Coast Guard Chief: Age of Fleet ‘Putting Our Crews at Risk’

ABC's Lisa Stark reports: Within an hour of the earthquake that devastated Haiti a month ago, the US Coast Guard had three cutters on the way to help.  But even as Coast Guard personnel evacuated Americans and the wounded, delivered babies and broke off tree branches to use as splints, the Coast Guard itself was in need of aid. It turned out that of the 12 major cutters ultimately sent to Haiti, ten of them suffered severe problems – including two that needed emergency repairs and one that had to be sent to dry dock.

USCG Commandant Admiral Thad Allen today said the service even had to divert air resources from evacuating people to ferrying parts to repair the cutters.  Allen, who retires this May after four years at the helm of the Coast Guard, gave his final “State of the Coast Guard” speech today.   He was blunt in talking about his concerns with the Coast Guard fleet, one of the oldest in the world.  Allen said the age of the “high endurance “ cutters averages more than 41 years old, compared to a Navy fleet that averages 14 years in age. Allen warned that the age of the fleet is “putting our crews at risk and jeopardizing the ability to do our job.”

Even as he insisted “We are up to the challenge” of handling everything from boating safety, to port security to drug interdiction to piracy on the seas,  Allen said the Coast Guard must focus on modernizing its fleet or it will be a “hollow force” in the future.  He defended the Administration’s budget proposal, which calls for a three percent cut for the Coast Guard.  The service, he said, will cut about 800 jobs and focus on spending money to upgrade the fleet.

Allen also said the USCG has a looming crisis in the Arctic, where it relies on two 30-year-old ice breakers. Replacing them would cost up to one billion dollars each, but Allen said a discussion over Arctic policy “cannot happen soon enough.”  With melting polar ice caps, the Coast Guard has had to deal with a jump in ship traffic and incidents in the area.  “I am agnostic to the science (of global warning) said Allen, but “there is water where there didn’t used to be. Some say it is mission creep and not our duty. I disagree and we need to have a serious discussion about it.”

The Coast Guard is often seen as the service that has to do the most, with the least.  Allen joked that their entire active force (about 40,000) could fit into the Washington National’s baseball stadium. The Commandant said that their critical mission in Haiti, for example, will hurt efforts at drug interdiction.  The Coast Guard moved its cutter Hamilton from the Gulf of Mexico to Haiti for Command and Control. That leaves one less ship to keep an eye out for drug runners, which Allen said could allow an additional ten tons of cocaine to slip through.

Allen became known for straight talk and a take-charge attitude when he was selected to oversee the federal response to Hurricane Katrina, after it was initially bungled by the White House and FEMA.  It was the year after that, in May of 2006, that he was appointed Commandant of the Coast Guard.  The 61 year old Allen was asked today whether his future plans could include political office, perhaps one day the Secretary of Homeland Security. Allen joked that the most intelligent people are retired commandants and that “I hope to increase my intelligent quotient by becoming one of them.”   He did make one promise. He has no intention, he says, of buying a boat.