DEPENDABLE ALLY IN WAR ON DRUGS

Cape May-Based Cutter Does Its Part In U.S. Coast Guard

CAPE MAY - Richard Sambenedetto Jr. just got back from 49-day
Caribbean cruise that took him along the coast of Cuba, Haiti,
Jamaica, Honduras, Nicaragua, Guatemala, and the Dominican Republic.

He enjoyed warm tropical breezes. He saw palm trees and beautiful
sunsets.

He also heard gunshots. And the accommodations were a bit Spartan.
Sambenedetto slept in a cubicle the size of a closet. He had to cook
his own food, and the cruise ship kept putting him to work - and not
just once in a while: He had to work 19-hour shifts.

It was all worth it Saturday when he arrived home with 1.5 tons of
cocaine to a hero's welcome.

Sambenedetto is in the U.S. Coast Guard. His cruise ship: the 210-foot
cutter Dependable.

The Dependable returned to port at U.S. Coast Guard Training Center
Cape May on Saturday and sailors like Sambenedetto, a cook and small
arms instructor, got to see their families for the first time in two
months.

"The best part is getting home. It doesn't get any better than this,"
Sambenedetto said as he cradled his 1-year-old daughter, Victoria
Morgan, in his arms, his wife, Sue, and 9-year-old son, Richard III,
by his side.

Fighting drug traffickers is no Caribbean cruise. That is why Sue was
so happy about the welcome the 74-member crew got. After making a
major drug bust and coming home with 3,000 pounds of cocaine, with a
street value of as much as $100 million, the Dependable was met by a
marching band and a congratulatory speech by U.S. Rep. Frank LoBiondo,
R-2nd.

"They've never had such a hero's welcome. I'm very proud of him," Sue
said.

The welcome took some of the sting out of the long period apart,
something Coast Guard spouses have to learn to deal with. Sambenedetto
has been in the service for 14 years, but it never gets any easier.

"It's difficult. You don't know where they are and what's going on.
The kids miss him. I can live with it, but they can't," Sue said.

In his speech, LoBiondo said Sept. 11 has overshadowed some of the
other Coast Guard missions, such as drug interdiction on the high
seas. Over the past six weeks, almost 33,000 pounds of drugs have been
seized in the Caribbean. Seven suspected drug smugglers were just
delivered to authorities in Miami.

The old Coast Guard cutters are so much slower than the boats used by
drug dealers, which typically go 35 knots compared to about 18 knots
for the Dependable, that the Coast Guard uses helicopters and smaller
boats. They often are launched from the Dependable, although air
support also comes from land bases. LoBiondo pledged to get more money
for faster cutters.

"While we love the Dependable, we are looking for more modern assets
to keep the scourge of drugs from coming to our shores," LoBiondo said.

The bales of cocaine were turned over to Brian Michael, a special
agent for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

"It's a tremendous amount of narcotics to take off the street. It's a
direct pipeline from these islands to the streets of New Jersey. We'll
take it back and destroy it. It will never hit the streets," Michael
said.

Dependable Cmdr. Mike Christian said the cocaine bust was one of three
with which the crew was involved during the latest tour of duty. All
three involved the Dependable chasing a boat the Coast Guard calls a
"go-fast," which are vessels 30 to 40 feet long designed to travel
light and go very, very fast, reaching speeds of 60 mph.

Early in the morning of Oct. 24, Christian said, a go-fast was found
traveling at 35 knots toward Jamaica. It was located by aerial
reconnaissance. Christian heaped praise on several crewmen for a chase
that ended the next night.

The first was Ensign Jack Sauders. Christian said Sauders plotted an
intercept course that took the Dependable within yards of the go-fast
vessel. With all lights and radios off to prevent detection and the
crew wearing night-vision goggles, the much larger Dependable sneaked
up on the alleged drug boat.

The Dependable launched a helicopter, armed with 50-caliber guns, and
a smaller boat. As they took chase, the go-fast took off as the
alleged smugglers heaved bales of cocaine overboard. Christian also
praised Lt. Jerry Sgobbo, who piloted the Dependable in the pursuit,
and Petty Officer 2nd Class Brian Hennessy, who led the boarding team
when the boat was stopped. Boarding is one of the scariest parts of
such operations because the boarding officers are never sure what to
expect.

The Dependable actually had at three run-ins with go-fasts during the
voyage, but only one bust. In other cases an ion scan showed cocaine
had been on the boats but no longer was there. Busts can't be made for
minute levels of the drug. The Dependable also conducted a
search-and-rescue operation and did some immigration-related work in
Cuba during the tour. They are now home for a month to six weeks.

Christian also praised Petty Officer 1st Class Tom Higgins, who
piloted the 21-foot boat against the go-fasts. In one encounter, he
said, Higgins used the setting sun - approaching the go-fast with the
sun behind him - to gain the element of surprise.

"Using the sun for cover he came in from the west, into treacherous
shoals, and startled them. He got in a high-speed pursuit as the sun
set and chased them until 1 a.m. It took incredible bravery and
stamina," Christian said.

The chase ended when an armed helicopter sprayed warning shots over
the bow. The helicopters have several options: They can use stink
bombs or drop nylon nets to foul boat propellers. The Coast Guard also
has sharpshooters who can take out an outboard engine, although the
go-fasts have as many as four outboards.

Christian did not single out Sambenedetto for any special praise. That
might be compliment enough - the chow must have been pretty good.

His mother, Florence Sambenedetto, who was at the homecoming with his
father, Richard Sr., gave her son the only compliment he needed.

"A mother just told me her son wrote home and said the food is really
good," Florence told her son.

The tour also included some humorous incidents. At one point a small
boat was detected sailing without running lights. They set an
intercept course and launched an armed boarding team. It turned out to
be a refrigerator floating on the water.