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Group Galveston

The Coast Guard was still the Revenue Cutter Service when a presence was established in the Gulf of Mexico during 1918 to combat pirates terrorizing the coast. Coast Guard Group Galveston was established in 1938 at its current location at Fort Point on Galveston Island. Coast Guard Group Galveston was established in 1938 and is collocated with Base Galveston.

Although the Group and Base are separate commands, the Group Commander and the Deputy Group Commander execute the duties and responsibilities of both the Group and Base at Fort Point on Galveston Island.

Group Galveston has 12 subunits, including Base Galveston, operating in an area from Matagorda, Texas to Marsh Island, Lousiana including the inland waterway at Lake Texoma. The Group and Base provide operational guidance and logistical, administrative, material, engineering, and technical support for all subunits. These units respond to over 1400 search and rescue cases a year, repair over 1500 aids to navigation a year, and participate in numerous law enforcement missions throughout the Gulf, including the interdiction of illegal drugs along the Texas coast, as well as enforcing fisheries law.

The Coast Guard's Activities in the Southeast Texas/Western Louisiana operating area focus on the Service's four principal missions: maritime safety, maritime law enforcement, environmental protection, and national security.

The marine safety and environmental protection mission encompass a variety of specific functions, including vessel inspection, vessel documentation, licensing of mariners, port safety and security, marine casualty investigation, pollution response and monitoring of waterways for illegal discharge of pollutants. In addition, aids-to navigation (ATON) and vessel traffic management fall under these mission areas. Providing services in these areas are four marine safety units, located in Houston, Galveston, Port Arthur, TX and Lake Charles, La; a Vessel Traffic Service (VTS) center, located in Houston, TX; aids-to-navigation shore units and cutters located in Galveston and Sabine, TX; and unmanned remote radio beacon and sensor sites throughout the area. Supporting these units is Air Station Houston, located at Ellington Field, TX.

Recent major events in the operating area involving these units include Tropical Storm Francis in September 1998. This storm was especially devasting to the Group's area of responsibility. It's landfall 60 miles south of Galveston subjected the region to the most destructive force of the storm in the form of torrential rains, damaging winds, and dangerous storm surge. Group Galveston saved 26 lives and assisted 16 people during the storm, including the evacuation of 11 victims from flooded homes. Moreover, the exceptional perseverance of the aids to navigation units in correcting over 80 aid discrepancies in the Houston Ship Channel within 36 hours of the storm allowed commercial vessel traffic to resume operation in this economically vital waterway. In December 1998 the M/V VIOLETTA caught fire and was burning in the Houston Ship Channel. The 578-foot cargo vessel suffered an engine room fire that claimed the lives of two crewmembers. Coast Guard Station Galveston boats and the CGC POINT SPENCER spent several days fighting the fire on the Cypriot-flagged vessel which had 165,000 gallons on diesel and fuel on board. Crews managed to keep the busy Houston-Galveston ship channel open for ship traffic and save 23 crewmembers from the VIOLETTA.

Past major events in the operating area include the tankship MEGA BORG explosion, fire and resultant oil spill off Galveston in 1990; the Chemical Tanker OMI CHARGER explosion and fire in the Galveston entrance channel in 1993; the San Jacinto River floods, pipeline oil spill and fire in 1994; several large spills in the Galveston Bay complex in 1995; and the recent oil spill from the BUFFALO Marine Barge 292. In each case, Coast Guard units worked closely with other federal, state and local agencies to implement response plans that effectively minimized loss of life and quickly contained and cleaned up the spills. AS a result of these incidents, the Coast Guard's partnerships with other agencies, industry, and private contractors have led to increasingly effective preventive measures and response plans. Although the thrust of the Coast Guard marine environmental protection program is to prevent pollution, the service is always ready to respond to every spill, from the smallest discharge to the largest.

Future plans and initiatives in these areas of marine safety include several major projects aimed at improving navigation safety in the Houston Ship Channel (HSC) and throughout the operating area's major marine arteries. A significant upgrade to the physical aids-to-navigation in the HSC includes realignment of several channels, replacement of many of the aids with new collision-tolerant piles, and a major upgrade of the VTS to provide better service to mariners. In addition, a recently installed antenna array has enhanced the Differential Global Positioning System navigation system available to ships transiting the region.

Two other aspects of marine safety are recreational and fishing vessel safety and search and rescue. Search and rescue (SAR) is one of Group Galveston's oldest missions and remains the driving force behind its coastal small unit organization. SAR is the "drop what you're doing and go NOW" mission that underscores the Group's response-oriented philosophy and presents some of the most dangerous challenges to its crews. Primary resources for SAR are the coastal stations, patrol boats and aviation assets. Stations, with collocated patrol boats, arein Freeport, Galveston, and Sabine Pass, along with a four helicopter Air Station at Ellington Field, TX.

The boats at the stations operate up to 30 miles from the coast and are normally in what are called "Bravo-Zero" readiness, which means they can quickly launch on a reported distress and speed to the scene at upwards of 25 knots, depending on weather. Patrol boats are similarly available to respond to emergencies, although the patrol boats are also used for operations beyond 30 miles from shore and rotate their readiness, meaning one of the three is normally available in B-6 (or better) status while the other two are deployed out of the area or in a maintenance status. At least one of Air Station Houston's HH-65A helicopters is normally in "Bravo-Zero" readiness and can quickly be airborne and speed to the scene at upwards of 150 knots (180 mph). Helicopters also deliver dewatering pumps to sinking vessels, hoist victims from the sea with their rescue basket, and can medevac injured persons with a rescue litter and deliver them to local hospitals. In addition, these helicopters frequently land and refuel on oil rigs to extend the range of Coast Guard service to over 200 miles offshore. Combined, the SAR units in the region respond to over 2000 distress calls each year and save literally hundreds of lives.