Gunboat scare a test for security

Charleston Post & Courier ^ | 7/16/02 | Tony Bartelme

[PJeffQ]

This picture was on the main page at Charleston.net

[FreedomFarmer]

"...a three hour tour."

[ContemptofCourt]

An hour and 40 minutes is a good response? And the guy finds the boats tied up to the pier? Did I miss something here?

[phasma proeliator]

"An hour and 40 minutes is a good response? And the guy finds the boats tied up to the pier? Did I miss something here?"

Apparently I missed it too.

[My2Cents]

Vessels in the program will fly a yellow flag with the words "Don't Tread on Me."

I love it.

[pabianice]

That is not a "gunboat." Sounds like the reporter/newspaper needs some Navy 101.

[PJeffQ]

Which is surprising with Charleston being a Navy town for so long... the only thing close to this picture I could find were some craft on http://www.fas.org/man/dod-101/sys/ship/craft.htm.

The Navy no-commented the story... and there was no caption for the picture on Charleston.net, I just assumed it was a picture of the supposed "gunboat".

The author's email address is bartelme@postandcourier.com if you want to ask him about it, they also have a military reporter on staff, Terry Joyce. Bartelme is the ports reporter.

[PJeffQ]

Excuse the typo in the link, the pic is at www.charleston.net

[pabianice]

THIS is a gunboat (coastal patrol boat USS Sirocco):

[Squantos]

Little Creek SBU 20 doing a little over the horizon ride has spooked the locals maybe ???.......LMBO !

Stay Safe !

[Squantos]

Too big , too slow....... Now the Mark V is real nice for the job at hand......:o)

Stay Safe !

[PJeffQ]

Isn't the Mark V named the Williams boat for BMFC James E. Williams (MOH recipient)?

[E.Allen]

Sounds like a Gadsden flag, remember the one in the history books with the coiled rattlesnake?

[PJeffQ]

Maybe that was unofficial, I'd heard that class anecdotally referred to as the Williams boats, but they are named an Arleigh Burke class destroyer after him last year... (DDG 95)

[PJeffQ]

It is similar to the Gadsden flag which has some roots in SC I believe... the SC Libertarian Party uses that along with a Moultrie Flag (Crescent with the word liberty).

[archy]

[PJeffQ]

History of the Gadsden flag

[My2Cents]

Yes, I was thinking the same thing. I think that would be a great emblem for this country to use again in the war on terror.

[Skwidd]

It's pretty easy to do this sort of thing in Charleston and then go crazy when there is a "failure."

I'm in the Navy and I work here at the Nuke school in Charleston. There is the old main base, which shut down in the early 90's, and the Weapons Station, which houses the Nuke school and various other small commands. Save for the occasional supply ship (AO or AE), there are no ships here. The Coast Guard has a post near here, but I have no idea what they do.

Interesting factoid--shortly after 9/11, 20/20 wanted to do an expose on the "faulty security of the nation's military bases." They picked Charleston (an easy target, I admit) and tried to hire a boat to get them as close to the Weapon Station as possible. The locals they were trying to hire alerted the military, who sent people out to question them. Oddly enough, this "report" never aired.

[SuziQ]

The Coast Guard and local maritime interests recently formed a "volunteer port security force," a program to use professional mariners to identify unusual activities in area waterways.

I saw this and thought about you. Is this the kind of work you are doing?