U.S. Coast Guard
Organization and Missions
The U.S. Coast Guard is one of the country’s five armed services, a maritime military and law enforcement force
housed in the Department of Homeland Security. Under Title 14, U.S. Code, the Coast Guard is responsible for
enforcing federal law on the high seas and in U.S. waters. It also administers the law and enforces regulations
that promote the safety of life and property in the maritime environment. It is charged with engaging in maritime
surveillance and interdiction, licensing mariners, monitoring shipping within the United States and ensuring
navigability of U.S. waterways.
The Coast Guard’s active-duty and Reserve members are governed by Title 10, U.S. Code, the law that oversees
the services and Defense Department. The Coast Guard lends law enforcement authority to the U.S. Navy during
counterdrug operations, providing detachments to serve on Navy ships during deployments. In times of war, the
Coast Guard can be transferred to the Department of the Navy at the request of Congress or the president. Such a
move has not occurred since World War II.
In 2010, the Coast Guard had 41,634 active-duty service members and a Reserve force of 7,220. The Coast
Guard Auxiliary, an all-volunteer cadre that supports boating safety, marine environmental protection and
search-and-rescue missions, augments the service with an additional 30,000 hands. The Coast Guard also has a
civilian work force of 8,411.
On any given day, the Coast Guard has members deployed around the world, in U.S. territories and across the
United States. Global operations kicked off on a monumental scale in 2010 on Jan. 13, when the cutter Forward
arrived in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, following a 7.0-magnitude earthquake that destroyed much of the country’s
capital city. Forward crew members conducted damage assessments of the city’s harbor, while crews from
cutters Tahoma and Mohawk, which arrived shortly thereafter, began humanitarian relief operations.
These assets were later followed by a massive U.S. humanitarian response. In all, the Coast Guard deployed
more than 800 people, 12 aircraft and six ships to Haiti with an additional three cutters stationed in the Florida
Straits for additional support, according to a White House press release.
Four months later, the Coast Guard responded to another epic disaster — this one in U.S. territorial waters. The
BP-leased Deepwater Horizon oil platform exploded April 20, sank two days later and subsequently spilled
massive amounts of oil into the Gulf of Mexico. Eleven workers were killed in the blast and many of the 126
other crew members were injured. The well continued to gush for three months after the accident.
The Coast Guard responded to the initial emergency and later received a leadership role in managing the
response and environmental cleanup. Rear Adm. Mary E. Landry, Eighth District commander, initially was
named federal on-scene coordinator to lead a regional response team. When it became obvious that the spill
likely would exceed the 1989 Exxon Valdez spill in Alaska, then-Coast Guard Com-mandant Adm. Thad W.
Allen was named national incident commander for the response. As of November, the Coast Guard had billed
BP nearly $258 million for emergency response and cleanup costs.
Other global activities for the Coast Guard in 2010 included the continued deployment of six patrol boats and
more than 600 personnel to the Persian Gulf region to support U.S. Central Command activities; deployment of a
small contingent to Bagram Air Base, Afghanistan, as a redeployment assistance and inspection detachment;
assisting the Army with hazardous material training and cargo management; and deploying a cutter to the
Northwest Passage for Exercise Natsiq, a training event designed to develop capabilities of the Coast Guard,
U.S. Navy, the Ca-na-dian Navy and Coast Guard, and the Royal Danish Navy for Arctic region operations.
In September, the Coast Guard cutter Mohawk returned from a deployment to West Africa, where its crew held
joint training and operations with units from Mo-rocco, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Nigeria and Se-ne-gal. Also in
September, the 378-foot cutter Jarvis participated in a multinational exercise in Vladivostok, Russia, with forces
from Russia, Japan, South Korea and China.
Closer to home, the service conducted Operation Arctic Crossroads in Kotzebue, Alaska, focusing on
community outreach, including medical and veterinary services and boating safety education, and equipment
testing under extreme conditions.
During fiscal 2009, the Coast Guard intercepted 2,088 undocumented mi-grants trying to reach the United States,
intercepted 120 tons of illicit drugs, boarded 18,690 small vessels for security inspections, participated in 1,855
boardings of high-risk vessels and escorted 4,000 ferries and cruise ships, according to service statistics. It also
inspected 5,400 fishing vessels to ensure compliance with U.S. and international regulations, and responded to
23,530 search-and-rescue cases, resulting in 4,861 lives saved.
While the Coast Guard had many successes in 2009 and 2010, it also endured a number of tragedies, including
several accidents resulting in injury or death that prompted Coast Guard Headquarters to issue a servicewide
message in September ordering members to remain vigilant.
“For the first time in a decade, the number of Coast Guard operational fatalities has exceeded our off-duty
fatalities,” the message read.
Mishaps that contributed to the fiscal 2010 toll included the loss of seven Coast Guardsmen in October 2009
when their HC-130 cargo aircraft collided with a Ma-rine Corps AH-1 attack helicopter off the California coast,
and the deaths of three air crew members in July in Washington in a crash involving their MH-60T Jayhawk
helicopter. In addition, the service lost an MH-60T helicopter in March 2010 when it crashed in Utah and a
Coast Guardsman died in October during a training exercise in the Chesapeake Bay. An HH-65 also crashed into
Lake Huron in April. As part of the re-sponse to the number of aviation mishaps, Coast Guard Headquarters
or-dered a safety stand-down of air stations in July.
The Coast Guard held a change-of-watch ceremony on May 25 in Washing-ton, welcoming new commandant
Adm. Robert J. Papp Jr., who replaced Allen. Pre-viously commander, Coast Guard At-lan-tic Area, Papp is the
service’s Ancient Gold Mariner, meaning he is the service’s most senior cutterman, having earned his
qualifications earlier than any officer serving.
In his opening directives as commandant, Papp said he plans to focus the Coast Guard on “steadying the
service.” In subsequent messages to Coast Guard men and women, Papp elaborated on this intention, explaining
that he means to refocus on missions and operations after the service has spent nearly a decade reorganizing its
command and duty station hierarchy and embarked on the largest recapitalization plan in its history. That
recapitalization effort, once known as the Deepwater program, began as a public-private partnership but was
later absorbed into a newly created Coast Guard Acquisition Directorate when the contract became burdened by
cost overruns and delays.
Papp was aided in his effort to streamline the service in October, when President Barack Obama signed the
Coast Guard Authorization Act of 2010. The law cements the commandant’s authority for creating and
organizing the Acquisition Directorate, and allows for the completion of the realignment of Coast Guard
Headquarters and leadership. Immediately after the bill was signed, Papp announced that he planned to retain the
Coast Guard’s Pacific and Atlantic area commands (Allen had intended to eliminate the two in favor of a single
operational commander), change the role of Coast Guard chief of staff to deputy commandant for mission
support and maintain having a three-star deputy commandant for operations.
Under the law, the position of vice commandant will remain a vice admiral’s spot — the Coast Guard had
requested it become an admiral’s billet, which would have put that position at equal rank with deputies of the
other armed forces.
The Coast Guard is overhauling its Acquisition Directorate and is roughly one-third of the way through the
largest recapitalization in its history. New ships and aircraft now in service include: the national security cutters
Bertholf and Waesche, with a third, Stratton, expected to be commissioned next year; six HC-130J Hercules
aircraft; 11 HC144A Ocean Sentry aircraft; 14 upgraded MH-60T Jayhawk helicopters; and 66 MH-65C
Dolphin helicopters. The construction of four Sentinel-class 153-foot patrol boats is under way at Bollinger
Shipyards in Lockport, La., and the service continues to study its needs for an offshore patrol craft and
unmanned aerial vehicles.
In 2010, the Coast Guard took a hit to its budget — a decrease of 3 percent to $10.1 billion for fiscal 2011 that
administration officials who proposed the cuts argued was necessary to meet government cost-cutting goals. To
meet these spending restrictions, the service plans to decommission five cutters, including its “Queen of the
Fleet,” the 66-year-old Acushnet, decrease the number of maritime safety and security teams from 12 to seven
and mothball five HH-65 Dolphin helicopters.
Legacy
The Coast Guard is a descendant of the Revenue Cutter Service, an armed force of 10 ships established on Aug.
4, 1790, to collect tariffs and enforce import laws. The Revenue Cutter Service merged in 1915 with the U.S.
Lifesaving Service, creating the U.S. Coast Guard. In 1939 and 1942, the U.S. Lighthouse Service and the
Bureau of Marine Inspection and Navigation, respectively, were folded into the Coast Guard, creating the
framework for today’s multimission force.
The service operates under Title 14 and Title 10, U.S. Code, and a number of laws governing shipping and
security. The Magnuson Act of 1950 solidified the Coast Guard’s responsibilities for the security of U.S. ports
and harbors.
Commandant
Papp is the Coast Guard’s 24th commandant. He previously led the service’s Atlantic Area, which oversees
operations in five Coast Guard districts and throughout the world in support of the Defense Depart-ment. Papp
has served on six ships and commanded four, including the nation’s only deployable tall ship, the Coast Guard
barque Eagle. Career highlights include commanding a unit during Opera-tion Uphold Democracy, augmenting
U.S. naval forces enforcing sanctions in Haiti in 1994. Papp is a native of Norwich, Conn. He graduated from the
U.S. Coast Guard Academy in New London, Conn., in 1975 and holds a master of arts degree in national
security studies from the Naval War College and a master of science degree in management from Salve Regina
College.
Organization, Missions
and Capabilities
Coast Guard Headquarters in Washington provides administrative support to operational units and is responsible
for overseeing the service’s logistics, human resources, intelligence, acquisitions, and research and development.
The commandant is the Coast Guard’s most senior official; he is supported by a vice commandant.
Since 2007, the Coast Guard has been undergoing what it calls a “modernization” process, reorganizing its staff
to streamline operations and support to further align the makeup of the service with the other armed forces.
Under modernization, the Coast Guard has one four-star billet — the commandant — and five three-star billets:
the vice commandant, the deputy commandant for operations, the deputy commandant for mission support, the
Atlantic Area commander and the Pacific Area commander. Headquarters staff oversees numerous directorates:
human resources; intelligence and criminal investigation; engineering and logistics; marine safety, security and
stewardship; command, control, communications and information technology; capability; resources; and
acquisition.
The operational Coast Guard is divided into two major commands: Pacific Area and Atlantic Area. Pacific Area
is responsible for four Coast Guard districts, from west of the Rocky Mountains to the western Pacific. Atlantic
Area oversees five districts, from the Gulf of Mexico to the Canadian border. Large logistics centers once
established to support each operational command — maintenance and logistics command centers Pacific and
Atlantic — have been disestablished and their functions now fall under aviation, surface forces and shore
infrastructure logistics centers, which fall under the jurisdiction of the deputy commandant for mission support.
The deputy commandant for operations, originally intended to be the single operational commander combining
the Pacific and Atlantic areas, is responsible for marine safety, security and capability.
The districts are divided into 35 sectors, responsible for all activities within their area of operations, including
port activities. Sector commanders report to district commanders, who, in turn, report to area commands. District
commanders also work closely with first responders, local governments and area law enforcement personnel to
ensure communication and cooperation on a range of subjects and emergency response plans. Some parts of the
country have separate Coast Guard groups that oversee small boat forces and air stations. These units report
directly to district offices. The Coast Guard also operates 24 air stations, oversees 941 shore facilities, has 250
ships, 1,784 boats smaller than 65 feet and 198 aircraft.
The service trains its enlisted personnel at Coast Guard Training Center Cape May, N.J., and its officers in New
London, Conn.
The U.S. Coast Guard has 11 core missions, according to the Homeland Security Act of 2002 — five homeland
security and six non-homeland security tasks.
Homeland Security Missions
Before the 9/11 attacks on the United States, the Coast Guard devoted 38 percent of its operational hours to
homeland and maritime security missions and 62 percent to non-homeland security missions with a focus on
search and rescue and maritime mobility. Today, it spends more than 57 percent of its operational hours on
homeland security missions, according to the Coast Guard. These include:
■ PORTS, WATERWAYS AND COASTAL SECURITY
The Coast Guard is responsible for securing the nation’s ports and maritime borders — 361 ports and 95,000
miles of coastline and navigable waterways. It also is charged with enforcing federal laws and laws of the sea,
including vessel safety regulations, inspections and oversight.
■ DRUG AND MIGRANT INTERDICTION
In fiscal 2010, the service captured 36,739 pounds of marijuana and 202,402 pounds of cocaine. From October
2009 to September 2010, it intercepted 2,088 immigrants attempting to enter the United States illegally from
various countries, including Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Cuba and Mexico.
■ NATIONAL DEFENSE
The Coast Guard’s role in national defense is to provide personnel for maritime intercept operations, security
and port defense operations, peacekeeping and environmental protection operations.
Non-homeland Security Missions
■ MARITIME SAFETY
The Coast Guard’s search-and-rescue role remains its most visible mission, and during an average year the
service rescues more than 5,000 people from U.S. and international waters. The service’s maritime safety
mission also encompasses marine and boating safety and ice patrols. The service is responsible for setting rules
and standards for safe boating and maritime commerce, transportation and navigation. The Coast Guard manages
a marine safety program that oversees regulation and inspection of boaters and merchant vessels, including the
licensing of masters and crews.
The Coast Guard Auxiliary supports the service’s marine safety program, conducting boating safety courses,
holding marine examinations for recreational boaters, offering free safety inspections for civilian boat owners,
reporting the condition of aids-to-navigation and supporting the inspection of commercial facilities.
■ MARITIME MOBILITY
The Coast Guard works to ensure the safety of domestic shipping-related trade by overseeing ports and
maintaining navigable waterways and harbors. Critical to marine traffic, the service’s aids-to-navigation program
and vessel traffic services guide the safe movement of all vessels.
Each year, more than 8,000 foreign-flag vessels call at U.S. ports. Twenty-five percent of U.S. domestic trade is
moved by water and more than 134 million passengers transit U.S. waters on ferries, cruise ships and floating
casinos, according to Coast Guard statistics. There also are more than 16 million recreational watercraft in the
United States.
Coast Guard officials believe that in the next 25 years, greater numbers of ultra-large, deep-draft ships and
mammoth cruise ships, carrying 6,000 or more people, will be on the water. The projected increase demands
continued effective control over the ship traffic.
■ MARINE ENVIRONMENTAL
PROTECTION AND FISHERIES ENFORCEMENT
The Coast Guard protects the nation’s natural marine resources and is responsible for overseeing response to
incidents of maritime pollution. It enforces fisheries and poaching laws worldwide and oversees maritime
pollution cleanup both at home and abroad. As multimission platforms, Coast Guard cutters conduct fisheries
patrols at the same time they are deployed for mi-grant and narcotics interdiction operations.
The Coast Guard maintains a 200-member national strike force trained in chemical, biological and hazardous
material cleanup and investigation. Its marine safety offices maintain assets to respond to oil and hazardous
material spills in waterways and they investigate such events to determine who is responsible.
The Coast Guard also is charged with ensuring that the nation’s more than 100,000 commercial fishing vessels
abide by U.S. regulations and it enforces national and international fishing regulations. The service anticipates
that as the world’s fish stocks decline, its role in fisheries law enforcement will grow, placing more
responsibility on the service as an international peacekeeper and enforcer.
■ ICE OPERATIONS
The Coast Guard manages the U.S. portion of the International Ice Patrol, a seasonal service from mid-February
through July that monitors the movement of icebergs in the North Atlantic.
The service also has a mission to maintain the nation’s military icebreaking fleet. In recent years, however, it has
been unable to meet some of its mission requirements because its two heavy-duty icebreakers, Polar Star and
Polar Sea, at the end of their service lives, have suffered mission-altering breakdowns. In July, Polar Sea
suffered catastrophic engine failure and limped back to port in Seattle to enter dry dock. It is expected to return
to service in January. Polar Star, which was placed in caretaker status in 2006, is currently in dry dock. Coast
Guard officials hope it will return to service in 2013. When operable, Polar Star and Polar Sea are the country’s
most capable icebreakers, able to break through ice up to 1.8 meters thick.
The nation’s largest icebreaker is the Coast Guard cutter Healy, a 420-foot vessel able to break ice 1.4 meters
thick. In addition to its icebreaking capabilities, Healy is a state-of-the-art research vessel. It is used primarily to
support science missions in the Arctic region.