As tensions with Iran rise, US Coast Guard makes waves in Persian Gulf
By Mike Levine
Published February 13, 2012
The U.S. Navy is ready to confront any act of aggression, a top U.S. military official said Sunday after Iran began amassing a fleet of small boats that could launch suicide attacks in the Persian Gulf. But the Navy isn't the only sea-faring U.S. forces on guard in the Gulf.
The U.S. Coast Guard regularly patrols the waters near Iran and Iraq's coasts, but recent widely publicized operations by the Guard in the Gulf surprised many Americans despite its being in the region for nearly a decade.
"When most people think of the branches of the military, they think of the Army, Air Force, Navy, Marine Corps," said Lt. Joseph "Grant" Thomas, who commanded a U.S. Coast Guard ship, the cutter "Monomoy," in the Persian Gulf from 2009 to 2010.
The Monomoy rescued six Iranian fishermen from their sinking boat on Jan. 10.
"I don't think a lot of people necessarily understand the unique nature of the Coast Guard and how we are both a military and a federal law enforcement agency," Thomas said in an interview with Fox News.
Last month, U.S. Coast Guard Commandant Adm. Robert Papp acknowledged the frequent head-scratching over the Guard's role in the region.
"(I get) a lot of questions: Why is the U.S. Coast Guard there?" Papp said at a Navy symposium Jan. 12.
Six 110-foot Coast Guard cutters like the Monomoy have been deployed in the Middle East since 2003. Papp told Fox News in an interview that the Department of Defense "put in a request" for Coast Guard forces in 2003 when the U.S. Navy and other military branches "did not have sufficient patrol boats" for some efforts in the Middle East.
Thanks to their relatively small size, Coast Guard vessels can access waters that Navy vessels can't, Thomas said.
While in the Middle East, the Coast Guard operates under traditional military authorities and customary international law, which allows military personnel to visit, board and search vessels to confirm their identity, according to Papp.
The Coast Guard's primary mission was to protect the lifeblood of Iraq's fledgling economy: two Iraqi oil platforms, one of which is in waters claimed by Iran. Iraq produces millions of barrels of oil each day. But the U.S. Coast Guard has "backed away" a bit from protecting the Iraqi oil platforms, Papp said, as Coast Guard members train their Iraqi counterparts to take over....
