Coast Guard's top officer highlights service ties with Air Force

  • Published
  • By Scott Knuteson
  • Air University Public Affairs
MAXWELL AIR FORCE BASE, Ala. --  The top Coast Guard officer said the Air Force and the Coast Guard have more in common than one might think. 

Admiral Thad Allen, the Coast Guard's commandant, told this to Air War College students here April 9, during a speech about homeland security. 

The bedrock of the relationship between the two services is the joint ownership of the search and rescue mission, the admiral said. 

"You are the inland search and rescue coordinators; we are the maritime search and rescue coordinators," he reminded the audience comprised mostly of Air Force officers. 

"[The Air Force does] some things that are just unbelievable, like doctors jumping out of airplanes - what an oxymoron," he said, in reference to the Air Force's pararescuemen, who must maintain an emergency medical technician-paramedic qualification. 

The Coast Guard routinely deploys Air Force pararescuemen, or PJs, on cases that "are too far out for us," the admiral said. It also exchanges rescue pilots with the Air Force. 

On a related note, the admiral called himself "an interested observer" of the situation surrounding the recent recommendation by Defense Secretary Robert Gates to terminate the Air Force's Combat Search and Rescue X (CSAR-X) helicopter program. Although he has no role in or opinion on the process, he stressed that whatever happens will affect the Coast Guard. 

But search and rescue is not the only area in which the two services overlap. The Coast Guard, under the purview of the Department of Homeland Security, has interest in Unmanned Aerial Systems and is a key player within U.S. Transportation Command, the last two commanders of which have been Air Force generals. 

Admiral Allen called both these generals "personal friends" and stressed to Air War College students the importance of building relationships such as the ones fostered during their time at the schoolhouse. 

Calling the relationship among all the service chiefs "the most collegial" he has experienced , the Coast Guard's top officer said, "the more the service chiefs interact, the more we find out we're more alike than not." 

And the admiral did not hesitate to commend the Air Force's chief of staff, General Norton A. Schwartz, on his knowledge of the sea. 

"I've never met anyone not in the Coast Guard who knows as much about marine transportation as General Schwartz," the admiral told the audience. 

Besides the sea, cyberspace is another venue in which the services share a common interest, Admiral Allen said. 

The admiral, a major proponent of the use of new media technology, uses a blog as a means by which to communicate with his personnel. 

"New social media is a fundamental change in our atmosphere and we need to understand how to operate in it," he said. 

The service chief is able to get direct feedback from his Coast Guardsmen via the blog, which he dubbed "iCommandant." Recently, a petty officer second class posted a comment on the site in response to a directive the admiral had recently implemented. This was just one example of the ways Admiral Allen said he sees new technology can be useful in monitoring the pulse of his organization and keeping up with current service-related news. 

The admiral's speech was part of the Distinguished Lecture Series that Air War College provides its students in order to educate them on leadership. Under the program, leaders from across a wide range of disciplines, including diplomats and scholars, speak on a regular basis to Air War College classes.