http://www.usatoday.com/printedition/news/20070928/a_insidecoastguard28.art. htm Sea change in Coast Guard's duty It's moving to front lines in war on terrorism
By Mimi Hall USA TODAY ON NEW YORK'S EAST RIVER - For more than 200 years, the U.S. Coast Guard has been a force in high-seas rescue missions. Now, the service branch is aiming to be a greater force in the war on terrorism. A new group of more than two dozen Coast Guard teams is being given broader responsibilities to travel anywhere in the world to deal with maritime threats and emergencies. The teams have 3,000 members that can raid and search cargo ships, drop onto threatening boats from helicopters, search for underwater bombs and use bomb-sniffing dogs to help them look for explosives. Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff says he considers the specialized group a model for his vast agency. The new Deployable Operations Group (DOG) represents "the tip of the spear in responding to natural disasters or terrorist incidents," Chertoff says. The new role for the agency is being closely watched. Stephen Flynn, a national security expert at the Council on Foreign Relations and a retired Coast Guard officer, says the DOG is a good idea - as long as it's not used as a substitute for good training and equipment at the local level. The DOG allows the Homeland Security Department to call in reinforcements to handle a threat, Flynn says. But in an emergency, local responders will still have to "manage the event until the cavalry comes in," he says. Rear Adm. Tom Atkin, commander of the teams, says the Coast Guard is "doing more and at a faster pace" than ever before. This month, several teams are rotating in and out of New York City, where they're working with the Secret Service to provide 24-hour security on the East River and in the city's busy commercial harbor for the annual meetings of the United Nations General Assembly. When President Bush arrived on Monday, gunners wearing helmets and flak jackets stood tethered to the deck, gripping mounted M-240 machine guns as their small orange boat bobbed in the choppy waters off the Wall Street-area heliport where he would land. Upriver, an identical boat zipped back and forth in front of the marble-and-glass U.N. buildings, keeping a secure zone around the Midtown Manhattan complex where dignitaries were gathering. The Coast Guard operation will run 24/7 through the end of September. It involves escorting ferries and commercial ships through secure zones, checking passengers before they board ferries headed for Lower Manhattan, making sure bridges and piers are bomb-free and keeping boat traffic away from the president and other world leaders. Petty Officer Rick Hodges' day began at 6 a.m. That's when he and his Belgian Malinois, Mynx, arrived at the Staten Island Ferry Terminal. The pair worked the rush-hour crowd, with Mynx sniffing for explosives and Hodges scanning commuters' faces. At the same time, heavily armed teams on superfast 25-foot security boats escorted the ferries - enormous vessels that carry 3,000 people at a time - back and forth. Since the group was created in July, members have responded to threats and requests for tighter security in cities from Seattle and Chicago to Miami and San Juan, Puerto Rico. Before the 9/11 attacks and the creation of the Homeland Security Department, the Coast Guard was best known for its work on water safety, search-and-rescue missions and stopping drug runners and illegal immigrants. "The world has changed so much," Atkin says. "It's hard to compare the Coast Guard of 2007 to the Coast Guard of 1982," the year he graduated from the Coast Guard Academy. [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] -------------------------- Want to discuss this topic? 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