Foster's Daily Democrat August 21, 2005
Coast Guard is stretched thin
By Robert M. Cooks
KITTERY, Maine — Two Coast Guard cutter commanders say their crews desperately need new equipment, but they know it may not happen for several years.
The situation would be better for Cmdrs. Charles Richards and Greg Hitchen, in charge of the Campbell and Tahoma, if the Coast Guard's $17 billion, 25-year Deepwater modernization program was in its final years instead of its third.
The Tahoma returned on July 30 after a 54-day mission. In an e-mail interview, Hitchen said his crew must spend excessive amounts of time fixing the vessel.
"The crew is very resourceful at repairing critical equipment to keep the ship running and ready to do the job at hand," he wrote. "However, the significant time we spend repairing our equipment is time we could spend actually conducting missions or needed training."
He described the Tahoma's condition as still very good.
But he added that the ship "is getting older" and equipment fails "at a higher rate."
Richards has served in the Coast Guard for 17 years and took charge of the Campbell on July 25. The ship returned to Kittery from a 60-day mission on July 19.
"The average age of our ships is over 30 years," he said.
The Coast Guard's mission also has expanded since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. Crews are responsible for more port and coastal security duties, including screening commercial vessels' cargo before the ships can enter harbors such as Portland and Portsmouth, N.H.
Traditional Coast Guard duties continue, including intercepting illegal aliens trying to enter the country, conducting search and rescue missions, and maintaining navigational aids like channel markers and lighthouse beacons.
The region's cutters also are operating much farther away from their home port at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in Kittery, Richards said.
"We try to take it one step at a time so you don't get overwhelmed," the commander said.
Officials at the Coast Guard's national headquarters in Washington, D.C., say they're doing everything they can to maintain existing ships and aircraft while phasing in new models. Deepwater spokesman Coast Guard Chief Petty Officer Jeff Murphy said he believes great progress has been made since the plan was upgraded in 2002. The first of eight national security cutters are scheduled to join the fleet in 2007, he said.
"We would certainly love the new assets today," he said.
But, he added, it ultimately will take several years and billions of dollars to replace aging cutters, rescue helicopters and surveillance planes.
He said many existing cutters, including the Tahoma and Campbell, have received new technology that lets them share information with other agencies much faster than they could before.
But gaps in the Coast Guard's capabilities remain, and the service's manpower is stretched thin.
"The crew also has to be very resourceful in using our limited surveillance capabilities to make the best use of our patrol time," Hitchen wrote. "We are a very small ship patrolling very large areas of the ocean."
The Campbell's 100-member crew has logged 430 days at sea during the last two years, far more than the Coast Guard's 185-day yearly average. Crews often work 12 hours a day, seven days a week while at sea, Richards said.
The lengthy missions and demanding work can be a strain on families, but morale remains high, he said.
"Frankly, the reason is the nobility of the work that keeps them in the game, and because of that, we have extremely dedicated crews," Richards said.
The effort to modernize has support in Congress. U.S. Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, who chairs the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, along with fellow Maine Sen. Olympia Snowe and other New England senators, have pushed for more Deepwater funding so it can be finished in less time than 23 years.
"With many aircraft and cutters dating back more than a quarter of a century, and some to World War II, the Coast Guard cannot afford to wait 20 or more years to replace its deteriorating equipment," Collins said in a statement. "The daily demands on operational Coast Guard assets are unrelenting in the post 9/11 environment."
It is, she added, "incumbent" on policy makers to ensure the service has proper resources.
A report issued in July by the Government Accountability Office, Congress' investigative arm, also concluded the Coast Guard needs new equipment soon. Even the service's rigorous maintenance program isn't keeping pace with mission demands, the agency wrote.
Between fiscal years 2000 and 2004, the report states, most of the Coast Guard's existing equipment, vessels and aircraft declined.
"These additional maintenance efforts are likely helping to prevent a more rapid decline in the condition of these assets," the GAO said, "but even with the additional maintenance, the legacy aircraft and cutters are still losing mission capabilities because of equipment and system failures."
According to Globalsecurity.org, a military and security research organization, many companies that supply Coast Guard vessels with parts and equipment either have or soon are scheduled to discontinue those product lines.
The main engines on 210-foot cutters only are used by the Coast Guard and a South African railroad, and the manufacturer has "long since" stopped production and support. The gas turbine engines on 378-foot cutters are no longer in production and support is dwindling, according to the organization.
Retired Rear Adm. Stephen Pietropaoli, executive director of the Navy League of the United States in Arlington, Va., said fully funding the Deepwater program is the best way to help the Coast Guard defend the country's 20,000 miles of coastline from possible terrorist attacks or the possible infiltration of weapons of mass destruction into the nation's ports. His group is urging Congress to fully support President Bush's $960 million budget request in 2006, he said.
By getting more modern vessels, aircraft and technology, Pietropaoli said, the Coast Guard can "make that search for that needle in the haystack" somewhat more practical.
"If we don't support this program and fund it in a timely fashion, then the Coast Guard is going to run into some real problems," said Pietropaoli, whose 65,000-member organization supports the Navy, Coast Guard, Marine Corps and Merchant Marines.
© Copyright 2005, Foster's Daily Democrat
