Coast Guard ushers in New Year with new rating

Courtesy Photo | Five reserve maritime enforcement specialists with Maritime Safety and Security Team 91103 advanced from petty officers third class to second class during a ceremony, Dec. 31, 2009. MSST 91103 is deployed here to perform maritime anti-terrorism and force protection duties for Joint Task Force Guantanamo. JTF Guantanamo conducts safe, humane, legal and transparent care and custody of detainees, including those convicted by military commission and those ordered released by a court. The JTF conducts intelligence collection, analysis and dissemination for the protection of detainees and personnel working in JTF Guantanamo facilities and in support of the War on Terror. JTF Guantanamo provides support to the Office of Military Commissions, to law enforcement and to war crimes investigations. The JTF conducts planning for and, on order, responds to Caribbean mass migration operations.  

01.08.2010

Courtesy Story

Joint Task Force Guantanamo Public Affairs

With the ringing in of the New Year, the Coast Guard ushered in a brand new rating, while at the same time, they said good-bye to another.

The maritime enforcement specialist rating became part of the Coast Guard family Jan. 1, 2010, while its reserve counterpart was disestablished. Joint Task Force Guantanamo's Maritime Safety and Security Team 91103 recognized the special milestone during a ceremony at U.S. Naval Station Guantanamo Bay, Dec. 29, 2009.

Each member symbolically transitioned from one side of the brow to the other. As they did so, each person shed his legacy rating and stepped into the boots of being a maritime enforcement specialist.

"Not many people can say they changed rates from their legacy to a brand new rate while being deployed to Guantanamo," said Coast Guard Chief Petty Officer Lee Conroy, with MSST 91103, which is out of Los Angeles. Conroy, previously a boatswain's mate, is the senior enlisted member to be a plank owner of the maritime enforcement rate at the MSST. "Being here makes it that much more special. It is important to recognize this new step in the Coast Guard."

The service has been responsible for maritime law enforcement since its beginning days as the Revenue-Marine, and later named the Revenue Cutter Service, which was established in 1790. The idea behind creating a new law enforcement-centric rating is to be able to continue that ability with a better set of tools for the fleet.

"This is a significant change, and not a decision that was reached lightly," said Coast Guard Vice Adm. Jody Breckenridge, commander of Coast Guard Pacific Area.

The admiral was able to visit the MSST and pay tribute to the unit during the holidays, as well as participate in the ceremony of those who switched rates at the beginning of the year.

"In the post-9/11 environment, and the joint environments we are operating in, we have looked at how threats have changed, and the skills we really need have changed," Breckenridge said.

This new rate will help the Coast Guard acquire those skills and maintain those specialized abilities in the field. These new maritime enforcement specialists will be the law enforcement instructors at the unit level, and will keep the rest of the fleet up to speed when it comes to enforcing the laws on the water and in the many different aspects of the Coast Guard mission.

In the recent past, it has primarily been the boatswain's mates, the gunner's mates and the machinery technicians who have constituted the Coast Guard's boarding teams. This will not change, according to Conroy. These teams will still be made up of a variety of other rates to do the job. However, it will be the unit's resident maritime enforcement specialist who will be responsible for training these team members and keeping them up to speed on their law enforcement skills. This, he says, will be a wonderful improvement because as the different rates rotate in and out of the different missions, there will always be a maritime enforcement specialist at the unit to make sure the members know what they need to know to get the job done and to stay safe while doing it.

"With the establishment of this rate, there will be a core in the organization that will represent our new depth of experience," Breckenridge said. "They will keep our deployable forces up and coming, with a bit stronger footprint, while at the same time keeping the rest of the Coast Guard's skill sets up as they rotate through the different billets."

As this new rating comes on line, the Coast Guard says farewell to another rate. The port security specialist was the only job that was strictly for the reserves, a job that Coast Guard Chief Petty Officer Brian Putnam did for more than 13 years as a reservist.

"I am sad to see the PS rate go," Putnam said.

Putnam is Conroy's reserve counterpart, who also made the change to ME. He may be sad to see his legacy rate being disestablished, but he is excited to see the reservists have the opportunities the new rate will afford them.

"In the past, the reserve PS members did not have an active duty counterpart, therefore it made training difficult," Putnam said. "You'd come in for your drill weekends and be working for a [boatswain's mate] or another rate who really didn't know what your job consisted of."

Now, Putnam said, a consistency will be maintained between the active-duty side and the reserve side, which will ensure his reserve members receive the proper training they need. When deployments come up, such as the one Conroy and Putnam are now on, there will be a better correlation within the one rate, making sure the mission is completed more efficiently.

• Date Taken: 01.08.2010
• Date Posted: 01.13.2010 12:54
• Story ID: 43772