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Thursday, July 04, 2002
Seaports under the eye of new 'SWAT' marine unit [Source: Seattle Times]
By Ray Rivera It rescues stranded boaters, snatches drug traffickers and chases down environmental outlaws. But since Sept. 11, the U.S. Coast Guard's mission has increasingly turned to homeland security, and now it has a new weapon. The Coast Guard yesterday launched the first of four new "SWAT" teams — 100-member units conceived after the September attacks to provide quick response to terrorist threats in the nation's busy seaports. Seattle got the first team, designated Marine Safety and Security Team 91101. The remaining teams start duty later this summer in Chesapeake, Va.; Long Beach, Calif.; and Houston. The symbolism behind the first unit's number escaped no one at yesterday's closed commissioning ceremony on Pier 36. "The idea for the Marine Safety and Security Teams was initially conceived within days of Sept. 11," said Vice Admiral Terry Cross, the agency's Pacific Area commander. "Ten months later, we're commissioning 91101." "The significance is obvious," added Lt. Cmdr. Ramon Ortiz, the new unit's commanding officer. The teams will operate 30-foot boats designed to be loaded quickly on trailers or flown anywhere in the country aboard C-130s within 12 hours. Radar and antenna units sit on hinges, allowing them to quickly swing inside the aluminum cabin for loading. "One person can get the boat ready to load in five minutes," said Scott Peterson, vice president of Safe Boats International, the Port Angeles company that builds the $175,000 crafts. Built on bullet-resistant foam floats, the nimble boats hit top speeds of 50 mph and operate in any weather. The teams were run through four weeks of law-enforcement and other tactical training at Camp Lejeune, a Marine Corps base in North Carolina. Eight additional teams are expected to be trained and commissioned in the next two years. Coast Guard officials said the teams will be deployed to potential trouble spots based on intelligence gathered from cargo manifests and passenger and crew lists of the 10,000 vessels that enter U.S. ports each year. Suspicious ships will be flagged and security teams will swoop in to inspect. The idea, said Coast Guard officials, is to inspect suspicious ships and cargo before they enter U.S. ports. The stakes are high, said U.S. Sen. Patty Murray, D.-Wash., the ceremony's keynote speaker, warning that a terrorist event closing a port or slowing shipping traffic could cripple the U.S. economy. "Such a disaster would ripple rapidly through our economy and would mean a loss of jobs stretching from this port to the Wal-Mart in the heart of Ohio and everywhere in between," Murray said. An estimated 5.7 million shipping containers filled with goods from around the world enter the United States each year, about 15 percent of those through the ports of Seattle and Tacoma. Murray said authorities don't know as much about those containers as they should. "There's no question that, when it comes to port security, we need to do a great deal more than what we are doing," Murray said. She called the creation of the Marine Safety and Security Teams an important step. Murray, a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, pushed through funding to create four teams instead of the two proposed by the Bush administration. She also ensured that the Puget Sound and Chesapeake Bay regions, which encompass large naval installations the Coast Guard helps secure, each received teams. Murray is among lawmakers worried that President Bush's plan to move the Coast Guard from the Department of Transportation to the new Department of Homeland Security will detract from its more routine duties, such as search and rescue. She recently helped secure funding for five new vessels to help search-and-rescue efforts in Puget Sound and the Strait of Juan de Fuca. "The new and sudden requirement for expanded homeland defense meant necessarily that the Coast Guard would be spending less time interdicting drugs and illegal migrants, enforcing fishery laws and marine safety and protecting our marine environment," she said. "Unfortunately, this situation persists today." Tuesday, July 02, 2002
Ventura County Fire Department launches live incident web page [Source: Ventura County Fire Department]  The Ventura County Fire Department has unvieled their new web incident page which displays near real time dispatch information including the type of call, location and the number of units responding. Sunday, June 30, 2002
Jake's Wedding [Source: Donald "Tim" Tribble; NorCalFire] Jake Hickok operates the Northern California web site as well as being part time employed by Red Bluff City Fire Department as the department photographer and videographer. These are comments by Donald "Tim" Tribble KD6MDV and photos from the NorCalFire Yahoo! group.
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The bride was lovely. Jake was the groom, it was a rented tux, need I say more?
I found out that Jake is not much of a dancer. Altough there are those who say I am harsh in that analysis. Ok, I'll admit he didn't know he was dancing with me (until I grabbed him.) I lead, he hung on for dear life. I was even kind enough to point him to the camera operated by the great Yoda.
The exit vehicle was apporpriatly decorated by Ms. Nut, my Wife & Daughter, some interested parties and yours truly. The roof had a toy fire truck (ladder up of course.) Toy firemen, bells, aligators and other parphenalia tied to the rear and to the mirrors. The words "Bedroom Bound" on the rear bumper, the interior was decorated by my 8-year old daughter. (She was instructed to use at least 1/2 the bag of confetti, she did and then some.) and ballons. Various hearts, and other mushy stuff was written on the windows and such. The coup de grais were the Ken and Barbie Dolls wire tied together on the antenna. At this point I will comment that I am writing a letter to Mattel. It seems the new Barbies are "Always Dressed" as a bikini is now painted on the torso. This lead to a more modest showing of Ken and Barbie than I usually do.