Page 52: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (November 2018)

Extending the “Coast” Guard

When talk turns to the United States Coast Guard, to those not in the know the assumption is activities are con? ned to water and air patrol in and around the physical coastlines of the United States.

But as Admiral Karl Schultz, Commandant of the U.S. Coast Guard, explains, the modern United States Coast Guard is mobile and global, a part of the Department of Homeland Security tasked to work around the world to help intercept potential threats before they show up on the doorstep of the country. “The appetite for Coast Guard services in that space is unprec- edented – which is a good problem to have as a Commandant – but we have to translate that into resource dollars,” said Admiral Schul- tz. “We are supporting the combatant commanders on a daily basis.

I think we are best positioned where we are in DHS, I think that’s a good ? t and we are 15 years into that relationship. But there’s a high demand for our services there.”

He explains.

• North: We are the face of the U.S. government in the Arctic, which is an increasing accessible and competitive space. We con- duct presidential security in the Capital region, with a National Capi- tal Region Air Defense Mission, that keeps the air bubble for low,

The San Francisco Bay Harbor Safety Committee, in coordination with the Coast Guard slow ? yers around the Capitol region on a daily; that’s 24/7/365 and local industry partners, evaluates the region’s capability to respond to an emer- zero-fail mission. We support detention operation in Guantanamo gency involving an ultra-large container vessel in San Francisco Bay Wednesday, May with a port security unit. We support military war efforts abroad. 21, 2014. The drill was conducted in the vicinity of Anchorage 9, and involved multiple tugboats simulating an emergency tow of one of the largest container ships currently • South: In the south it’s the drug enforcement, counter nar- calling on California ports. (U.S. Coast Guard photo by Petty Of? cer Adam Stanton) cotics missions. It’s humanitarian assistance and disaster response in the Caribbean basin, and paying a lot of attention to maritime migration. • Paci? c: Here the Coast Guard does a lot of international maritime training with the Indonesians, the Malaysians and the Phil- ippines, which are building their coast guards (to, in part address an) “assertive China.” • The Middle East: “In the CentComm area I’ve got 250 Coast

Guardsmen that work for the NavCen commander – that’s the Fifth

Fleet under US Central Commander – and there on the Arabian Gulf, six patrol boats. We’ve got an international training element there, the MET: Maritime Engagement Team – that trains the coalition partners in the region. We’ve got a high end tactical, what we call

Advance Interdiction team, that is interchangeable with Navy SEALS.

“Your Coast Guard under that national defense umbrella is glob- ally deployed every day supporting the geographic combatant com- manders, supporting the secretary from border security, pushing the borders out,” said Admiral Schultz. “When you look at the conversa- tions we as a nation about the Southwest border, the work that the

Coast Guard does 1500 miles from the United States off the north coast of Columbia, the coast of Ecuador, and the deep Caribbean basin, it’s those drugs that arrive in the Central American quarter, and Mexico to an increasing degree, that have the corrosive effect on the local governments. They create instability that drives the vio- lence that forces folks like ourselves with kids to send them off as smugglers who try to get to the United States. If we can stem the ? ow of those drugs here, that’s a place that’s less political, there’s no violence – we take a thousand kilograms of drug off the water, hundreds of miles out near the Galapagos, you’ve sort of broke that chain of the violence and instability. So I think that part of our work

Members of the U.S. Coast Guard’s Gulf Strike Team rescue an elderly couple after is very important to that conversation. Sometimes you don’t hear