Coast Guard Inaugural Protection

Video here.

Homeland Security and Coast Guard Employees Traveling Smart or Not

DHS and Coast Guard employees are still in flux over which government travel card to use for travel. ALCOAST 525/08 announced the original delay in implementation to 30 November 2008, but Coast Guards travel site gives very few details in the current and prolonged delay.

Many employees received the new JP Morgan travel card and destroyed them before Coast Guard got the word out that they were in the mail. Other employees received the new cards and destroyed the Citi cards before word got out on the delay in implementation of the JP Morgan cards. Confused? So are thousands of Coast Guard employees.

In the middle of all this confusion is not only a breakdown in communication, but a stop-all on one of the key components of the travel card program; Split Pay.

Split pay allows the traveler and government to streamline the travel liquidation process by splitting the payment between the member and the credit card company. Typically a traveler would have the portion of the liquidation that covers hotel, rental car and food go directly to the travel card, and any personal/out of pocket expenses to their personal account.

Travelers are being advised to pass on the split pay option to ensure that the liquidation doesn’t accidentally end up with the wrong credit card company.

Homeland Security’s Assistant Secretary for the Private Sector Office Alfonso Martinez-Fonts retired as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of JP Morgan Chase Bank in El Paso, Texas. He began his 30-year career with Chemical Bank (a JP Morgan Chase predecessor organization) as a management trainee and worked his way through the organization as a lending officer in the Metropolitan Division and the International Division.

The Private Sector Office is part of the Office of Policy and:

• Engages individual businesses, trade associations and other non-governmental organizations to foster dialogue with the Department.
• Advises the Secretary on prospective policies and regulations and in many cases on their economic impact.
• Promotes public-private partnerships and best practices to improve the nation’s homeland security.
• Promotes Department policies to the private sector.

Connection?  Maybe, maybe not.  Regardless, tens of thousands of employees are waiting on the road and at the very least their is an appearance of conflict of interests.

Martin Luther King, Jr., Federal Holiday, 2009

A Proclamation by the President of the United States of America

George W. Bush

On the Martin Luther King, Jr., Federal Holiday, we recognize one of history’s most consequential advocates for equality and civil rights, and we celebrate his powerful message of justice and hope. Our Nation is better because Dr. King was a man of courage and vision who understood that love and compassion will always triumph over bitterness and hatred.

As Americans, we believe it is self-evident that all men are created equal and that freedom is not a grant of government but a gift from the Author of Life. Dr. King trusted in these beliefs articulated in our founding documents even when our country’s practices did not live up to its promises. He roused the conscience of a complacent Nation by drawing attention to the ugliness of discrimination and segregation and by calling on Americans to live up to our guarantee of equality.

Our Nation has seen tremendous progress in redeeming the ideals of America and protecting every person’s God-given rights. The historic election of Barack Obama as President of the United States reflects the real advances our Nation has made in the fight against the bigotry that Dr. King opposed. More work remains, though, and we must heed Dr. King’s words that “injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” By continuing to spread his message and demanding that the equal rights he fought for are extended to all people, we can ensure that the dignity of every person is respected and that the hope for a better tomorrow reaches every community throughout the world.

As we observe Dr. King’s birthday, we commemorate his leadership and strength of character. We go forward with confidence that if we remain true to our founding principles, our Nation will continue to advance the cause of justice and remain a beacon of hope to people everywhere.

NOW, THEREFORE, I, GEORGE W. BUSH, President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim January 19, 2009, as the Martin Luther King, Jr., Federal Holiday. I encourage all Americans to observe this day with appropriate civic, community, and service programs and activities in honor of Dr. King’s life and legacy.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this fifteenth day of January, in the year of our Lord two thousand nine, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and thirty-third.

GEORGE W. BUSH

National Defense Banner from WhiteHouse.gov

Note the ever important final link in our National Defense is the United States Coast Guard!

Coast Guard Modernization: Modernizing How we Work

Guest Post from VADM Cliff Pearson, Chief of Staff.

In my recent posts (17 December and 20 December), I discussed how Coast Guard Modernization will develop new organizational structures (Logistics and Service Centers) and work processes (bi-level service delivery and product lines) to provide life-cycle support for all of our assets, including personnel, ships, planes, shore facilities, and information technology. The DCMS organization will have common, consistent, and well-documented work processes CG-wide.

Understanding that people are our most important asset, I challenged the Modernization teams to develop new human resources management strategies to complement our new organizations and processes and minimize potential impacts on our workforce. It is imperative we modernize our human resource practices along with our organization and business processes to achieve the best results. One such human resource management practice being studied and developed is the Geographically Dispersed Work Force (GDWF) concept.

To find out more information concerning our Mission Support use of the Geographically Dispersed Work Force management practice, I invite you to the Coast Guard’s Modernization page.

I own the water and the ski: Admiral Dennis Blair to a Chinese Admiral

HONOLULU | When Adm. Dennis C. Blair was in China as commander of U.S. forces in the Pacific, a Chinese admiral confronted him rather aggressively on the issue of Taiwan, warning the United States not to interfere in China’s campaign to gain control of the self-governing island.

Admiral Blair listened for a minute, then said: “Admiral, let me tell you a couple of things. First, I own the water out there,” gesturing toward the Pacific Ocean. “And second, I own the sky over the water out there. Now, don’t you think we should talk about something more constructive?”

Read the entire article at Washington Times, by Richard Halloran

UPDATE: Coast Guard responds to cargo ship aground

BALTIMORE – The Coast Guard continues its efforts to free a cargo ship that ran aground Saturday near Gibson Island in the Chesapeake Bay. A Unified Command comprised of the Coast Guard, the State of Maryland, and the vessel operator has been established. The Unified Command is operating out of the Coast Guard Yard in Curtis Bay, Md.

At about 11:05 a.m. Saturday, watch standers at Coast Guard Sector Baltimore received a call from the motor vessel CSL Argosy, an 800-foot Bahamian flagged bulk carrier, reporting they had run aground in the lower Craig Hill Channel just north of Annapolis, Md.

You’re Off Base with Coast Guards SCIF Issue

On Saturday we brought forward and published under it’s post Put a cork in your assumptions on the future of Coast Guards WMSL’s; a comment by an anonymous poster with a good grasp of the issue.  Today we do the same thing with “You’re Off Base on Coast Guards SCIF Issue.”

You are off base with the SCIF issue Michael. Show me one Navy ship that was acquired with a SCIF in it. The original design and contract of the ship did not call for a full SCIF for two reasons:

1) Builders rarely every install above secret level systems. SCIF’s are routinely installed afterwards due to the sensitivity of the systems, their lack of integration into other systems and the need for instalation by government agencies. You can’t install these systems are private yards because it would interefere with the installation of the rest of the CIC equipment. This is why it was never meant to be installed until after the CG owned the ship.

2) The P-spec for the ship was released in 2002. At the time the CG was still under the ownership of the Department of Transportation. As the CG migrated to DHS the desired use of the WMSL changed. The new reality of CG operations and DHS priorities has made the SCIF a necssary tool.

Even with all of that said, the SCIF is not just some cobbled together space on BERTHOLF. The SCIF space onboard is logically placed and isolated from the comms space and CIC.

I will gladly agree that the internal layout of the ship is prroly conceived and for the size of the ship, the it is not laid out very well. I think that such reports are fair and worth talking about further. You should focus on things like this. Please point out that idiots designed and built the ship. Please point out that the CG should never have signed off on such designs. The fair thing to say about the TEMPEST, SCIF, and C4ISR systems is that the CG has not signed off on them. The CG has taken over the updates and redesigns of CGC2, is forcing LMCO to comply with TEMPEST standards, and pulling them back in to make all of the radars and comms gear function properly. From what I am seeing first hand, the CG is holding the two main player’s feet pretty close to the fire. Its slow and its painful but its happening.

What is the CG supposed to do when they call them out and instead f getting the results they get sued instead. LMCO and NGSS are the enemy here and you should be focussing on them instead.