Coast Guard seeks to identify staffing shortfalls, fill gaps

In a wide-ranging interview with reporters at Coast Guard headquarters Monday, Commandant Adm. Thad Allen said the service is systematically reviewing its programs and operations to identify gaps in capability and, if necessary, build the case for increasing its size.

The review already has created the basis for the Coast Guard's request for $20 million in 2009 for 276 additional marine inspectors. Demands on inspectors have increased considerably since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks heightened concerns about protecting ports and waterways and the critical infrastructure associated with them. In addition to the increased port security workload, the 2004 Coast Guard Authorization Act required the service to begin inspecting about 5,200 towing vessels.

Across the board, the Coast Guard has experienced broad growth in its missions and responsibilities, Allen said, invoking the Pentagon's description of an "era of persistent conflict." Shifts in illegal immigration, drug trafficking, offshore oil and gas development, military operations abroad, and global environmental concerns all are impacting the Coast Guard's mission, he said.

For example, melting sea ice at the North Pole is creating navigable waterways and new responsibilities in search-and-rescue and security that didn't exist a few years ago. Energy demands are expected to drive an increase in ships and facilities for handling liquefied natural gas, placing new strains on Coast Guard inspectors and security personnel.

Before he became commandant in 2006, Allen said he and others were concerned that the Coast Guard was not well organized to manage its changing and growing workload. Last year he sought congressional authorization to restructure the service's Atlantic and Pacific Area commands into an operational command, responsible for mission execution across the service; and a force readiness command, responsible for integrating acquisition, logistics and maintenance functions across the service. Congress failed to act on the request before the session ended, prompting the service to renew the request again this year.

The authorization is critical for the Coast Guard to improve management, Allen said. Echelons of command below headquarters are now divided between the Atlantic and Pacific Area commands, below which district commands have geographical responsibility for search and rescue and other missions.

"I came to the conclusion that the threats we face are agnostic to borders," Allen says. "They don't respect the Coast Guard chain of command or our boundaries." The two separate operational commands have created unnecessary stovepipes, he said.

For example, drug interdiction operations are subject to two separate chains of command -- Atlantic or Pacific -- depending on where they occur. "Those are two different chains, where the case packages are developed and sent up to U.S. attorneys for prosecution. We should be dealing with one unified command in the drug war down south," Allen said.

"My goal was not to mess with the districts, but to merge [the two area commands] together into a single operational field command that can interface with all the military combatant commanders, and deal with all of our threats as a unified global command for the Coast Guard," he said.

The new structure would increase the responsibility of district commanders to deal with regional issues. "For instance, engagement in the Pacific Rim with China, Japan, issues with the Straits of Malacca -- our 14th District Commander in Honolulu will have a much bigger role in that. That doesn't mean the operational commander will be out of it, but hopefully service will be closer to the customer by pushing responsibility down in the organization," he said.

Positions at the three-star level and above are codified in law, so Allen needs statutory authority to make the changes. "I'm going to preposition everybody to start getting ready to do this, but I can't officially re-designate those positions and renominate those folks until I get the authorization from Congress," he said.