Congress Must Focus on Modernization Of the Coast Guard Deepwater Fleet

摘要

On September 11, 2001, our nation suffered a horrendous and unprovoked attack. Despite the early confusion, the U.S. Coast Guard was one of the first federal agencies to understand the significance of these attacks and instantaneously respond. Almost immediately, the commandant of the Coast Guard, in consultaion with the secretary of transportation, ordered his operational commanders to take control of all the nation's major ports to prevent any maritime terrorist attacks. And in New York, the Coast Guard immediately pulled together all available vessels to ferry over a million people out of Manhattan to safety.