Return to Article: Report: Speedier fleet upgrade would help Coast Guard

By Amelia Gruber agruber@govexec.com April 27, 2004
  • 4519

    "The Coast Guard would benefit from speeding up an upgrade of its aging fleet, according to a new report from an independent think tank." Some think tank - the objective should not be to make the Coast Guard better off, it should be to make the citizens of the USA better off. Better off should consider the value of the benefits achieved relative to the cost involved.

    Also, the Coast Guard should never be part of the Navy! The Navy should take over the military missions of the Coast Guard and the Coast Guard shoujld retain its boating regulations and safety issues, stopping of smugglers and customs duties and retain the rescue operations. If the Navy ever took over the Coast Guard we tax payers would find all these services gone and no better protection because the Navy would divert funds for its other major purposes.

    tax payer Posted April 30, 2004 7:14 AM
  • 4509

    Regarding the suggestion that the Navy and Coast Guard merge.

    The tasks of the Navy and the Coast Guard are totally different. The USCG has dozens of missions that the Navy has no interest in.

    Examples: Merchant vessel safety, Safe boating, (thousands of private vessels on any weekend), Aids to navigation, Ice breaking, International ice patrol (which the Navy had for one year, 1913, after the sinking of the Titantic, and gave up), Environmental protection (Oil Spills), Port Security, Drug Interdiction, to name a few.

    This question has been discussed ad nausium for almost a century and has been rejected each time. The Coast Guard frequently operates in cooperation with the Navy, as in the current activities in Iraq, wherein last week a Coast Guard member was killed while helping the Navy.

    Fred Herzberg Posted April 29, 2004 6:56 PM
  • 4493

    More then ever it's (past) time to formally move the USCG under the direct control of the U.S. Navy, as much as the Coast Guard will protest and try to prevent it.

    Anonymous Posted April 28, 2004 4:21 PM

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Report: Speedier fleet upgrade would help Coast Guard
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