Is the Coast Guard Significantly Changing How It Manages Deepwater?

By Michael DeKort

Originally published on  POGO blog with comments from myself and even the Coast Guard

Earlier this month Nick Baumann at Mother Jones reported that the Coast Guard would no longer be using the services of the Integrated Coast Guard Systems (ICGS)—a joint-venture of the government’s top two defense contractors, Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman—for its Deepwater modernization program. But it looks like the Coast Guard Acquisition Directorate still needs outside help. Alice Lipowicz at Washington Technology reports that the Coast Guard may be issuing requests for proposals (RFP) for as much as $650 million in program management, engineering, acquisition, and administrative services.

If it comes to fruition, this RFP would continue two troubling trends that have decreased accountability and transparency in contracting at the Department of Homeland Security: relying on contractors to provide inherently and/or core governmental functions, and, because the Coast Guard seeks to issue an indefinite-delivery, indefinite quantity contract, utilizing a risky contracting vehicle.

It’s unclear if this really signifies the stated departure from the Lead Systems Integrator concept—the idea that previously drove management of the highly criticized program. While the Coast Guard struggles to restore discipline and accountability to the Deepwater program, these trends call for continued, careful agency and Congressional oversight.

My response

The LSI’s didn’t go anywhere and aren’t going to until they choose to. They simply run things now from behind the scenes.

The bill the congress just passed gives the Coast Guard permission to waive the reforms should they deem it necessary on Deepwater. Keep in mind the reforms were created for and because of Deepwater.

The GAO has stated that the Coast Guard failed to use it’s own new reforms, specifically adhering to the MSAM, on core Deepwater efforts.

The Coast Guard has stated the LSI’s will not be completely gone until 2011. In that time the rest of the NSC contracts and probably the OPC contracts will be awarded. Also stopping the LSI’s basically means ICGS goes away. Well – ICGS has no employees of their own. The employees were all Lockheed and Northrop. All the Coast Guard has to do to honor their shallow promise is to go right to the contractors and create some leadership figurehead positions to cover for those really pulling the strings.

ICGS, Lockheed and Northrop have stated that they will not only not pay the $100M refund for the 123s but that the Coast Guard is responsible for the hull problems, because they didn’t operate or maintain them properly, and that they might actually be due damages from the Coast Guard because the project was stopped. Lastly the NSC still has major communications security issues that may never be fixed adequately and will most likely be pushed to other assets like the FRCs and OPCs. Why wouldn’t the Coast Guard defend itself here and demand the refund before the contractors can bid on any more efforts and publicly state that the contractors are solely responsible for the 123 problems?

Yes some good things have been done over the past couple of years but they are skin deep at best. The root causes have not been addressed.

Coast Guard Acquisition in Smoother Waters

By Michael DeKort

Washington Technology published “Coast Guard Acquisition in Smoother Waters on August 27th, my response to that article follows:

“Even so, there are lapses, and as of March, the Coast Guard had not met the goal of complete adherence to the acquisitions manual for all Deepwater assets, according to a July GAO report. Coast Guard officials agreed with GAO’s recommendations to follow the manual and raised no objection to those findings.”

In English this said that the CG didn’t used the MSAM as it should have and promised to on the EXACT program it was meant for – Deepwater.

“Congress is stepping up its oversight. The House passed legislation in July that would bar the Coast Guard from using private lead systems integrators. The Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee passed a separate authorization bill.”

This is misleading. The congress passed a bill sating that the CG could waive the reforms in the bill if it chose to do so and those waivers could be used on the Deepwater program – the same program that drove reforms. And the CG has stated the LSI’s would not go away until 2011. That is after all of the NSC contracts and I would imagine the OPC contracts are let. Basically this is all a smoke screen. There have been some worthwhile changes but most are only skin deep – there is no root cause fix here. (The NSC still have major security issues – issues that will be propagated on to the FRCs and OPCs unless the root causes are addressed) Lastly let me mention again that ICGS, LM and NG have not only not paid the $100M refund for the 123s but they blame the CG for the problems with the hulls and have suggested they may actually seek damages from the CG for canceling the 123 effort. The contractors still run this program from behind the scenes.

Coast Guard Station Eastport Maine Semper Paratus

From Maritime Reporter and Engineering News

In this photo released by the U.S. Coast Guard, (counterclockwise from right) a Canadian coast guardsman and U.S. Coast Guardsmen Seaman Apprentice Anthony Kelley, Petty Officer 3rd Class Brian Abel and Petty Officer 2nd Class Shawn Wilkinson transfer Canadian coast guardsman Liam Jeffrey to U.S. Coast Guard Station Eastport’s boat during a simulated search and rescue exercise in the Bay of Fundy off Campobello Island, New Brunswick, Tuesday, Aug. 25, 2009. Personnel from U.S. Coast Guard Station Eastport, Maine, and men and women from the Canadian coast guard and air force and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police worked together Aug. 25 and Aug. 26 to respond to several simulated distress calls as part of their annual training together.

Coast Guard Station Curtis Bay Semper Paratus

From PA Det Baltimore

BALTIMORE – The Coast Guard rescued two people and recovered a deceased person following a boat collision between two recreational boats in Curtis Creek near the Coast Guard Yard in Baltimore Sunday.

Rescued were John Martins, 42, and his daughter Lauren Martins, 13, of Glen Burnie, Md.

Good Samaritans notified Coast Guard Sector Baltimore watchstanders via marine-band radio at approximately 6 p.m., reporting a boat collision with people in the water. The collision resulted in the capsizing of the Martins’ boat and the other boat with one person aboard became out of control following the accident.  A Good Samaritan got aboard the out of control boat and stopped it.

Coast Guard Station Curtis Bay, Md., dispatched a 25-foot response boat crew and a 41-foot utility boat crew to the scene.

The response boat crew recovered the deceased person from his boat and the utility boat crew rescued two people that were clinging to the hull of their capsized boat. All people were transported to a private dock near the split of Marley Creek and Curtis Creek where they were met by Anne Arundel County EMS. Martins reportedly suffered from a laceration on his arm and multiple contusions.

The cause of the incident is under investigation with Maryland Natural Resources Police.  The name of the decedent is being withheld pending next of kin notification.

Coast Guard Station Washington DC Semper Paratus

BALTIMORE - Seaman Scott Stevens and Fireman Erica Miles transfer a dewatering pump to an Alexandria Fire Department's boat to assist in dewatering an 18-foot pleasure craft taking on water Sunday, Aug. 30, 2009. A Coast Guard 25-foot response boat crew escorted the vessel to Gravely Point, Va., where it was towed by a D.C. Fire Department boat crew. (Coast Guard photo/Petty Officer 2nd Class Eric Ciuca)

From  PA Det Baltimore

BALTIMORE – The Coast Guard along boat crews from Washington, D.C. Fire Department, D.C. Police Department, Prince George County Police Department and Alexandria Fire Department rescued three people from a boat in the Potomac River near the Naval Research Laboratory Sunday.

A Good Samaritan notified rescuers via marine-band radio at 5:10 p.m., reporting that Babar Iftikhar, 29, was aboard an 18-foot pleasure craft with three people aboard taking on water.

A 25-foot response boat crew from Coast Guard Station Washington, D.C., was diverted and another was launched.  Boat crews from D.C. Fire Department, D.C. Police Department, Prince George County Police Department and Alexandria Fire Department were also dispatched. Both Coast Guard boats arrived on scene within five minutes to find D.C. Fire Department and Alexandria Fire Department boat crews alongside the vessel taking on water.

The D.C. Fire Department boat crew transferred a pump to the vessel taking on water and began dewatering it.  A Coast Guard boat crew transferred their dewatering pump to the Alexandria Fire Department’s boat and transferred two personnel to assist in dewatering the vessel. The three people were transferred to the D.C. Police Department’s boat.

The D.C. Fire Department boat crew took the vessel in tow to Gravely Point, Va., while a Coast Guard boat crew and a D.C. Police Department boat crew escorted the vessel.

“This is a good example of how the local, state and federal agencies work together to keep the boating public safe in the National Capitol Region,” said Petty Officer 2nd Class Eric Ciuca, a coxswain at Station Washington.
There were no reports of injuries.

The Coast Guard urges mariners to outfit their boat with a functioning marine-band radio. Using channel 16 on a marine-band radio is the most reliable way to communicate a distress to search and rescue personnel in the event of an emergency while on the water.

Jaycee Dugard—Case Closed

From Inside the FBI Podcast

Mr. Schiff: Hello I’m Neal Schiff and welcome to Inside the FBI, a weekly podcast about news, cases, and operations. The long ordeal is finally over and not only Jaycee Dugard and her family are relieved, but law enforcement personnel around the country as well. In 1991 Jaycee Dugard was kidnapped from her neighborhood in South Lake Tahoe, California. She was 11. She was not seen again until this week, 18 years later. FBI Special Agent Chris Campion of the Sacramento Field Office has been the case agent on the case from the beginning.

Mr. Campion: “From the very first call of the very first day, our agents were out there covering leads shoulder-to-shoulder with the sheriff’s department (El Dorado County Sheriff’s Department), from our (FBI) South Lake Tahoe RA (Resident Agency) first of all, and then also from our Sacramento Division and Reno offices pulling people in. So that within a couple of days, we had approximately 50 FBI folks working hand-in-hand with at least as many state and local partners during the initial response.”

Mr. Schiff: With the El Dorado County Sheriff’s Office heading the search, no stones were left unturned and Campion was there.

Mr. Campion: “The lead agency is the El Dorado County Sheriff’s Department and they did a fantastic job of responding to this. We also pulled in our local partners. In a small resident agency, we have very good local partner cooperation, so the South Lake Tahoe Police Department worked quite closely with us; the California Highway Patrol; the California Department of Parole and Probation. Basically everybody with a badge within 50 miles was somehow involved in this case in the first few weeks.”

Mr. Schiff: We asked Campion about the many people who worked on this case over 18 years.

Mr. Campion: “I would even not want to guess the number of man hours, man years, really, of effort that was put into this case. Everyone was so concerned because it was such a tragic and shocking case for this community and for the region, that we got tons of calls, and we really diligently followed every lead that we possibly could to its logical conclusion, including some leads that were very promising at the beginning, and led us into all sorts of different investigative techniques using Title III court-ordered wiretaps, using confidential informants who were making recordings in various situations. We had basically every single technique that the FBI uses was employed in this case.”

Mr. Schiff: We wondered if any leads over nearly two decades may have taken investigators close to Jaycee and her kidnappers.

Mr. Campion: “I wish I could say that there was, and we’ve gone through and checked our records and my memory is no, we didn’t have any thing that remotely was close to these people. We had the vehicle description and we have the vehicle that was used in this abduction—we’re very confident we have the actual vehicle. It looked like a lot of the vehicles that were stopped in the ensuing days, weeks, and years that we checked out countless leads of look-alike vehicles, look-alike subjects to the composite drawing of the female suspect based on our witness statement. We checked, literally thousands of those leads and these people just did not come up on the radar screen at all for whatever reason.”

Mr. Schiff: And now we come to this week. How did this come to a conclusion?

Mr. Campion: “Well, the bottom line is very good police work by a couple of key people. It’s my understanding at this point that an officer at the University of California Police Department for UC Berkeley had contact with Mr. Garrido and he raised her attention level, and he was with two younger girls. She determined that he was a sex offender, and that, gets that sixth sense that law enforcement people sometime have that something wasn’t right here, and she did the right thing. She called his parole officer, the parole officer did what he was supposed to do, got to the bottom of it, and the whole thing came out at that point. Since then, we’ve been working with El Dorado County , the FBI, a lot of different agencies; the Concord Police Department did a fantastic job when they got the initial information to try to make sure that this case is rock solid, getting all of the evidence collected, properly documented, and doing our investigation the last day and a half.”

Mr. Schiff: Campion has been in contact with Jaycee’s mother and Jaycee herself.

Mr. Campion: “I have been in contact with Jaycee’s mother, Terry. Over the years, on a regular basis, we call and check in—hopefully on an annual basis—I usually try to call on Jacyee’s birthday. So Terry, right now, is understandably just ecstatic. When I called her she was beside herself with joy and I was present when she was reunited with Jaycee yesterday morning. It was a very emotional scene—both of them were just overjoyed to be with each other again. There’s going to be a period of adjustment, no doubt, but they’re doing very well at this point. And the two daughters are probably as happy as Jaycee is to be part of this family as well.”

Mr. Schiff: One thing can be said: law enforcement everywhere doesn’t give up.

Mr. Campion: “Absolutely. We can tell you several thousands of people that didn’t kidnap Jaycee Lee Dugard. We were, I think, as diligent as we possibly could…a whole litany of investigators, from the original case agent Chick McDevitt—I worked closely with him, he was my partner in the RA—through the Sheriff’s Department Investigator Jim Watson who started out, and everybody who inherited the case afterward, right down the line, both with the FBI and the Sheriff’s Department, never lost faith and kept on working it.”

Mr. Schiff: We’ll be hearing more in the future. For now, we at the FBI tip our caps to the many hundreds and hundreds of police officers who worked overly hard in trying to find Jaycee Dugard and the kidnappers. More about how the FBI works with law enforcement partners around the world on the Internet at www.fbi.gov. That concludes our show. Thanks for listening. I’m Neal Schiff of the FBI’s Office of Public Affairs.

Coast Guard Report Weekend Update

• Next Week at the Coast Guard Academy – Week of 31 August 2009
• 2009 Coast Guard Academy Corps of Cadets Regimental Review Schedule
• Remembering the Legend Ted Kennedy
• CGBlog – An Unofficial Coast Guard Blog corrects its website, removes link to site depicting nude young girls
• Link From Popular Site Promoted by Admiral Thad Allen Takes Readers to Porn Site – CGBlog Undressed
• Coast Guard Born Ready
• Projects In the Works
• August Edition of Civil Rights On Deck published on Coast Guard Office of Civil Rights Website
• Homeland Security General Counsel: Ivan K. Fong
• Senator Edward (Ted) Kennedy
• Coast Guard Born Ready
• Navy Announces Delay of Environmental Impact Statement for East Coast Landing Field Sites
• Coast Guard Sector North Carolina Investigates Parasailing Accident
• Kristen Ruggiero Now Faces Charges in Two States
• USS Theodore Roosevelt Contract Awarded

Next Week at the Coast Guard Academy – Week of 31 August 2009

Tuesday, September 01, 2009

Volleyball at home against Gordon

Thursday, September 03, 2009

Women’s Soccer at home against Albertus Magnus

Friday, September 04, 2009

Men’s Soccer @ Mass. Maritime

Volleyball @ Western Connecticut #

Saturday, September 05, 2009

Women’s Soccer at home against Lasell

Volleyball at Western Connecticut Invitational

2009 Coast Guard Academy Corps of Cadets Regimental Review Schedule

The Coast Guard Academy’s Corps of Cadets is scheduled to march in five regimental reviews during the fall academic school year.

The community is invited to attend all drills, which are free and open to the public.  Bleachers are available and are located in front of Hamilton Hall across Washington Parade Field where the ceremony takes place.
In the event of foul weather, reviews will be cancelled or moved to an indoor location.

Regimental reviews are part of military traditions and ceremonies which serve to develop poise, confidence, speaking skills, teamwork and leadership. Moreover, it provides a valuable means of recognizing military heritage and pride in the Coast Guard.

The Corps of Cadets Regimental Review Schedule is as follows:

DATE              TIME               REVIEWING OFFICIAL

Sept. 11            4 p.m.               Dr. Ernie Manfred

Sept. 18            4 p.m.               Mayor Wade Hyslop

Sept. 26            9:45 a.m.           Parent’s Association President

Oct. 2               4 p.m.               Anne Brengle, Coast Guard Foundation president

Oct. 9               4 p.m.               TBD<

Remembering the Legend Ted Kennedy

President Barack Obama and Senator Ted Kennedy walk on the grounds of the White House. White House Photo, Pete Souza, 4/28/09

DEATH OF SENATOR EDWARD M. KENNEDY
- – - – - – -
BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

A PROCLAMATION

Senator Edward M. Kennedy was not only one of the greatest senators of our time, but one of the most accomplished Americans ever to serve our democracy. Over the past half-century, nearly every major piece of legislation that has advanced the civil rights, health, and economic well-being of the American people bore his name and resulted from his efforts. With his passing, an important chapter in our American story has come to an end.

As a mark of respect for the memory of Senator Edward M. Kennedy, I hereby order, by the authority vested in me by the Constitution and laws of the United States of America, that the flag of the United States shall be flown at half-staff at the White House and upon all public buildings and grounds, at all military posts and naval stations, and on all naval vessels of the Federal Government in the District of Columbia and throughout the United States and its Territories and possessions until sunset on August 30, 2009. I also direct that the flag of the United States shall be flown at half-staff until sunset on the day of his interment. I further direct that the flag shall be flown at half-staff for the same periods at all United States embassies, legations, consular offices, and other facilities abroad, including all military facilities and naval vessels and stations.

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

BARACK OBAMA