Always Ready
By AMY L. WITTMAN, Editor in Chief
For more than 220 years, the U.S.
Coast Guard has lived
up to its motto:
Semper Paratus — Always
Ready. But how long
can that continue
when the service is
continually under-funded and its value
to the nation, frankly,
under-recognized by
lawmakers and the public?
Even as its obsolete cutters, boats,
aircraft and support infrastructure
continue to age, “America’s Maritime
Guardian” in 2010 completed what
the Coast Guard commandant called
an “exceptional operational year by
any standard.”
In testimony June 23 before the
Senate Commerce, Science and
Transportation subcommittee on
oceans, atmosphere, fisheries and
Coast Guard, Adm. Robert J. Papp Jr.
noted that the service led the federal
response last year to the BP Deep-
water Horizon oil spill, first in
searching for survivors of the initial
explosion and then in working with
government partners and industry to
contain and clean up the spill.
That one event saw the deployment of 46 cutters and 22 aircraft,
Papp said, and a surge of more than
7,000 people — including Coast
Guard Reserve and Auxiliary — to
support the spill response. Even with
the surge, the Coast Guard managed
to meet its other responsibilities in
missions around the world — from
the Arabian Sea to the Somali Basin,
from the Great Lakes and Hudson
River to the Pacific Northwest.
Such an extended operation did
not come without a price — push-
ing aging assets to
their limits, straining
work-force readiness
and deferring train-
ing due to the in-
creased tempo, the
commandant said.
SEAPOWER
THE OFFICIAL PUBLICATION OF THE
NAVY LEAGUE OF THE UNITED STATES
Volume 54, Number 8, August 2011
PUBLISHER
Daniel B. Branch Jr.
ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER
Dale A. Lumme
EDITOR IN CHIEF
Amy L. Wittman
awittman@navyleague.org
DEPUTY EDITOR
Peter E. Atkinson
patkinson@navyleague.org
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Richard R. Burgess
rburgess@navyleague.org
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John C. Marcario
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SEAPOWER / AUGUST 2011
