More security problems exacerbated by Bush the blivet**

[mcscajun]

Now hear this, now hear this: The Coast Guard is being grossly neglected under the * Administration.

Two articles sent to me this afternoon point to a massive lack of support for yet another branch of servicemen and servicewomen, resulting in a breakdown in our critical coastal security.

Excerpts of both articles follow (with links)

While the average age of the Navy's frigates, destroyers and other "surface combatants" is 15.2 years, and the average age of its supply and refueling ships is 20.5 years, the Coast Guard uses ships nearly twice as old, according to the Government Accountability Office. The average age of the Coast Guard's 14 210-foot cutters is 37.3 years, and the average age of its dozen 378-foot cutters is 35.3 years.

"It's just getting more and more difficult to keep these old dogs going," says Baynes, commander of the Decisive's 75-member crew. The Coast Guard's unofficial motto is "We can do more with less."

(snip)

"As admirable as that stance is," Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, says, "the cold, hard truth remains that the Coast Guard is experiencing a record number of casualties and mishaps like never seen before, and it's becoming simply unsafe for our young men and women to serve aboard these aging assets."

(snip)

But the problems have become "a constant drain on us," he says. "It's going to get to where one day, I'm just going to have to call my commanders and say, 'I can't sail.' "

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2005-07-05-coast-guard-inside_x.htm

The Coast Guard's ships, planes and helicopters are breaking down at record rates, which may threaten the service's ability to carry out its post-9/11 mission of protecting ports and waterways against terrorism.

(snip)

The Bush administration wants to increase the amount of time it will take to replace a fleet that's among the oldest on the globe - older even than fleets owned by nations such as Algeria and Pakistan. The "deepwater" replacement program, conceived in 1998 as a $20 billion, 20-year plan to replace the fleet, could be increased to 25 years under a White House plan.

The strategy would save the government money in the short term. The White House budget office declined to comment.

(snip)

Stephen Flynn, a maritime security expert and former Coast Guard officer, says the agency is "operating at the level, in many instances, of a Third World navy."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/usatoday/coastguardplaguedbybreakdowns

[rzemanfl]

1. So what? We are fighting them over there so we won't have to

fight them here, and if you drown because the Coast Guard boat broke down it would be "God's will" so quit whining. Why do you hate freedom?