By THOMAS H. COLLINS

Vice Adm. Thomas H. Collins, USCG, is the Vice Commandant of the United States Coast Guard.

The Coast Guard’s history is the story of a growing nation confronting one emergent maritime need after another. During many such crises, America entrusted the mission to the Coast Guard. Each time, the Coast Guard accepted the challenge and folded it into its inventory of multimission responsibilities.

This historical trend began in the 18th century when antislavery patrols and tariff collection were assigned to the Revenue Cutter Service—a Coast Guard predecessor service imbued with the unique combination of military character and law-enforcement authority. This defines us still today. It continued in the 19th century, when we assumed responsibility for search and rescue, marine inspection, quarantine laws, or protecting our living marine resources—including seals, whales, and fish stocks.

In the 20th century, we arrested rum-runners during prohibition, performed convoy escort duty, and delivered Marines to beachheads during two world wars. Over the last several decades new missions have been added to the expanding list: conducting maritime drug interdiction; assisting and repatriating the flood of immigrants from Cuba, Haiti, China, and other nations; and enforcing marine environmental laws.

The 21st century promises continued demand for the services the Coast Guard provides. America’s interconnection to the rest of the world will magnify the importance of an efficient and safe marine transportation system, of security from terrorist attack and criminal enterprises, of protection of living marine resources and the marine environment, and of the continued preservation of our national liberty.

The maritime dimensions to the threats that will challenge our peace and tranquility in those areas are real, growing, and clearly Coast Guard business. So it is that we, the smallest of the five military services, have a broad and ever increasing mission statement encompassing five major roles: Maritime Safety, Maritime Mobility, Maritime Security, Protection of Natural Resources, and National Defense.

Performance

Throughout our history, Coast Guard men and women—active duty, reserve, civilians, and auxiliarists—have performed superbly in responding to expanding roles and increasing operational tempo. Over time, our blend of military, multimission, and maritime character and competencies have yielded adaptable and capable service to the American public.

Today is no exception. Over the last several years our operations have resulted in an impressive list of accomplishments including: effective response to tragic airline crashes; the development of new counterdrug tactics and capabilities and corresponding record seizures of cocaine; focused environmental-protection efforts resulting in the continued decline in the number and size of oil spills; massive relief operations associated with natural disasters; and positive and effective law-enforcement response to increasing pressures of illegal migrants and fishing.

We also have partnered with the Departments of State and Defense to provide support in key competency niche areas—maritime interception and port security operations, for example—and to engage internationally in support of a myriad of national interests. My recent experience as commander of Coast Guard Operations in the Pacific attests to the devotion and competence of our men and women "on the front lines" in achieving these positive outcomes.

Our exemplary performance record extends beyond operations to proactive leadership in enhancing the way government does business. Over the past half-decade or so a number of pieces of legislation and executive initiatives—the Government Performance and Results Act, the Chief Financial Officer Act, the National Performance Review, the vice president’s "Reinventing Government" efforts, and various OMB (Office of Management and Budget) circulars—have been put in place, indicating a desire on the part of both major political parties to transform the way government does business by making it more responsive and more accountable for performance.

No agency has more whole-heartedly committed itself to results-based government than our service. In fact, the Coast Guard may represent one of the taxpayers’ best investments, and we have invited scrutiny by holding ourselves accountable for quantifiable performance measures across a broad mission spectrum. In fact, Government Executive magazine recently published a segment of the 1999 Government Performance Project in which the Coast Guard was rated at the top of those federal agencies analyzed in the survey. Not only were we at the top, but we received nearly "straight As" for our stewardship of the taxpayers’ money.

Challenges and Opportunities

Despite the superb performance of Coast Guard men and women, there are serious concerns about our ability to maintain our performance now and in the future. We have too frequently met our growing operational needs by artificially sustaining high levels of perform-ance, accepting cumulative increases in operational requirements, and by working harder without commensurate increases in capabilities or resources. Wear and tear on both people and equipment have accelerated.

The Coast Guard has always taken a great pride in doing whatever it takes to meet our nation’s needs. Our commandant, Adm. James M. Loy, has called this "the curse of Semper Paratus." This almost obsessive focus on short-term operational success, often at the expense of our people and systems, mortgages our future readiness. We must remain mindful that there are limits on what we can accomplish, and that short-term pride in doing more with less comes at a price that we should not always be willing to pay.

The confluence of increasing mission requirements, years of chronic underfunding, seriously aging equipment and systems, and a culture that has espoused "Semper Paratus at any cost" has contributed to the Coast Guard’s current readiness dilemma—and threatens future readiness. Our readiness concerns include training and maintenance deficiencies, spare-parts shortages, a young and inexperienced work force, personnel recruiting and retention challenges, increasing equipment casualty rates, and higher maintenance costs.

Recent soaring energy costs and unprogrammed pay increases for military pay, housing, and medical costs have added to those readiness challenges. Consequently, the opportunities offered by expanding operations and the challenges of constrained resources and aging assets are shaping the strategic focus of the Coast Guard for the foreseeable future. The necessary steps must be taken now to restore our current service readiness and shape our future readiness in response to increasing mission demands—i.e., to ensure our future readiness through an aggressive recapitalizing program and forward-looking programmatic initiatives. The commandant has clearly articulated these strategies and objectives in his State of the Coast Guard Address, in a speech before the National Press Club in March of this year, and in internal strategic planning documents. Admiral Loy’s focus is on target to ensure a vital Coast Guard in support of America’s 21st-century national security interests. In this context, we are at a critical crossroads in our 210-year history.

Readiness

During the current fiscal year our near-term internal response to these readiness challenges has included a reduction in cutter and aircraft operations to more closely align operations to available resources and support. This was done in large measure to preserve our emergency response capability in the face of serious budget shortfalls. Internally, we have reshaped our readiness approach from "readiness at any cost" to "smart readiness," and have depended upon the judgment of local unit commanders to make the readiness assessments that will drive our optempo.

Our management goals over the next two years will focus on properly staffed, trained, equipped, and maintained operating and support units so as to sustain normal operations while concurrently ensuring our capacity to successfully respond to emergency surge operations. Among the top priorities will be achieving full authorized personnel strength levels by paying close attention to recruiting and retention, ensuring adequate training to increase qualifications and experience levels, and ensuring parity with the Department of Defense in pay and benefits.

Most importantly, workload management has and will become a critical imperative. We will be especially attuned to work-force issues and the balance of workload to match resources. We will task and operate our assets only to the level that can be sustained by the resources that support them. We will undertake systematic program reviews to improve workload standards and requirements; aggressively seek and eliminate unnecessary, unproductive, or outdated activities and administrative burdens; and develop and deploy a servicewide system for monitoring, assessing, and managing readiness.

Externally, our readiness shortfalls—especially our inability to operate at fully functional and efficient levels due to budget constraints—have come to the attention of Congress and the American public through congressional hearings and media exposure. The value and necessity of the Coast Guard’s operational missions and associated funding requirements were recognized by Congress and the administration through the enactment of a supplemental emergency appropriation passed in early July. This action represents the initial step in addressing readiness challenges. Favorable action on the Coast Guard’s 2001 budget request is the next critical milestone in a multiyear effort aimed at restoring an adequate readiness posture.

Recapitalization

In large measure, the challenge the Coast Guard faces regarding future readiness lies with our aging fleet of deepwater assets. The Coast Guard is operating one of the oldest fleets of ships in the industrial world. Of the 41 comparably sized navy and coast guard fleets in the world, only two are older than our deepwater fleet of 12 high-endurance and 32 medium-endurance cutters. But more troubling than their age is the fact that our current assets simply do not provide many of the capabilities we need to effectively perform even our current missions, much less those we may face in the future. Our navigational systems are outdated, replacement parts are exceedingly difficult to locate, and the cost of maintenance and operations gets more expensive each year. Modernization, therefore, is the key to our future readiness.

Since he became commandant two years ago, Admiral Loy has worked hard on a program to procure ships and aircraft that will meet our offshore mission requirements during the first quarter of the 21st century. This acquisition project is known as the Integrated Deepwater System recapitalization, or "Deepwater" for short. Deepwater forces are those assets—cutters, aircraft, and command, control, communications, computers, intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance systems—that conduct multimission operations 50 miles or more to sea. Three industry teams are currently competing in the development of a design for this "system of systems."

At the beginning of this year, our deepwater mission portfolio and our associated Integrated Deepwater System recapitalization project was strongly endorsed by an independent presidentially commissioned Interagency Task Force that looked at Coast Guard roles and missions. In its report to the president, the Task Force validated the Coast Guard’s roles and missions and the strategy taken for modernization. The president’s response to the Interagency Task Force findings stated, "The report made it clear that a robust Coast Guard will be vital in the 21st century to protect and promote many of our nation’s important safety, economic, and national security interests." The report itself confirmed that "The recapitalization of the Coast Guard’s deepwater capability is a near-term national priority" and that "The Integrated Deepwater Systems project is a sound approach to that end."

Projected funding for Deepwater is estimated to be approximately $10 billion over the next 20 years. It will be the largest acquisition project in the history of the Coast Guard. Despite the budgetary challenges associated with a project of this magnitude, we expect that the clear national need for a robust Coast Guard, combined with our track record of integrity and good management, will win the day.

The administration and Congress have supported our requests for up-front conceptual and system design work on the Deepwater project, and I believe they will continue to support this project when it is time to appropriate construction funds and get down to cutting steel.

Deepwater is complemented by other "shaping the future" initiatives. This year we were very pleased to receive funding to add a crucial capability to our operational tool bag: the National Distress and Response Modernization System (NDRMS) project. This program will enhance our VHF-FM radio capabilities and improve our ability to respond to distress calls. It will allow for archiving, playback, and radio direction-finding capabilities. This system will enable watchstanders to translate desperate "Mayday" calls into effective action and to slow down, replay, and adjust the quality of recorded calls until the message can be understood. This technology will determine and preserve an electronic positive fix every time a signal is received, reducing the time it takes to locate a vessel in distress.

By 2006, the NDRMS will be implemented Coast Guard-wide. While this system makes great headway in reducing the time it takes for us to respond, it is but a first step in leveraging the mission-enabling potential of sensors and information technology. The bottom line is, the older equipment increases our chance of failure, and increases our maintenance costs. Old equipment, overworked personnel, outdated technology—these are the readiness challenges the Coast Guard is working to address.

Innovation and Adaptability

The Coast Guard has successfully positioned itself through the years as the relevant answer to national maritime service demands because of its maritime, military, multimission character and because of its adaptability—its role as a master change agent. Indeed, an essential ingredient to "restoring readiness" and "shaping the future" will be to continue to be receptive to change and to develop and maintain a culture of innovation and informed risk-taking.

Our future Integrated Deepwater Systems will challenge our human resources structure and policies and our logistics processes. Operations and support systems must both reinvent themselves, taking full advantage of new technology, information systems, and new ways of doing business.

Human Resource policies and systems designed years ago also will need to be reengineered to better obtain, train, qualify, and deliver people to the units that require them.

This reengineering must include provisions for encouraging, developing, and rewarding innovation in our work force. Taking innovative approaches to difficult problems is the hallmark of a robust organization. Exceptional leaders have known this for a long time. Abraham Lincoln made it clear in his annual message to the Congress when he said, "The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy present. The occasion is piled high with difficulty, and we must arise to the occasion. As our case is new, so we must think anew, and act anew."

Admiral Loy has set forth some ambitious and important challenges to our personnel in the beginning of the 21st century. He has asked us to concentrate on restoring readiness and shaping our future through intelligent examination of the way we do business. For my part, I will be working to support him in the Deepwater initiative and to ready our people to meet the growing needs of our nation.

More than ever before, America’s national security interests mandate the need for our nation’s "Maritime Guardian"—the U.S. Coast Guard. America will need safe, efficient, and reliable waterways. It will need a guardian of maritime safety and the Law of the Sea. It will need protection of marine resources on the high seas, along our maritime borders, and on our coasts. America will need a Coast Guard capable of operating alongside the other U.S. armed services to support the nation’s security strategies and policies.

Charting a proper course for recapitalizing our service and restoring workforce readiness will help to ensure that the Coast Guard continues to meet the demands placed on our service in the most efficient manner, while still remaining Semper Paratus.