Bay Watch: Coast Guard's Toughest Mission

August 19, 2003
By Scott Gourley

A full moon is rising over San Diego as the U.S. Coast Guard's Edisto slices silently through the chilly Pacific waters. In the distance we hear the ominous, low-pitch beat of an approaching Coast Guard HH-60J. The Seahawk is flying so low the blast from its rotor cuts a furrow in the water as it speeds toward the ship. No sooner than the Seahawk appears, it slows and falls into lock step with the Edisto, appearing to stop as it hovers above the deck. Ropes fly from the Seahawk's open door, followed by a contingent of heavily armed men. In some ways this is a very ordinary sight, a fast-rope insertion exercise in which Coast Guard aircraft and ships provide transportation and a "target" for an Army, Navy or Air Force special team in training. But look closely at the men who have just hit the deck and you notice something truly extraordinary is taking place, a preview of things to come. The force that has just "captured" the Edisto are themselves Coast Guardsmen. They are training for the most important mission in the Guard's 200-year history, protecting the nation's coastline from an attack by a rogue nuclear weapon.

In the sweeping reorganization that followed the government's failure to protect Americans from the airborne attacks by Saudi Arabian and Egyptian terrorists on September 11, 2001, the Coast Guard became part of the new Office of Homeland Security. As before, Guardsmen continue aiding amateur sailors, assisting in drug busts and mounting ocean rescues. Added to these tasks is the responsibility of ensuring that rogue atomic bombs and other weapons of mass destruction do not strike America's coastal cities. To fulfill this crucial new role, the Coast Guard is re-arming, re-equipping and retraining its force of 35,000 men and women. And they are mastering new skills, like the fast roping exercise that POPULAR MECHANICS has been invited to observe.

"Fast roping teams are essentially a way to insert Coast Guard people aboard vessels where we really don't have any other way to get aboard," says Vice Adm. Terry Cross, Coast Guard Pacific Area commander. He reminds us that the job is more dangerous than it looks. "Getting aboard a vessel because it's too rough to get a boat alongside is one thing. Trying to get aboard a vessel that doesn't want you aboard is something else."

Dramatic Shift
On the morning of September 11, 2001, less than 5 percent of the Coast Guard's resources were assigned to port and coastal security duties, says Cross. By the end of that grim week, that number had risen tenfold. Roughly 50 percent of the teams assigned to counternarcotics, illegal migrant and fisheries patrols were reassigned to coastal security. By the winter of 2002, the number was scaled back to 20 to 25 percent, where it stood as this issue of PM went to press.

Lt. Cmdr. Pat DeQuattro has been in front of those changes. He commands the Coast Guard's Pacific Tactical Law Enforcement Team (PACTACLET), one of three law enforcement teams that has helped provide much of the country's cutting-edge security response since September 2001. Each team includes approximately eight Law Enforcement Detachments (LEDETs), with each LEDET consisting of seven or eight Coast Guard men and women.

PM was invited into PACTACLET's secure operations office where status boards track the location and qualifications of each of the team's boarding officers. At the time of our visit, five LEDETs were deployed, with one of those operating in the Northern Arabian Gulf. The global nature of their deployments was highlighted by a series of 24-hour wall clocks that marked times on the Pacific Coast and East Coast as well as times for "Zulu" (Greenwich Mean Time), Guam and Bahrain.

We Get Wet
The success of LEDET operations stems from the cooperation and support they receive from U.S. and allied naval elements. U.S. Navy support is obvious as PM joins a LEDET for boarding training operations in coastal waters off the West Coast. A quick dash by rigid inflatable boat (RIB) brings us to the USS Monsoon , a Cyclone class vessel. Originally designed for naval special warfare operations, the Navy's 13 Cyclones are now extensively involved in homeland security missions.

A short time later we are on the move again. After launching from the Monsoon on a U.S. Navy RIB, the LEDET members board and search an auxiliary craft under the watchful eyes of the Monsoon's .50-caliber machine gun and 25mm cannon gunners at their deck weapon stations.

Boarding officers also can carry a number of personal weapons as they cross the rails to face the unknown. Trained to apply the minimum necessary force in any situation, their high-end inventory includes the M9 9mm pistol, the M16A2 5.56mm rifle and the Model 870 Remington 12-ga. shotgun. The Coast Guard is currently fielding an enhanced version of the 870. It offers a combat sight, a shorter (14 in.) barrel, and a screw-in rifled choke tube that allows the firing of less-than-lethal munitions: "00" buckshot, and new copper sabot slugs capable of disabling ship engines.

In addition to new boarding tactics like fast roping and the use of metal cable ladders attached to grappling hooks, the Coast Guard is applying an expanding arsenal of high-tech tools to its security mission. An example of this technology is the Ionscan 400B, a device capable of detecting an explosive cocktail menu including TNT, RDX, PETN, NG, DNT and ammonium nitrate. "In the past we primarily used ion scanners to detect traces of illegal narcotics on board suspect vessels," says Cross. "But after adjustments are made, those can also be used to detect any number of different substances. Down the road we're looking to equip our people who have to board vessels and do inspections with radiological sensors."

Other search and detection devices include the K910B "Buster," which uses radiation to evaluate object densities behind bulkheads, and the F0-10 fiberoptic borescope, which allows the user to visually inspect a ship, including its cargo holds, by inserting a tube into minuscule openings. Another post September 11 development involves the introduction of new Maritime Safety and Security Teams (MSSTs). Modeled after existing Coast Guard units like the LEDETs, the MSSTs are being established as specialized fast-response units.

The 100-member teams are multimission capable, optimized as a fast-deploying homeland security asset but equally capable of conducting search and rescue and law enforcement activities. Considered antiterror units, the MSSTs created to date have received weapons and special boat tactical training from the Marine Corps. Additional near-term training will include scuba and security dog-handling.

The first new equipment fielded to the MSSTs under post-September 11 contract awards were 25-ft. aluminum and foam "Safe Boats" (see lead photo). Powered by twin 225-hp Honda outboards, the small craft are intended to provide the MSSTs with much of their rapid-response capabilities.

A somewhat surprising addition to the Coast Guard's inventory is eight Augusta 109 helicopter gunships equipped with machine guns and .50-caliber sniper rifles capable of destroying boat engines. Cross tells PM that the new helicopters, initially optimized for counternarcotic operations, are equally applicable to homeland security missions.

The Coast Guard also plans to modify selected 110-ft. Island class cutters to a new 123-ft. configuration that will add a new stern, RIB launch and recovery capability. The alterations will help supplement a cutter and boat inventory that still includes World War II holdovers like the 230-ft. cutter Storis, which was commissioned in 1942, and the 213-ft. cutter Acushnet, which joined the fleet two years later.

New Missions
Cross says he thinks the next big step in Coast Guard security enhancements will involve communications and electronics. "The reality is that we don't know very much about the [foreign] vessels that are sailing off our shores," he says. "Perhaps the biggest potential for us is not so much in the new ships themselves but in the command, control, communications capabilities that the new ships are going to bring. Also, the new ships are going to help us link into Department of Defense systems and be part of building a coastal common operating picture. That's probably going to be the heart of our maritime homeland security strategy down the road."

Looking beyond new organizations, equipment and upgrades, the Coast Guard has tied its future capabilities to a program known as Integrated Deepwater System (IDS). In June 2002, the IDS upgrade contract was awarded to Integrated Coast Guard Systems, a joint venture between Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman. If fully implemented, the 30-year, $17 billion program will include three classes of new cutters and their associated small boats, a new fixed-wing manned aircraft fleet, a combination of new and upgraded helicopters, and both cutter-based and land-based unmanned air vehicles.

Plans Change
Back in the waters off the Pacific coast, PM has just made another transfer between a Coast Guard RIB and a cutter when the training environment is shattered by a General Quarters announcement over the ship's speakers. As all hands race to their battle stations, we quickly return to our smaller transport, and watch as deck guns are uncovered and the gleaming white 110-ft. vessel instantly goes from stationary to high-speed intercept mode.

The real-world intrusion into the training scenario is prompted by the arrival of an unknown freighter that reportedly has failed to provide 96-hour port arrival notification prior to entering San Diego Bay. Just as they trained hours earlier, LEDET members are quickly boarding the support vessel. After a half-hour of searching and probing, the Coast Guard detachment turns the ship over to representatives from the U.S. Customs Service who arrived soon after the action began.

PM cannot help but be impressed by the seamless transition the Coast Guard team makes from a training exercise to a real boarding. For the Guardsmen whose motto is "Semper Paratus"--or "Always Ready"--it is just another day at the office.

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