Coast Guard Fee's for Rescue???

[hellosailor]

Gord, you have a way with words.<G>

I got my information the old fashioned way, from the USCG protests when Governor's Island was being shut down, and earlier from when Floyd Bennett Field was being cut out.

For extra credit, readers are invited to look up the flight duration and range of those helos, and then plot a circle on the map Gord found. Those assets can go out and back--but they can't stay on station in bad wx to conduct operations for very long. They are, literally, stretched to the limits in every way.

There's a similar comment in one of the air sea rescue descriptions on EQUIPPED TO SURVIVE - Outdoors Gear, Survival Equipment Review & Survival Information where the USCG almost had to deny response to a private aircraft down in the Pacific, because they had no available aircraft. Aircraft have to go out for routine maintenance, and if you have "just enough" sooner or later you have none available to respond. You can't just "close the hood" and send 'em out of the hangar.

[Chief Engineer]

It has nothing to do with that. It is your congressmen that hold the purse strings.

Originally Posted by dpollitt

Well, it seems to me if we can prosecute a questionable war to the tune of $3 billion dollars a week we can find a few dollars to rescue people off our shores.

david

[btrayfors]

Well, yes, but it's not quite as easy as all that.

For many, many years the USCG has been underfunded...starved, actually...to the point that some years they couldn't do routine patrols on inland waters because they didn't have enough budget for fuel.

While it's true that the Congress votes the money, it's up to the Administration to put forward and defend the budget. Previous Administrations -- both Democrats and Republicans -- have done a great job of starving the Coast Guard in their budgets submitted to the Congress.

And, of course, it's up to the Coast Guard itself -- like all operating parts of the Government -- to draw up a reasonable budget setting forth their needs each year. Arguably, they've done a piss poor job of making their demands adequately known.

Truth is, the Coast Guard draws very little political attention...it's not very high on the list of priorities.

Until a few years ago. Some bright folks decided that the Coast Guard really needed a lot of new gear and funding, and they concluded quite reasonably that in order to get the attention of the Congress they needed to submit a really big budget. A figure large enough to gain some notice.

They did so, putting forward as their centerpiece a new 20-year project called "Deepwater", which involved a complete re-vamping of their assets. New ship construction, rennovations, etc. It did in fact get the attention of the Congress, and in the post-911 era it got funded, too, since it was linked to Homeland Security.

Finally, finally, the Coast Guard got the attention and budget it needed. Unfortunately, they made a real mess of the Deepwater Project, farming out contracting, design, oversight, and construction to several large defense contractors.

Talk about foxes in the hen house! Disaster followed disaster, and the program was halted. Not sure of it's current status, but the Coast Guard still has some serious pink elephants to deal with (like the 20 or so ships which were "lengthened" and refurbished, and which are unsuitable even for river patrols due to their unsafe condition).

The poor Coast Guard couldn't win for winning.

Other than that, though, they do an incredibly good job on average, and we're damned lucky to have them around.

Bill

[Chief Engineer]

One of these days, I am going to tell the story of (at the time) the longest USCG Helo Rescue. I had personal expeience with all involved.

There are/were some good lessons to be learned from that.

[GordMay]

Originally Posted by Chief Engineer

One of these days, I am going to tell the story of (at the time) the longest USCG Helo Rescue. I had personal expeience with all involved.
There are/were some good lessons to be learned from that.

Are you referring to this past winter’s sinking of the “Alaska Ranger” in the Aleutians?

[Chief Engineer]

No I am not.