US Coast Guard: Silent sentinel of the sea in Iraq, Gulf

From Iraq's offshore oil platforms to the coastlines of the Northern Arabian Sea and East Africa, the US Coast Guard has a quiet role in defending vital infrastructure and training local navies and police forces to better defend their sea boarders. For the last several years, the involvement of Coast Guard cutters and sailors has focused on supporting the war effort in Iraq and carrying out maritime security operations (MSO) alongside coalition navies to deny terrorists and smugglers maritime access. At home in the United States, by the service's own count, the Coast Guard saves 14 lives every day. On a daily basis in and around US waters, it averages 123 people assisted in distress, 22 illegal migrants interdicted at sea, responds to 12 oil or chemical spills, conducts 78 search-and-rescue cases, seizes 8.4 million dollars worth of illegal drugs, and administers 21 commercial vessel examinations. But far from home, the most visible war effort for the Coast Guard has been the protection of the Iraqi Khawr al-Amaya Oil Terminal and al-Basrah Oil Terminal, where they have maintained a presence of five to six cutters to help enforce the security zones around the platforms. The protection of the two platforms, which were captured by US Navy SEALs and Polish special forces during the opening hours of the Iraq invasion in March 2003, remains one of the most critical missions for the coalition forces four years after they ousted Saddam Hussein's regime in Baghdad. The oil production of the two fields account today for more than 80 per cent of Iraq's revenues, and while Iraqis control the production from the platforms, the coalition remains responsible for their security. In April 2004, Coast Guard Petty Officer 3rd Class Nathan Bruckenthal from Smithtown, New York, became the first Coast Guardsman killed in combat since the Vietnam War, when he and two US Navy sailors died foiling a suicide bombing attempt on one of the Iraqi oil terminals. The attack prompted the coalition to declare a 3-kilometre warning zone and 2-kilometre exclusion zone around both terminals. "We consider the platforms a critical infrastructure, and we are out here to protect them at all cost," Lieutenant Matt Moyer, commanding officer of the cutter Wrangler, told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa. As his cutter performed security operations around the platforms, he described how the Coast Guard is working closely with the Iraqi Navy and Marines to help train and prepare them to take over the responsibilities of protecting the platforms. Lieutenant Kerry Mckeever is commanding officer of the cutter Monomoy, which is also involved in platform security operations. He said that the Coast Guard continues to assist distressed vessels but with caution, knowing that such cases could be a ruse prior to an attack. "Search and rescue is one of the primary missions of the Coast Guard, and we will offer assistance when we can." Both the Wrangler and Monomoy have offered assistance to Iranian and Iraqi fisherman on board Iraqi fishing dhows. Like the rest of the Coast Guard expeditionary force deployed in the Gulf, McKeever volunteered for the year-long tour of duty to serve in Iraq. There are more than five applicants for for every volunteer spot on the mission from among the more than 40,000 active-duty Coast Guard enlisted people and officers, according to some figures. "I volunteered because I wanted to do something for my country," said Lieutenant Junior Grade Meghan Hague, executive officer aboard the Monomoy. She has previously done a lot of drug interdiction missions and law-enforcement operations in South America before deploying to Iraq. The Monomoy is the only mixed-gender Coast Guard cutter currently operating around the Iraqi platforms, making Hague the highest-ranking female Coast Guard officer operating in the Iraqi theatre. Lieutenant James Gatz from the patrol forces for South-West Asia pointed out that the US Coast Guard brings a set of unique capabilities including expertise in port security, patrol boat operations and vessel boarding, skills that they share with regional partners. "The Coast guard is very experienced in doing both compliant and non-compliant boarding, so we have teams that deploy with the Navy and we have two law-enforcement teams that carry out training," he said. One law enforcement team operates out of a training facility in Bahrain, while the other is located in the southern Iraqi port of Umm Qasr to help train Iraqi Marines. "For non-compliant boarding, we enter the vessel tactically using a small team to bring it under control," Lieutenant Junior Grade Michael McGrail, who heads a Coast Guard tactical law-enforcement team, said during a vessel boarding training operation Thursday in Manama. Approximately 250 Coast Guard personnel are currently operating in Iraq and throughout the Gulf, down sharply from the approximately 1,250 personnel from various units deployed to Operation Iraqi Freedom at the height of combat operations. dpa maz tl