Field Mission Support Integration (iTeam) Update

Is your unit receiving the level of support promised by Admiral Thad Allen under modernization?  Several District Commanders say they are not.  Districts in the Coast Guard are led by Rear Admiral’s broken down by area much like Navy’s regional commanders.  But that’s where the similarities between Coast Guard and Navy end.

The first major difference between Coast Guard and any other Armed Force, is the lack of a military hierarchy construct.  Modernization created 14 Base Support Units (BSU)  out of what previously were Integrated Support Commands (ISC).  The new much smaller BSU’s operate absent Executive Officers although many have dual hatted the unit Comptroller as XO.  Every BSU Commanding Officer we have spoken to says using the already fully employed Comptroller as XO is unrealistic – mission and work-life factors will be affected.  Only one BSU kept a full-time XO in Elizabeth City, NC.

But the BSU’s are not alone, the newly created Personnel Services Support Units (PSSU) operate without XO’s as well.  Anyone who has ever served in the Military can see a problem with this.  Coast Guard apparently saw and has no issue with commands with out XO’s.    For years Coast Guard has talked about moving closer to model that reflects its Department of Defense counterparts.  Shortly after Admiral Thad Allen became Commandant, he moved the service to a Headquarters numbering construct that more resembled DoD and would allow for easier integration with the other services.

Coast Guards willingness to follow the lead of DoD ended with that initiative.  We have often referred to Coast Guards current trend as the “civilianization” of the U.S. Coast Guard in its march towards a more civilian construct.  For the men and women entering the service today, who may be looking for the structure of military service … they may be left wanting.

District Commanders, Sector Commanders and other operational units have been the most vocal (behind BSU Commanding Officers) on the lack of command and control under the current construct.  The iTeam has been tasked with providing Vice Admiral John Currier (DCMS) and Chief of Staff with a viable solution.  Curriers staff tell us that he expects a final recommendation by spring 2010.  The question is; can Coast Guard’s mission support wait that long.

Will the next natural or man-made disaster survive the current lack of command and control.  All questions the next Commandant will have to answer.

It would be a complete reversal of fortune if the FEMA Administrator had to bail out Coast Guard on the next disaster.