Coast Guard jurisdiction. The Coast Guard Auxiliary provides free boating safety courses, courtesy marine examinations for recreational boaters, aids-to-- navigation verification, and inspections of commercial facilities.

As part of its dedicated effort to prevent future mishaps, the Coast Guard investigates maritime accidents. The lessons learned from accident investigations are fed back into prevention programs, frequently in the form of revised regulations and safety standards. As an international leader in this field, the Coast Guard works with other nations and agencies-the International Maritime Organization, for example-to promote higher safety standards for commercial vessels and their crews.