Group Hampton Roads

Located in Portsmouth Virginia, Group Hampton Roads is a multi-mission unit whose area of responsibility (AOR) includes the lower half of the Chesapeake Bay and adjacent waters in the Atlantic Ocean. Group Hampton Roads is a subordinate unit of the Fifth Coast Guard District and a tenant command of Coast Guard Integrated Support Command, Portsmouth, Va. One group building houses 23 engineering support personnel and their workspaces. The other building houses the command staff, operations and communications centers, and the administrative support personnel.

The group consists of a total of 49 personnel. This number includes five commisioned Officers, an Officer on exchange from the Royal Australian Navy, two Chief Warrant Officers, one Senior Chief Petty Officer, two Chief Petty Officers and 38 enlisted personnel. The group, and its units, are responsible for maritime law enforcement, recreational boating safety, and maintenance of aids to navigation; which include, the Chesapeake Light Tower, Cape Henry Lighthouse, and Cape Charles Lighthouse.

As the primary search and rescue responder for the lower Chesapeake Bay and adjacent offshore waters, Group Hampton Roads supervises over 1,500 search and rescue cases a year. Most of these are controlled by the group operations center which is jointly manned by personnel from the Coast Guard Marine Safety Office Hampton Roads. Group units conduct an average of 660 law enforcement boardings each year. These boardings include; enforcement of boating safety laws, fisheries regulations, commercial fishing vessel safety, and drug trafficking. Personnel from the group engineering department provide maintenance support to group units as well as the larger cutters based in Hampton Roads.