PROTECTING CHARLESTON HARBOR

Coast Guard's role intensifies in wake of terrorist attacks

CHARLESTON (--) U.S. Coast Guardsman Ryan Culnon is on the front line of
America's homeland defense. The 23-year-old from Charlotte battles
terrorism with a 21-foot patrol boat and a sharp eye.

"It's always tense coming up to a boat and not knowing what might be
inside," Culnon said. "But after the 11th, we're on alert for anything that
doesn't look like it's supposed to."

Culnon's boss, operations officer Chris Purdy, said the Coast Guard's role
has changed dramatically since the attacks on New York and Washington.

Before Sept. 11, that role consisted largely of plucking hapless boaters
from the ocean and responding to ships in danger. The Charleston Coast
Guard station also is charged with patrolling for drug smugglers and
illegal aliens from the southern shores of the U.S. to South America.

Now, those duties have been eclipsed by the specter of terrorism.

"Is that white powder cocaine?," said Purdy, a 28-year-old from Myrtle
Beach. "Or is it anthrax? This is all brand new to us."

Charleston harbor, the nation's fourth-busiest container cargo port, is
South Carolina's front door to the world.

Each year about 2,200 container ships, as well as scores of cruise liners
and recreational craft, steam past the Battery and into terminals and docks
lining the Ashley and Cooper rivers.

Those vessels carry thousands of passengers and crew, and millions of tons
of cargo from points around the globe.

For Charleston's Coast Guard personnel, the day-to-day challenges of
patrolling the harbor have turned into a 24-hour-a-day alert.

"Our workload has increased 100 percent," Purdy said. "We're truly nonstop."

Normal eight-hour shifts have increased to 12 hours. On-call rotations have
doubled to 48 hours on, 48 hours off.

"The toughest thing is to make sure our people get enough time off to stay
focused," Purdy said.

Coast Guard members now are more heavily armed, although they won't comment
on the weapons they carry or the tactics they use.

Patrols also have been expanded. But the details of those, too, remain secret.

Reservists have been called in to help augment the station's usual
personnel, and additional boats and cutters have been brought in from as
far away as Key West.

Guard members now frequently board ships, search them and escort them into
the port.

Sections of the Cooper River have been closed or restricted. Passengers and
crew on all ships entering the harbor are screened 96 hours in advance.

Links with other federal agencies such as the FBI, U.S. Customs and the
Immigration and Naturalization Service have been tightened.

And, for the first time, Coast Guard members are undergoing training for
biological weapons.

"Before Sept. 11, terrorism wasn't the first thing on our minds," said Lt.
Erin Healey, of the Marine Safety Office. "Now, it's always on our minds."

But with the new responsibilities comes a renewed sense of duty and pride,
Purdy said. Rather than its routine duties of enforcing boater safety rules
or patrolling foreign waters for smugglers, the Coast Guard now finds
itself on the front lines.

"This is the first time we've actually had a chance to defend the U.S.
coast," Purdy said. "In real black-and-white terms, we get to do our job on
our home turf. And that's why we joined."

strict new security measures

In an effort to intercept any threat that may come from the sea, the Coast
Guard is enforcing strict new security measures in the harbor.

The Coast Guard won't say exactly what it watches for, the methods it uses
for searching ships or what successes its has achieved.

But among the security measures instituted recently are:

(box) About four nautical miles of the Cooper River have been closed to all
but authorized commercial traffic. The closure is to protect the sensitive
Naval Weapons Station, located above North Charleston.

Among its many functions, the weapons station is a major munitions depot
for the U.S. Marines Corps, a port for military hardware heading overseas
and a way station for spent nuclear fuel. It also hosts schools for sailors
heading for duty on nuclear submarines and aircraft carriers.

(box) Goose Greek is closed to all traffic. Keeping track of the comings
and goings of dozens of small craft near the Naval Weapons Station would be
impossible, Navy personnel said.

(box) Security zones have been established around the Cooper River Bridges.
Although ships can sail past the bridges, no vessel can loiter or anchor
within 60 feet of the structures.

If the bridges were destroyed, they would block access to the Naval Weapons
Station, the Charleston ports and private terminals up river.

Violating the security zones is a Class 4 felony, carrying a maximum
penalty of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

(box) Ships from certain countries are banned from entering the harbor, as
they were before the Sept. 11 attacks. The countries are Cuba, Iran, Iraq,
North Korea, Libya, Sudan, Syria and Yugoslavia. Ships from those countries
are not allowed in any U.S. port.

(box) Certain vessels that the Coast Guard designates sensitive because of
the their cargo or for other, unspecified reasons are boarded and searched
by armed Guard members. Coast Guard pilots ride the ships into docking
terminals if they are deemed safe to enter. The Coast Guard has the
authority to deny entry to any vessel it deems suspicious.

(box) The Coast Guard coordinates security and shares information with
other federal, state and local authorities, including the Immigration and
Naturalization Service, U.S. Customs, the FBI and local law enforcement.

(box) Crew and passenger lists have to be forwarded to the Coast Guard 96
hours before a ship reaches port. Those manifests are checked against lists
of suspected terrorists.

(box) Cruise ships are escorted into the port by Coast Guard vessels. The
State Ports Authority is checking all of baggage carried by passengers on
cruise ships.

'Local economy is loving it'

There are about 800 Coast Guard personnel stationed in South Carolina,
including about 70 reservists who have been called into service. Unlike
reservists in other services, Coast Guard reservists serve open-ended call ups.

"They are doing everything that the active duty people do," said Healey of
the Marine Safety Office.

The station's main homeland defense area stretches from Myrtle Beach to
Tybee Island in Georgia. But the station also is a base for operations in
the Caribbean and off South America.

Most of the harbor patrols are done in small craft, 21 feet to 41 feet in
length.

But the station does have two "high endurance" ocean-going vessels, the
Dallas and the Gallatin. They are sleek cutters of 378 feet, among the
Cadillacs of the U.S. Coast Guard fleet.

In addition, an undisclosed number of cutters and other vessels have been
called in "from as far away as Key West," Healey said. The vessels augment
both the Coast Guard, and Navy ships keeping watch over the Navy Weapons
Station.

The additional crews and reservists are housed in hotels around the
station, which already have seen a influx of business from reservists
called to duty at the Charleston Air Base.

"The local economy is loving it," Healey said.