The Coast Guard

A NEW, EXPERIENCED PROTECTOR FOR THE NAVY IN HOME WATERS

NORFOLK, Va., Nov. 8 -- The Firebolt, one of the Navy's newest, fastest
ships, built to insert and extract commandos in exotic places around the
globe, zipped through the Chesapeake Bay this morning on a new mission:
homeland defense. And in place of Navy Seals, it had a new strike team: a
boarding party from the United States Coast Guard.

For the first time since World War II, the Coast Guard is defending Navy
ships in United States waters as well as taking a more vigorous look at
thousands of ships entering those waters, checking their cargoes and crews.

And to bolster Coast Guard resources further, the Navy is providing six of
its Cyclone-class ships, including the Firebolt, complete with crews to
ferry the Coast Guard teams where they want to go. The 170-foot ships are
capable, when the four giant diesel engines rise to ear-splitting pitch, of
35 knots. Four are based here and will range from Maine to Texas; two
others are in the Pacific.

The Navy's big ships carry far more weapons than the Firebolt or the
six-member Coast Guard teams, raising the question of why the military is
depending on a quasimilitary law enforcement agency to protect its biggest
ships. But the Navy, military officials say, lacks something the Coast
Guard has: the legal authority to board ships in domestic waters, and the
experience in doing so.

Vice Adm. Thad W. Allen of the Coast Guard said, "We've been doing it since
1790, when Alexander Hamilton made the first appropriation for 10 cutters
to enforce revenue laws."

The teams are the same ones that are deployed on Coast Guard cutters, and
they had a variety of functions before Sept. 11. They look for illegal
fishing nets; they check passports and cargo manifests that may not be
legitimate; they find illegal migrants; and they hunt for signs of drug use
in crew members, signs that may indicate smuggled drugs on board.

Lately, they have learned to recognize bombs, because officials worry about
another attack like the suicide assault on the destroyer Cole in Yemen 13
months ago.

Shortly after Sept. 11, Admiral Allen, who is in charge of all Coast Guard
forces east of the Rocky Mountains, issued an emergency regulation that
required ships coming within 500 yards of a naval vessel to slow to the
minimum speed required to maneuver. It also prohibits all vessels from
coming within 100 yards. That is one of the rules that the boarding teams
can enforce.

Since Sept. 11, the Coast Guard has boarded more than 4,200 vessels in the
Atlantic, detained at least 53 ships and turned 10 people over to law
enforcement agencies. (In its more traditional work, it has also conducted
880 search-and-rescue missions, made five drug seizures, caught 254 illegal
migrants and responded to 95 pollution cases, service officials said.)

The Navy generally does not board civilian ships in American waters.

"The biggest thing we have going for us is we're all designated as customs
officers," said one member of the boarding team on the Firebolt, Lt. j.g.
Stephen N. Casey. "It gives us the authority to board any boat; the Navy
doesn't have that authority."

A spokesman for the Coast Guard, Lt. Cmdr. Brendan C. McPherson, said,
"It's probably the first time in history that we've had naval ships
operating under Coast Guard direction."

Commander McPherson added that their work was much more carefully
coordinated now with the Immigration and Naturalization Service and other
agencies, deciding which ships should be boarded and what to look for. The
Coast Guard used to require ships arriving in American ports to give 24
hours notice; now it requires 96 hours.

The teams, trained in hand-to-hand combat, carry 9-millimeter Baretta
sidearms, pepper spray and batons that unfold like antennas, although
Lieutenant Casey said he had yet to use force in a boarding. One reason is
that the teams are backed up by their ships; cutters carry 50-caliber
machine guns, and ships like the Firebolt have even larger armaments.

The teams wear dark blue uniforms with the Coast Guard insignia on one side
of the chest, but no name patch on the other side.

The members of the boarding party said they were impressed with the
Firebolt, which carries four Paxman engines, each delivering 3,350
horsepower, while a 110-foot cutter carries two such engines.

The boarding parties use a rigid-hull inflatable boat, known as a RIB, that
looks much like a zodiac and is lowered by a small crane off the stern of
the Firebolt. It is run by a Navy coxswain and engineer. This morning the
Coast Guard demonstrated transferring people and equipment between the
Firebolt and a nearby cutter, the Campbell, using the RIB. The only moment
of drama was on the Firebolt's bridge, when the boatswain's mate and the
quartermaster saw something directly ahead, low in the water.

It turned out to be a particular hazard of the bay: fishing buoys.