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WASHINGTON, Oct. 2, 2008 – Legislation imposing tough penalties for operating undocumented semi-submersible vessels in international waters would help drug-interdiction efforts, the deputy chief of the Coast Guard’s Law Enforcement Office said Sept. 30. Self-propelled semi-submersibles, or SPSSs, are small sea vessels, usually less than 100 feet in length, designed to sink themselves when detected, Coast Guard Cmdr. Cameron Naron explained to bloggers in a teleconference. Drug traffickers are adapting the technology with increasing success to evade law enforcement, he said. “Drug-trafficking organizations continue to adapt these vessels … to our law enforcement successes,” Naron said. “These SPSSs were once...

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Midgett and U.S. Navy maritime patrol aircraft teamed up to interdict a stateless, self-propelled, semi-submersible vessel Wednesday with seven tons of cocaine aboard approximately 400 miles south of the Mexico-Guatemala border. The 60-foot, self-propelled, semi-submersible (SPSS) craft was detected by a U.S. Navy aircraft. The aircraft vectored Midgett to the location of the SPSS whereupon the Coast Guard quickly commenced a boarding of the stateless SPSS. The Coast Guard boarding team located 295 bales of cocaine, valued at more than $196 million, in a huge forward compartment. The SPSS became unstable and began...

Somebody has it. Nevada Smith, a lieutenant commander in the Coast Guard, a search and rescue helicopter pilot, has that gut feeling. “I find things,” he said, “I decode things, I break things down. We go to Alaska and look for a guy and say: Is he hunting for mountain goats? He’d be on the top of the mountain. Is he hunting for deer? He’d be at the bottom of the mountain.” So simple. But this is Portsmouth where a parking lot is flat and a missing photo album can’t send up any signals to say, “Hey! I’m over here!”...

ROTA, Spain, Sept. 22, 2008 – Civilian leaders who visited here today had seen the Coast Guard in action in U.S. waterways, patrolling ports and harbors, interdicting drug smugglers, and sometimes conducting heroic search-and-rescue missions as depicted in the movie, “The Guardian.” So Coast Guard Capt. Robert Wagner, commander of Coast Guard Cutter Dallas, greeted Joint Civilian Orientation Conference participants here today with the rhetorical question he knew all had on their minds: “What is the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Dallas doing in Rota, Spain?” In addition to its historic role protecting U.S. coastlines from external threats while promoting...

Ever since Russia planted a flag under the North Pole last year, the issue of sovereign rights under an increasingly slushy arctic has tensed. In a race to claim ownership of some of the arctic seabed, a two-ship caravan of Canadian and U.S. scientists is sailing around the Arctic Ocean right now. Their mission, which will last from September 6th to October 1st, is to measure the seabed and the continental margins in an attempt to solidify our possible rights over the far north—an area that will become accessible to oil drilling and mining as the earth warms and arctic...

WASHINGTON, Sept. 8, 2008 – In the wake of Hurricane Gustav, the Coast Guard is making preparations for a possible wave of tropical storms and hurricanes, a senior Coast Guard officer said Sept. 5. “We don’t have a lot of bench strength, but we’re moving forces around in preparation for each one of these operations to position them so that we can respond,” Coast Guard Vice Adm. Robert J. Papp Jr., commander of the Coast Guard Atlantic Area, told bloggers during a teleconference to address the current storm systems in the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico. To be...

WASHINGTON, Aug. 28, 2008 – The Coast Guard Cutter Dallas has finished off-loading humanitarian relief supplies in the Georgian city of Batumi and has left port, a Defense Department official said here today. Since Russia invaded Georgia on Aug. 9, all of the U.S. aid that has gone to the nation has been humanitarian relief, Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman told reporters. Defense officials said that Russia still has troops in Georgia and is not living up to the terms of a cease-fire agreement. The Dallas unloaded 34 short tons of aid at the port, raising the U.S. total to 947...

(CBS/AP) The United States has canceled plans to try to dock a military ship carrying humanitarian aid in the Georgian port of Poti, where Russian forces are posted on the outskirts, a U.S. Embassy spokesman said Wednesday. The ship, the Coast Guard cutter Dallas, was to have come to the Black Sea port Wednesday morning. But embassy spokesman Stephen Guice said the vessel instead will dock in Batumi, a port well south of the zone of fighting in this month's war between Russia and Georgia. Guice said he did not have information on why the plan was changed. Poti's port...

WASHINGTON, Aug. 25, 2008 – The Coast Guard is testing and compiling initial lessons learned from its ongoing Arctic operations, a senior officer said last week. “It became obvious to me 18 months to two years ago that with the retreat of the multiyear polar sea ice, the Coast Guard was going to have to do more than it had in the past to provide maritime safety and security to northern and western Alaska, the Arctic Ocean and the Beaufort Sea,” Coast Guard Rear Adm. Arthur E. Brooks, commander of the 17th Coast Guard District, told bloggers and online journalists...

NAPLES, Italy, Aug. 21, 2008 – Two Navy ships and a Coast Guard cutter are transporting humanitarian relief supplies to Georgia. Navy Petty Officer 1st Class Jeff Weaver and Petty Officer 2nd Class Gary Smith prepare humanitarian aid supplies for loading aboard USS McFaul at Souda Bay, Crete, Aug. 20, 2008. Nearly 55 tons of supplies were loaded as part of the humanitarian assistance for the Georgia following the conflict between Russian and Georgian forces in the former Soviet republic. U.S. Navy Photo by Petty Officer 3rd Class Eddie Harrison   (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. These deployments...

WASHINGTON, Aug. 15, 2008 – Coast Guardsmen soon will be training to join Navy SEAL teams, a senior Coast Guard officer said today. Rear Adm. Thomas F. Atkin, commander of the Coast Guard’s deployable operations group, said four Coast Guardsmen -- two officers and two enlisted sailors -- will be selected to begin basic underwater demolition school later this year. If they graduate, the admiral said, they will become full-fledged members of Navy SEAL teams and deploy with those teams worldwide. Atkins called the development the beginning of an exciting new era in the Coast Guard. “Certainly this is historic,...

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A U.S. Coast Guard cutter will embark on an Arctic voyage this week to determine the extent of the continental shelf north of Alaska and map the ocean floor, data that could be used for oil and natural gas exploration. U.S. and University of New Hampshire scientists on the Coast Guard Cutter Healy will leave Barrow, Alaska, on Thursday on a three-week journey. They will create a three-dimensional map of the Arctic Ocean floor in a relatively unexplored area known as the Chukchi borderland.

    SERVING THE BEST TROOPS IN THE WORLD This week we celebrate the birthday of The United States Coast Guard! August 4 is celebrated as Coast Guard Day to honor the establishment on that day in 1790 of the Revenue Cutter Service, forbearer of today's Coast Guard. The United States Coast Guard is this nation's oldest maritime agency. SEATTLE - A Maritime Safety and Security Team member conducts a vertical insertion demonstration from an HH-60 Jayhawk helicopter from Air Station Astoria, Ore., during Seattle Seafair on Lake Washington. Seafair is one of the Pacific Northwest's largest maritime festivals....

8/4/2008 - WASHINGTON (AFPN) -- The following birthday message is sent to the men and women of the U.S. Coast Guard from Adm. Michael G. Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff: On this, the 218th birthday of the United States Coast Guard, our nation pauses to say thanks to you, our guardians of the sea. For more than two centuries, you and your families have stood, always ready for the call, in light or darkness, with sunny skies or through howling gales, to respond to crises and to fight in every one of our nation's armed conflicts. Today,...

U.S. Coast Guard Day Commemorate the 1790 founding of the Revenue Cutter Service, which in 1915 merged with the Life Saving Service to form the U.S. Coast Guard.

Report: 63% of All Oil in U.S. Waters Comes From Nature, 1% From Offshore Drilling 07/14/2008 - 03:51:26 PM FOX News reports that 63 percent of all oil in U.S. waters comes from natural seepage, 32 percent comes from consumers (boaters, jetskiers, etc.) and only 1 percent comes from offshore drilling. They also note that the U.S. Coast Guard has documented a dramatic reduction in oil spills in the last 30 years as environmentally friendly drilling technology has advanced.

WASHINGTON, July 8, 2008 – Long known to protect the waters surrounding the United States, the question asked each time someone sees them is, “What is the U.S. Coast Guard doing here?” Chief Petty Officer Daniel Kinville and Petty Officer 2nd Class Lauren Kowalewski are part of an eight-person unit from the Coast Guard’s 1179th Deployment Support Brigade, and are the only two Coast Guard personnel in Afghanistan. “Usually, everyone’s first reaction when they see us is shock,” said Kowalewski, a Pittsburgh native. “They can’t seem to figure out why we’re so far from the U.S. coast and why we’re...

The Coast Guard just rolled out the most sophisticated ship it’s ever commissioned, packed with new technology to help in the hunt for drug smugglers and terrorists.The cutter Bertholf — 418 feet from stem to stern — is set to patrol the Pacific from California to Ecuador — a patch of ocean as large as the United States.“The bubble that’s around this ship that we can see and hear and respond to is much larger than any cutter we've ever built,” said Adm. Thad Allen, commandant of the Coast Guard, referring to the range of the guns, fast boats,...

For your lunchtime reading and viewing: Popular Mechanics editor-in-chief James Meigs was kind enough to send an advance copy of the magazine’s July 2008 issue. I can’t put it down. The cover story is about an amazing Coast Guard rescue effort in March, when the Alaska Ranger ship sank.Read all about it and watch video here.As an aside, the Coast Guard cutter Munro is named after Coast Guard signalman and Medal of Honor recipient Douglas Munro, whose bravery I wrote about while working at the Seattle Times and recounted here. Amazing stories of heroism, then and now.Go Coast Guard!

U.S. Coast Guard Tall Ship Eagle If you've ever wanted to tour a tall ship, now is your chance. Starting Thursday, the U.S. Coast Guard will sponsor free tours of the only square-rigged sailing ship in the U.S. fleet when it docks in Astoria at the Maritime Museum, 1792 Marine Drive. The tall ship Eagle, also known as the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Barque Eagle, has been under way for the past two months, serving as a hands-on classroom for Coast Guard cadets at the Coast Guard Academy in New London, Conn. According to Coast Guard spokesman Lt. Adam...

WASHINGTON, June 11, 2008 – The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said last night that military and federal agencies should become more like the Coast Guard by stepping up levels of flexibility, mutual engagement and cooperation. Speaking to the Coast Guard Foundation here, Navy Adm. Mike Mullen described his vision for the future of the U.S. armed forces. “I’m fond of saying that the military should become more ‘Special Forces-like’ today -- more agile, lethal and networked,” the nation’s top military officer said. “But I also think we should become more ‘Coast Guard-like’ -- more flexible, more engaged...

Joy from rescue of 5 Aggie boaters turns grim when 6th member of capsized boat crew is found dead amid wreckage A day that started with the joyous rescue of five crew members of a Texas A&M University at Galveston sailboat closed with the somber discovery of the sixth sailor's body in the wreckage of the sunken ship. Roger Stone, whose body was recovered by a salvage crew Sunday about 27 miles southeast of Freeport, was called a hero for helping two students escape from below decks seconds before the Cynthia Woods capsized. "I'm sure that's what lost his life,"...

NORFOLK A 20-year Coast Guard veteran was sentenced today to 9 months in federal prison for passing confidential information to his mistress, the owner of a fishing fleet who was convicted of hiring illegal immigrant workers. Morris Wade Hughes of Chesapeake, a petty officer, also was ordered to serve 150 days of home confinement after his release from prison. U.S. District Judge Raymond A. Jackson imposed a $2,000 fine as well. During a three-year affair with Michelle Peabody, whose family runs Peabody Corp., a commercial fishing company based in Newport News, Hughes passed confidential information to Peabody regarding the location...

Our president was busy today with public events. President Bush signed H.R. 493, the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act of 2008, President Bush Signs H.R. 493, the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act of 2008 President Bush marked this the Day of Solidarity with the Cuban people. President Bush Discusses Cuba, Marks Day of Solidarity He met with the Maronite Patriarch of Lebanon Nasrallah Sfeir in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, President Bush met with Veterans of Foreign Wars National Commander George Lisicki in the Oval Office. Vice President Dick Cheney delivered the main address during U.S. Coast...

WASHINGTON, May 21, 2008 – The efforts of the men and women of the U.S. Coast Guard are essential to victory in the war against terrorism, Vice President Richard B. Cheney told graduating cadets at their academy commencement today in New London, Conn. Video “When you stepped forward to serve the United States, it was already clear that these are decisive times in the life of our country,” Cheney told members of the Class of 2008 at the U.S. Coast Guard Academy. “It’s rare for an academy class to begin during a war and then graduate during that same...

After Action Report Coast Guard Academy Graduation support rally, May 21, 2008 Hi folks, it was good to be back in the saddle again. Today, the following Eagles took part in what is most likely our annual Coast Guard Academy Graduation support rally: Jim Bancroft Larry Baily Carolyn VanZorge Fernando Martinez Bill Wilkins Eva Bauman Kathy Upton Pamela Hall Dave Russo Dan Maloney "NEW" Eagle Ted Bakacs Paul Leblanc The New York/New Jersey Eagles showed up earlier than most due to dedication on their part and computer failure on my part which would have had me only 10 minutes late...

The Gathering of Eagles, a patriotic organization dedicated to honoring our men and women in uniform and those who are honorable veterans, announces our latest event in honoring the graduates of the Coast Guard Academy by welcoming their families and supporters to their graduation ceremony on May 21, 2008. We will be in front of the entrance on Mohegan Ave, at the intersection of Williams and Mohegan from 7 AM to 1 PM that day, waving flags, carrying patriotic signs and singing patriotic songs in an effort to welcome the families to what is a most honored event; the graduation...

All Wisconsin boaters may be required to carry photo identification as federal officials consider tighter security of the nation's more than 17 million small vessels. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security has issued a report calling for stepped-up security of all boats, including the nearly 600,000 registered in Wisconsin, noting that terrorists have used small vessels elsewhere in the world for attacks.Homeland Security's effort to regulate boats represents one of its furthest-reaching security efforts that touch Americans' lives, perhaps only surpassed by airline passenger screening.Boating has long been a largely unregulated activity in some states. In Wisconsin, boaters must register...

4/28/2008 - LANGLEY AIR FORCE BASE, Va. (AFPN) -- Coast Guard aircrew students completed altitude-chamber training taught by the 1st Fighter Wing Airmen here April 23. The base provides training for all Coast Guard members and the instructors tailor the class specifically to them, said Master Sgt. Rodney Morris, the 1st Aerospace Medical Squadron NCO in charge of aerospace physiology. The two-part training involves a classroom portion where Langley AFB instructors travel to Elizabeth City, N.C., to teach. The second portion involves the altitude-chamber and is conducted here at a later date. The Coast Guard students are usually aircrew members...

What was supposed to be a fun family vacation for John "Jay" Rosenberry turned into a nightmare when his son and daughter and two others struggled to get out of a riptide that was pulling them out to sea. Rosenberry, a Tucson resident, was honored last week by the U.S. Coast Guard for saving the lives of his children, as well as that of another young boy. He received the Silver Lifesaving Medal at a ceremony in Virginia on Friday — nearly two years after the incident occurred July 24, 2006, at Portsmouth Island, just off the coast of North...

HAVANA (Reuters) - The number of Cubans risking their lives to leave their communist-run country illegally by sea to reach the United States is rising, U.S. officials in Havana said on Thursday. Since October 1, 2007, 2,891 Cubans have tried to cross the Florida Straits; 1,697 made it to the United States and were allowed to stay while the U.S. Coast Guard intercepted 1,194 and sent them back. The U.S. officials said the figures showed that average Cubans had little faith that life would improve in the one-party socialist state under President Raul Castro, who succeeded his ailing brother Fidel...

SEATTLE — Four people died Sunday off the coast of Alaska when a commercial fishing boat carrying 47 people began sinking west of the remote port town of Dutch Harbor, officials with the Coast Guard said. Forty-two people were rescued by the Coast Guard about 120 miles west of Dutch Harbor, in the Aleutian Islands. One person remained missing on Sunday afternoon, and a search was being conducted with helicopters and a C-130 plane, officials said. One of the four died in the rescue operation, they said. The authorities on Sunday had not released the names of the four people...

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — Four crew members died Sunday and another was missing after a Seattle-based fishing boat began sinking in high seas off Alaska's Aleutian Islands, the Coast Guard said. The dead were among 47 crew members who abandoned ship after the 184-foot Alaska Ranger developed problems. Forty-two crew members were recovered safely, but a search was continuing for the missing person, said Chief Petty Officer Barry Lane. The vessel started taking on water shortly before 3 a.m. after losing control of its rudder 120 miles west of Dutch Harbor, which is on Unalaska Island.

Towing the aircraft carrier John F. Kennedy to Philadelphia for storage has proved to be a complex ordeal. There's only a 20-minute window each day when it can be safely eased alongside Pier 4 in South Philadelphia, where it will be stored. That's the daylight high tide, when the swift current is slack. High winds kept the big ship at sea Thursday and yesterday, with its small crew of line handlers camped out on the vast empty and cold ship. The Kennedy was scheduled to enter the Delaware Bay at 9 last night and begin a slow 18-hour trek to...

<p>A man bitten by a shark while diving over the weekend has died, the U.S. Coast Guard in Miami announced on Monday.</p> <p>The 50-year-old man "passed away from his injuries sustained by a shark bite," said Coast Guard spokeswoman Petty Officer Jennifer Johnson.</p>

MIAMI (CBS News) ― The Air Force says both pilots from two missing fighter jets have been rescued in the Gulf of Mexico. Eglin Air Force Base spokeswoman Shirley Pigott confirmed the pilots' rescue. Their single-seat F-15C Eagles disappeared about 2 p.m. CST Wednesday off the Florida Panhandle, about 35 miles south of Tyndall Air Force Base. More than 60 Coast Guard personnel had been involved in the search using multiple helicopters, cutters and jets, said Coast Guard Petty Officer James Harless. Air Force officials are investigating. Coast guard officials in New Orleans told CBS News affiliate WWL-TV that they...

Two fighter jets crashed into the Gulf of Mexico during a training mission Wednesday, but the pilots ejected and were later rescued, the Air Force said. Eglin Air Force Base spokeswoman Shirley Pigott said the pilots were rescued after their single-seat F-15C Eagles disappeared Wednesday afternoon off the Florida Panhandle, about 35 miles south of Tyndall Air Force Base. The Air Force has not determined if the planes collided. Weather in the area was clear. Coast Guard Petty Officer James Harless said a Coast Guard rescue jet located one pilot and radioed the location to a fishing vessel, which picked...

It seems drug smugglers are always coming up with new and innovative ways to get their drugs onto U.S streets. Well here's the latest, it's a drug smuggling submarine, it's a one of a kind - it's the only one that's ever been captured and made it to shore. It looks like a boat skimming the waves but look closer -- it's actually one of the latest innovations in drug smuggling. "We had a nick name, we called it "big foot" because there were a lot of intelligence that they may have been there, but we never saw one," Joe...

A U.S. Coast Guard officer and devout Catholic has filed suit to prevent being forced to receive a vaccination derived from the lung of an aborted child after a higher ranking officer disputed his understanding of Church theology. The Alliance Defense Fund filed a complaint last week in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia on behalf of Lt. Cmdr. Joseph Healy, charging the government with using its own arbitrary judgment of what constitutes Catholic theology while permitting religious exemptions to others, effectively discriminating against Healy's sincerely held religious beliefs. Healy's request for religious exemption cited a 2005...

Recording an entry in the Coast Guard log is usually a staid affair. But once a year, on New Year's Eve, some writers show their poetic flair. This year, the tradition of applying verse to the midnight log - normally a matter-of-fact accounting of the day's events - fell at the Curtis Bay Coast Guard station to Petty Officer Stephen Park...

Colombian drug smugglers deliberately sank a submarine off the country's Pacific coast this week that had been filled with tonnes of cocaine destined for the US, the country's navy said. The homemade submarine was spotted by a Colombian air force plane and pursued by Colombian navy and US Coast Guard boats. The submarine's four crew members opened the hatches and allowed water to enter before surrendering. The craft, with an estimated capacity of 12 tonnes of cocaine, sank in 3,000 metres of water, said Admiral Edgar Cely, the navy's chief of operations. The crew's clothing was covered with traces of...

A U.S. Coast Guard cutter is searching part of Prince William Sound this morning for a LifeGuard helicopter that went missing last night en route to Providence Alaska Medical Center with a patient aboard, the Coast Guard said. The U.S. Air Force is expected to launch a C-130 and a helicopter this morning to assist in the search...

WASHINGTON, Nov. 16, 2007 – The Joint Civilian Orientation Conference wrapped up its week-long trip Nov. 10 across the U.S. Pacific Command back in Hawaii with an overview of the U.S. Coast Guard, its missions and capabilities. Following an all-night flight from Japan aboard the C-17 that had served as the group’s shuttle from country to country, participants hit the ground running boarding U.S. Coast Guard cutters and talking to coast guardsmen from Honolulu’s 14th District. Responsible for more than 12 million square miles of the central Pacific Ocean -- an area more than two and a half times...

NAVAL STATION GUANTANAMO BAY, Cuba, Nov. 14, 2007 – Three weeks out of every four, Coast Guard Petty Officer 1st Class Daniel Figueroa studies the North Atlantic waters from an HU-25 “Falcon” aircraft, looking for illegal fishing ships and vessels in trouble. Coast Guard Capts. Steve Pittman (left) and Eric Popiel consult a map during a surveillance patrol over the Windward Pass. Photo by Donna Miles  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. But on a rotational basis, Figueroa and other members of from U.S. Coast Guard Air Station Cape Cod, in Massachusetts, carry out a distinctly different mission here....

11/12/2007 - Several remain closed, as crews in hazmat suits work to clean up the shoreline. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi grilled the U.S. Coast Guard Monday during a tour of her district's environmental disaster caused by last week's 58,000 gallon oil spill in the San Francisco Bay. It's clear a Congressional investigation is coming over the notification: why it took 8 hours to determine it was much more than the 140-gallon spill, they first reported. And why it took another four hours after that to notify the public. "The fact that this could happen raises serious questions about what the...

I just got home from a 4 day business trip to San Diego. While I was walking this morning along the bay, I saw two very fast, dark gray/camo hull boats go by at high speed. They had what could be missile racks aft and a gun mount (but no gun) forward. They certainly looked military, came up the bay from below the Coronado Bridge, passed the carriers, and headed out towards Point Loma. Does the USN or USCG deploy boats fitting this description? They reminded me of a super-modern PT boat, but I didn't think we had any of...

LAFD, Baywatch assisting USCG on rescue....

ON NEW YORK'S EAST RIVER -- For more than 200 years, the U.S. Coast Guard has been a force in high-seas rescue missions. Now, the service branch is aiming to be a greater force in the war on terrorism. 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 3,000 members that can raid and search cargo ships, drop onto threatening boats from helicopters, search for underwater bombs and use bomb-sniffing dogs to help them look for explosives....

WASHINGTON, Sept. 24, 2007 – About 300 children and spouses of deployed servicemembers enjoyed free activities and programs Sept. 22 during “Deployed Family Fun Day” at a Coast Guard installation near Fort Belvoir, Va. A daughter of a deployed servicemember does the limbo during "Deployed Family Fun Day" held Sept. 22, 2007, at a Coast Guard installation near Fort Belvoir, Va. The day was full of fun activities for the children and informational programs for the parents. Courtesy photo by Cassie Camp  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. “Our primary focus was toward the children who have a parent...