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 For more than 200 years, the U.S. Coast Guard has focused on water safety, search-and-rescue missions and stopping drug runners and illegal immigrants. But since the attacks of September 11, the role of the Coast Guard in fighting the war on terror has expanded considerably.
According to a report by Mimi Hall in USA Today, a new group of more than two dozen Coast Guard teams is being given broader responsibilities to travel anywhere in the world to deal with maritime threats and emergencies. The teams have a combined force of 3,000 officers who can raid and search cargo ships, drop onto threatening boats from helicopters, search for underwater bombs and use bomb-sniffing dogs to look for explosives.
According to Mimi Hall, “Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff says he considers the specialized group a model for his vast agency. The new Deployable Operations Group (DOG) represents ‘the tip of the spear in responding to natural disasters or terrorist incidents,’ Chertoff says.” The new role for the agency is being closely watched. Stephen Flynn, a national security expert at the Council on Foreign Relations and a retired Coast Guard officer, thinks the DOG is a good idea, but he warns that it should not be used as a substitute for training and equipment for local level Coast Guard operations.
In September, several teams were rotating in and out of New York City, where they’re working with the Secret Service and the NYPD to provide 24-hour security on the East River and in the city’s busy commercial harbor for the annual meetings of the United Nations General Assembly. When President Bush arrived in New York, gunners wearing helmets and flak jackets stood tethered to the deck, gripping mounted M-240 machine guns as their small orange boat bobbed in the choppy waters off the Wall Street-area heliport where he would land. Further up the river, an identical boat zipped back and forth in front of the marble-and-glass U.N. buildings, keeping a secure zone around the Midtown Manhattan complex where dignitaries were gathering.
The Coast Guard operation, which ran through the end of September, involved escorting ferries and commercial ships through secure zones, checking passengers before they boarded ferries headed for Lower Manhattan, making sure bridges and piers are bomb-free and keeping boat traffic away from the president and other world leaders. Since the group was created, members have responded to threats and requests for tighter security in cities from Seattle and Chicago to Miami and San Juan, Puerto Rico. Add this page to your favorite Social Bookmarking websites        
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