State of the USCG

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ADM Zunkunft's point is that the USCG is historically a part of the military in time of war, so if you accept that the U.S. is presently in a global war on terror, then the CG should be budgeted accordingly. It seems that's not how the current administration sees it, which is puzzling.
 
Fighting for a piece of the budget when you're comparatively small is always a challenge. The Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines, Defense Dept. gets the big bucks and the glory. The Coast Guard (part of Homeland Security) is easily overlooked and under appreciated.

That's unfortunate because they really do perform duties that protect the US homeland from attack and terrorism on a daily basis. (And I'm not talking about harassing us poor boaters.:angel:)
If it weren't for port inspections and coastal surveillance, that nut case in North Korea would have probably already sent us an A-bomb for Christmas, hidden away in the bilge of a rusty freighter. :eek:
 
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The purpose of posting the link wasn't to debate their budget, but was to show what it is they do. Often questions come up, so to see it quantified, I felt was interesting.
 
They were out with the local sheriff today boarding vessels south of St Augustine, Fl.

Guess how I know..... :D
 
I'm sure there are still some people in congress who remember the CG Deepwater fiasco and vote accordingly.
 
That article is nothing more than posturing for budget. I'd gladly trade my share of the debt in exchange for privatizing the services the coast guard provides.
 
And the sad thing is the Deepwater fiasco was to keep Congress happy because they kept saying how the military in general was lousy at design and contracting.

Heaven for bin they blame it on their defense contracting buddies who were at least equally at fault.

For privatizing it...good luck with that...many have tried and many have failed even for some of the simple missions.
 
Let's just say I have a good time meeting new, young coasties....

And no sweat passing, be pretty embarrassing if I didnt. :)
 
psneeld said:
They were out with the local sheriff today boarding vessels south of St Augustine, Fl.

Guess how I know..... :D
Click to expand...

They have boarded me twice in the Chesapeake Bay (different years). An elderly white couple cruising along at seven knots in a trawler must look pretty suspicious. :rolleyes:

BTW: That Coast Guard Auxiliary safety sticker on the port window did not impress them one bit.
 
I don't begrudge being stopped by the USCG. It is part of their duty to ensure safety at sea and I usually learn something in the process. It also gives those kids yet another boarding experience in a relatively safe and controlled environment.
 
kev_rm said:
That article is nothing more than posturing for budget. I'd gladly trade my share of the debt in exchange for privatizing the services the coast guard provides.
Click to expand...

I read the admiral's speech exactly the way kev_rm did, as a positioning statement for his agency's upcoming budget fight. Understandably so - the administration proposes to eviscerate the U.S. Coast Guard.

However, I am with psneeld in opposing privatization. Contracting and procurement are okay as far as they go, but nothing about the Coast Guard's missions should have any relationship to someone making a profit. What they do is too important for that.
 
Many would be amazed at how many mom and pop boats have been seized full of drugs...

Plus, the best way to not be criticized for profiling...is don't operate that way.

I too think there is huge waste in the USCG in certain places and at times.

Some internally driven, some externally.

No large organization, public or private can stand rapid changes in policy and operations. The military is particularly hard as it isn't a hire and fire type, and if it was, not many good people would join.
 
When I was a kid in the early 50's, what I remember most (which stuck with me for many years) was seeing news of Coast Guard cutters in the far north breaking ice. So what. In the Army during Viet Nam, I had no respect for the Coast Guard or it's people. That lasted until I started being interested in boats. Proximity, to a military organization, and being retired from the Army, I now feel they are necessary and deserving of any budgetary and public support.
 
Blissboat said:
However, I am with psneeld in opposing privatization. Contracting and procurement are okay as far as they go, but nothing about the Coast Guard's missions should have any relationship to someone making a profit. What they do is too important for that.
Click to expand...

+1
 
Edelweiss said:
Fighting for a piece of the budget when you're comparatively small is always a challenge. The Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines, Defense Dept. gets the big bucks and the glory..
Click to expand...

A bit of a hot potato topic, but I'd have to politely disagree about the big bucks comment. Sadly my brother served in the Army with 2 tours in the sandbox (came back with medical problems but that's another story) and I can tell you the Army grunts on the ground have some of the worst equipment.
I haven't done enough research to say what is the "right" budget for the USCG, but I have to say no matter who is in charge in DC, someone has got to find a way to cut something in our insatiable bloated government.
I think it was M. Thatcher that said "the problem with Socialism is that eventually you run out of other people's money..."
(Sorry to get off topic a bit)
 
Capt.Bill11 said:
:facepalm:
Click to expand...


I hope you understand what I was saying there - that figure is about $1M per tax payer. Suppliers would FLOOD the market for that kind of quan. There'd be wine and cheese provided whenever you ran out of gas and we'd each have our own satellite for emergency communications.
 
It's been tried and the contractors didn't bother to renew when tried.....lost revenue or couldn't get people to do the job for so little.

Also don't think assistance towing ALWAYS goes out to retrieve....there were plenty of times I deferred to the USCG due to conditions or size.
 
psneeld said:
Many would be amazed at how many mom and pop boats have been seized full of drugs...

Plus, the best way to not be criticized for profiling...is don't operate that way.

I too think there is huge waste in the USCG in certain places and at times.

Some internally driven, some externally.

No large organization, public or private can stand rapid changes in policy and operations. The military is particularly hard as it isn't a hire and fire type, and if it was, not many good people would join.
Click to expand...

The point is that every organization has some amount of waste and when you have as many bosses as the USCG does it only increases it. Large organizations struggle with change and take longer than one thinks it should.

As to checks, I applaud random checks along with active suspected monitoring. Years ago I was clearing back into Miami from Colombia and a co-worker was pulled aside because of his name, but they quickly realized he wasn't the one by that name they were looking for, but I saw a lady with a baby in a stroller who was being booked.

We had the innocent appearing charter boat out of West Palm a couple of years ago.

I read the article for the statistics, not the campaign for funds or bills or anything else. I just found the numbers interesting.
 
The argument could be made that each of the armed services overlaps the others to some extent and that it could be more efficient if they were combined into fewer or even one.


As for random boardings, why not do the same on land? People's homes, people's vehicles, even people walking down the street in high crime or drug areas?


There's no real difference.
 
The Supreme Court says so...

There has been a lot of that info posted through the years on boating forums, magazines, nautical books....
 
WesK said:
The argument could be made that each of the armed services overlaps the others to some extent and that it could be more efficient if they were combined into fewer or even one.
Click to expand...

Please don't. That was tried up here and was reversed.

No brand identity, recruitment was a nightmare, sailors in charge of tankers, pilots in charge of frigates, Soldiers trying to swim...complete BS...

RB
 
Let commonsense prevail.
Australian warship HMAS Parramatta just rescued the crew of a dismasted South African sailboat in heavy seas, around 1000km east of the West Australian coast. A helicopter was used to pluck the crew off the boat, the seas were too wild to recover them any other way.
I doubt the crew mind that the helicopter was flown by Navy personnel and the ship was not operated by Coastguard.
 
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