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Notes on the War on Terror
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A History of the United States Coast Guard
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The United States Coast Guard is a complex organization of people, ships, aircraft and shore stations. The Service is decentralized administratively and operationally. Coast Guard personnel respond to tasks in several mission and program areas. This multi-mission approach enables a relatively small organization to respond to public needs in a wide variety of maritime activities and to shift focus at short notice.
 
The Coast Guard's four main missions, even after 9-11, remain law enforcement, maritime safety, environmental protection and national security. These missions mandate that the Coast Guard remain constantly ready to defend the United States while also ensuring national security and protecting national interests. The Service is also to minimize loss of life and property, personal injury and property damage ar sea in U.S. waters; enforce U.S. laws and international agreements of the United States; and to ensure the safety and security of maritime transportation, ports, waterways and shore facilities. The Coast Guard also promotes maritime transportation and other waterborne activity in support of national economic, scientific, defense and social needs. It protects the marine environment and its wildlife and ensures an effective U.S. presence in polar regions. It also protects the interests of the United States in relationships with other maritime nations; assists other agencies in the performance of their duties and cooperates in joint maritime ventures while providing an effective maritime communications system.
 
On this Page you will find current News relating to the Coast Guard.

Antarctic Research
Antarctic Research

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The Biggest Wave
"The Biggest Wave"

In the 1980s the drug problem reached crisis proportions in the United States. Illegal drugs came into the country from many sources, but basically marijuana came from Colombia, Mexico, Belize and Jamaica, and cocaine came from Colombia, Bolivia and Peru. Drug smuggling has changed dramatically since 1973, when the Coast Guard deployed just six cutters in drug interdiction. Sezures of marijuana shipments escalated through 1982, then began to drop off as smugglers shifted to cocaine, which was more profitable and easier to conceal than marijuana. In 1982, the Service seized 3.5 million pounds of marijuana and 2, 00 pounds of cocaine; in 1987, 1.3 million pounds of marijuana were seized along with seven tons of cocaine. In the 1990s heroin began to appear in large quantities.
 
Until the late 1980s, most of the cocaine was smuggled into southern Florida, the marketing and distribution center for the business, and most of it came into the United States by the shortest route from Latin America, via Colombia. By the late 1980s, the Coast Guard had improved its interdiction efforts, which drove the smugglers ashore. By the early 1990s, most cocaine began to be shipped into the United States over the land border with Mexico, and illegal drugs began to show up in container ships.
 
To interdict drug shipments, the Coast Guard depends on a defense in depth. First, it tries to stop drugs in the deparure zone in the southern Caribbean, where it currently employs seven or eight cutters and where the U.S. Navy also is present in support of the interdiction effort. Navy ships all cary a Coast Guard Tactical Law Enforcement Team to conduct boardings. Second, the Coast Guard tries to interdict drugs in the transit zone, the choke points in the Caribbean, employing six or seven cutters in the three principal Caribbean passages. Third, the Coast Guard tries to interdict drugs in the arrival zone, maintaining six to eight cutters off the coast of Florida. All cutters are supported by aerostat balloons, fixed radar sites, and aircraft that help by spotting air and maritime traffic.
 
 
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At least one-third of all the foreign terrorist organizations, as of 2002, participate in, and profit from, the drug trade. If you buy or sell any illegal drug...any illegal drug... as far as we're concerned, you, too, are a terrorist.