Thursday, May 15, 2008

BERTHOLF's DD 250 posted online for all to see
Posted by Peter A. Stinson

I'm not sure when it was posted, but I discovered today that CG-9 has posted the Material Inspection and Receiving Report (DD250) for the BERTHOLF. Captain Patrick Stadt, signing as the Commanding Officer, accepted custody of the cutter in block 24 of the DD-250: Ship's Force Acknowledgement of Custody Transfer.

CG-9 also posted an Information Assurance Fact Sheet.

I haven't yet had time to digest all of this information, but I applaud the Coast Guard for being proactive in posting this information.

Earlier this week, David Axe at War is Boring posted Coast Guard Cutter’s Shady “Whodunit” where he said he'd been told there was some unethical actions taken in order to get the BERTHOLF a passing mark from the INSURV team. He'd been told the BERTHOLF's

communications systems had been fully installed as of this spring, but were yanked out of the ship in the weeks preceding InSurv’s visit … and then apparently re-installed after the inspectors had left.

This prompted Mr. Axe to ask three questions:

1) What were the circumstances surrounding the “un-installation” of Bertholf’s communications systems?

2) Who exactly yanked the systems, and when?

3) Who ordered the cheat, and what was their rationale?

The same rumor led me to file a FOIA request with the Coast Guard:

Pursuant to the federal Freedom of Information Act, 5 U.S.C. § 552, I request access to, and electronic copies of:

1.) All inventory documents of all C4ISR equipment which has been placed on the BERTHOLF at any time from the time the keel was laid to this date.

2.) All inventory documents of all C4ISR equipment which was placed on the BERTHOLF and then removed before April 20th, 2008.

3.) A listing of all descrepencies discovered in the C4ISR and TEMPEST systems which were noted by any organization involved in the construction and evaluation of the BERTHOLF.

4.) All documents, including emails, memos, and other forms oforganizational communication concerning the placement or removal of C4ISR equipment on the BERTHOLF.

Perhaps the Coast Guard leadership will just avoid the FOIA issues and just answer all the questions simply and directly.

In the mean time, tonight's reading is the DD-250 and the Information Assurance Fact Sheet.

Posted on 5/15/2008 02:38:00 PM
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Wednesday, May 14, 2008

Wondering about the Coast Guard's jurisdiction with commercial diving?
Posted by Peter A. Stinson

Want to learn more about commercial diving and the Coast Guard's oversight and regulation? The latest edition of The Coast Guard Proceedings of the Marine Safety & Security Council: Journal of Safety and Security at Sea has a comprehensive article by LCDR Kevin Ullrich: Commercial Diving: The U.S. Coast Guard's jurisdiction.

I'm sure we'll have analysis and comment here later this week.

In the mean time, surf on over and have a read for yourself.

Posted on 5/14/2008 03:11:00 PM
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Labels: by Peter Stinson, commercial diving

CGBlog Find #3: Hell of a Day at Sea
Posted by Joe Coastie

It was looking like our newest find, Hell of a Day at Sea was going to be last weeks CGBlog Find- but that would have been to predictable. So this week I would like to showcase a blog we found by way of asking for comments/nominations off of our first CGBlog Find. Again we find a blog run by one of our own, Casey Wardynski. Mr. Wardynski entered the CG in 2003 and has been rockin' it since.

I would like to point out a post made by Peter a few weeks ago when we discovered this gem titled The first DECKPLATE blog where it's noted that Peter (and I agree) has

discovered the perfect blog to serve as the ideal FROM THE DECKPLATE coastie blog. The blog is from Casey Wardynski, and it's called Hell of a Day at Sea.

This is the real deal. Stop on by Hell of a Day... ; scroll to the bottom and start reading up.

As noted, I agree. This is a great blog! Mr. Wardynski has a great career in the blog world, as either an "off the cuff, tell it how it is" blogger, or a great legit writer. I would like to highlight a sentence from his post dispelling common misconceptions, an exercise in futility I think I will be using in my personal eMail signature:

We ARE NOT all rescue swimmers. They are a critical component of our service but when looked at in size compared to the Coast Guard as a whole, they comprise a small part of the Coast Guard.

This is a great read... Keep it up Casey!!

Check out this weeks CGBlog Find at Hell of a Day at Sea.

**Have a blog you would like to see as a CG Blog Find? Leave a note in the comments or email me (Joe@CGBlog.org) for your weekly nomination. ~Joe

Posted on 5/14/2008 06:00:00 AM
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Labels: by Joe Coastie, CGBlog Find

Tuesday, May 13, 2008

Coast Guard gets Lost
Posted by Joe Coastie

Here is the time I profess my geekness for those thing that most would find geeky. Today I found a Coast Guard reference in an unexpected place... on a blog that is all things Lost (DarkUFO). You know, that awesome show on ABC. Anyhow, our CG reference...

US Coast Guard in Lost Finale
I'm pretty sure this is true but until I get confirmation I'll leave in rumors.

• The Lost Crew were at the U.S. Coast Guard Air Station Barbers Point in Hawaii

• They spent a day filming various Coast Guard aircraft taxing and performing low level fly by's

• Lots of "Coasties" were used as Extras.

And for you who care: What is the picture of in this post? First one to get it right gets an adaboy attaboy!

Posted on 5/13/2008 08:27:00 PM
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Labels: by Joe Coastie, Media

The need for speed: Travel reimbursements hit near speed of sound
Posted by Peter A. Stinson

The new split disbursement works... at least it did for me, and it did so at near the speed of sound. I arrived home on Saturday, the 3rd of May. I completed the request for reimbursement on Monday the 5th, and the approving officer signed off that same day.

Citibank received the money and credited my account on the 8th.

I'm ecstatic: no human intervention and the bill is paid.

Kudos to the staff at PSC.

Posted on 5/13/2008 03:11:00 PM
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GI BIll change just around the corner?
Posted by Joe Coastie

Again I come across a story that's not entirely Coast Guard, but Military in general. It was announced yesterday, or at least reported on via GovExec, that a Congressional change, the first dramatic one since WWII, to the GI Bill may be just around the corner.

...a plan that would essentially guarantee a full-ride scholarship to any in-state public university, along with a monthly housing stipend, for individuals who serve the military for at least three years.

The proposal would give veterans 15 years to use the benefit, instead of the current 10-year limit, and would set up a new government program that matches financial aid by more expensive private institutions.

For a pricey public school -- such as Miami University in Oxford, Ohio -- that benefit might be worth as much as $31,000 per school year, compared to the maximum $9,900 benefit that veterans are given now.

That would rock! This would more than likely convince more recruits to join the ranks of the military.

So the next question is cost:

The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimates that the proposal would cost $51.8 billion in the next 10 years.

However, there is always a catch...

President Bush is expected to veto the measure if it is sent to him with added domestic spending...

Oh well, it will be nice if they can get 'er through.

Posted on 5/13/2008 01:15:00 PM
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Labels: by Joe Coastie, Education

Monday, May 12, 2008

Naval Academy's MAMELUKE crew rescued by Coasties
Posted by Peter A. Stinson

This will be a story not be lived down by these young navy midshipmen. Local media outlets broadcast today:

The Coast Guard rescued 14 people, including some Naval Academy midshipmen and coaches from the academy, after their ship suffered a broken mast.

The "ship" in question is a 49-foot sloop used for open ocean sailing, the MAMELUKE.

I can only imagine the taunts and calls which will be granted to these young souls in the days and years ahead. Forever to be known as one of the guys who had to get rescued by the Coast Guard.

Posted on 5/12/2008 10:01:00 PM
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An insulting question, but one that must be answered
Posted by Peter A. Stinson

(Updated 5/12/2008 @ 1745)I recently came across a Washington Post article by Spencer S. Hsu and Renae Merle about the revolving door between government employees and government contractors. Their year-old piece, Coast Guard's Purchasing Raises Conflict-of-Interest Flags, examined the Coast Guard's Deepwater project along with policy and decision makers moving from the Coast Guard and DHS to Deepwater contractors. Deep in the article was this nugget:

Retired Coast Guard Adm. James M. Loy, who helped formulate Deepwater as the Coast Guard's commandant, said that to his knowledge "that array of players, either in their political positions, or civilian commercial positions, or in retired Coast Guard positions" has never been linked "to undue influence." Loy served two years as DHS deputy secretary, then joined Lockheed's board of directors in August 2005.

Asked whether he ever faced improper influence on Deepwater decisions, Loy said: "The question is almost insulting. I will pass on giving you any kind of answer."

Is that indignation talking... or is there something to hide?

Me, I'd just everything to be in the clear.

And, yes, I'd orginally thought this WaPo article was from this year, but one gentle reader has corrected me. This is old news, coming at us from early 2007.

Posted on 5/12/2008 01:43:00 PM
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Labels: by Peter Stinson, Deepwater

Blogging about the National Security Cutters
Posted by Peter A. Stinson

Now that the Coast Guard has taken possession of BERTHOLF, perhaps some people thought the blogosphere noise would die down. Not so.

Ken Talton, posting at Brickmuppet Blog, notes that while I've felt a bit played, he is "respectfully in disagreement." Says Mr. Talton,

Here is the deal. The Coast Guard bought a super whammodyne cutter some time ago. Named after the first Commandant of the Coast Guard, it is the largest vessel other than icebreakers the USCG has ever purchased.

It is bigger than a Perry Class frigate, has an innovative stern launch arrangement for its boats. It can conduct helicopter operations in Sea State 6. It brings together all the lessons learned from over 2 centuries of institutional expertise. It is ...on paper...a spectacular vessel.

Mr. Talton goes on to tell us a little from a flag officer visit:

A few weeks ago Admiral Rosa came and talked to our unit about various Coast Guard issues, inspected the troops and took questions.

Naturally, Deepwater came up.

The Admiral said that the aviation component of the Deepwater Program was proceeding quite well but that there had been many expensive lessons learned on the maritime side.

We were told that the structural issues on Bertholf were rather overblown and would not affect seaworthiness or safety and that the C4I issue was in fact the big problem. The ship will commission though it will take a long time to get the C4I stuff TEMPEST certified. The vessel is still a useful asset and will be capable of doing Search And Rescue and other operations without TEMPEST standards being met.

I guess that's my primary concern: We're not hearing the same story from all the Coast Guard leaders. Admiral Rosa tells a station's crew "the C4I issue was in fact the big problem," and yet from inside the Beltway we're told there's nothing wrong; pay no attention to the man behind the mirror.

Also at Mr. Talton's blog, he wonders, What could we buy for 6 NSC's? Comparison shoping... Some great thinking that got Galrahn over at Information Dissemination thinking, Is Fighting Small With Small Appropriate?

Posted on 5/12/2008 01:23:00 PM
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Saturday, May 10, 2008

NSA's 8th annual Cyber Defense Exercise- How did we do?
Posted by Joe Coastie

This post is for you geeks out there who are in the know: How well did the Coast Guard Academy do at this years Cyber Defense Exercise? They were to start on April 21st and go through the 25th. I found an article on Networkworld discussing it, but I can't find any information on the winner. Though I'm not diggin' the tone nor sarcasm of the writer from Networkworld, it would have been nice if it held true...

For anyone who cares, my inside sources tell me that the United States Coast Guard Academy is currently the most promising contestant. Pretty scary.

And the winner was...?

Posted on 5/10/2008 10:13:00 PM
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Asking permission to do our job... our future?
Posted by Joe Coastie

I again stumbled across one of those post's on another website that is worthy of sharing, it also brings up some questions. On the site REPRESENTING FOREIGN NATIONALS Linda Friedman Ramirez wrote a post titled INTERROGATION BY COAST GUARD: Not custodial. So here is the short of the post,

The case of USA v Fleet Management, 2008 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 37161 (E.D. Pa. 2008), addresses the government's failure to advise of Miranda warnings during an "administrative" proceeding which the defendants argued was a criminal investigation.

These administrative proceedings I have put in bold are the subject of this piece and my question. The questions that were asked were standard questions that should have been asked by any Port State Control officers, especially when something weird has been noted. According to the post a Mr. Dyachenko, the defendant states the PSC officers

(1)...asked confrontational and intimidating questions; (2) he was confronted with the oil record book and sounding book and asked to explain them; (3) Chief Jones threatened him with criminal sanctions for impeding an investigation if he did not turn over his personal property; and (4) in the end, in ill health and without an interpreter, he remained for questioning "out of fear of reprisal for non-compliance and potentially impeding a [United States Coast Guard] investigation."

Sounds like someone who had something to hide if you ask me.

However after all that, and upon reading the entire post (which I invite you to do), I began to ask myself a very real question- now keep in mind the Commandants ALCOAST COMMANDANTS EXPECTATIONS FOR INTERACTION WITH MARITIME INDUSTRY in which we are to cater to industry- the question is: how long until our inspectors not only have to ask permission to go aboard an do our job, but also read crews their Miranda Warning or, as we are taught here in the CG, Rights Advice, to talk to 'em? My opinion- if you want to do trade with the U.S. you should be required to abide by our rules, not bend them to met your needs.

Any thoughts?

Posted on 5/10/2008 08:18:00 PM
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Friday, May 9, 2008

Another solution for collaborative technology
Posted by Peter A. Stinson

This leapt out at me. NAPA launches collaboration Web site, an article by y Anne Laurent, of The Agile Mind blog, writing on the NextGov website:

If you’ve ever wished your federal agency could adopt wikis, use YouTube or delve into the virtual world but feared the security, technology and political barriers were too high to overcome, take heart. You’ve got supporters, and they have success stories.

On May 8, the National Academy of Public Administration went live with its Collaboration Project Web site. The project, which began in February, “is an independent forum of leaders committed to leveraging the interactive Web and the benefits of collaborative technology to solve government's complex problems,” it states.

I haven't checked out the Collaboration Project Web site yet, but I will.

Posted on 5/09/2008 07:47:00 PM
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Labels: by Peter Stinson

Gettin' Paid: Bill to guarantee pay increase
Posted by Joe Coastie

Hello again from the land of the obscure finds... I was checkin' the RSS feeds from the last few days (I don't get a chance to check 'em all the time) and I stumbled across something of interest to those out there who care about getting paid.

The item of interest was an introduced House bill (H.R. 5987) to amend title 37, United States Code, to guarantee a pay increase for members of the uniformed services for fiscal years 2010 through 2013 of one-half of one percentage point higher than the Employment Cost Index... Bling! Bling! Unfortunately as I write this Friday morning there is no real text available/attached to the bill as it hasn't been printed by the Government Printing Office yet. And for those of you who are into the political scene this bill was introduced by Rep. Thelma Drake [R-VA]. And though I'm not a Virginian myself, I thank you anyway Ms. Drake... that is, I thank you till I get a chance to read the whole bill.

Posted on 5/09/2008 09:44:00 AM
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Labels: Budget, by Joe Coastie, Capitol Hill

Thursday, May 8, 2008

Feeling I'm a bit played
Posted by Peter A. Stinson

Michael DeKort reports,

A source who wants to remain anonymous just contacted me and told me that the "uninstalled" C4ISR TEMPEST equipment was installed, failed TEMPEST tests and was removed so they could alter their story. I was told a significant amount of equipment was removed weeks ago. I am working to get the person to provide data or to come forward in some manner.

Wow. If that proves to be true... I imagine that folks even outside the blogosphere will be outraged. Removing the equipment and then claiming... Oh, were this to have happened...

Reminds me of a guy in Manistee, Michigan, who wanted to sink his boat to collect the insurance company's money. So, several days after the Coast Guard's boats went in the water, and right after the evening meal, the guy goes out, punches a hole in the hull and calls the Coast Guard to come save him. The station launches the UTB and heads out. There's one radar contact heading south along the shore, matching the UTB's speed. When they arrived to where they'd first seen the contact, they found the guy in the water. He was wearing a gumby suit and had a strobe light along with enough pyro to be seen in Chicago.

He claimed he'd hit something and started taking on water and had just enough time to get his survival equipment on.

The bad news is that he sank the boat in only 50 feet of water. Following a dive by the police, they raided the guy's home and found all the electronic gear from his boat boxed up in the garage.

He wasn't content with getting the insurance money. He'd planned on selling the electronic gear, thus adding to his income. The insurance company would pay for them to be replaces, and the folks buying the goods would get to double the take.

Had he only traveled another mile or two off-shore, he'd have put the boat too deep for a routine dive, and it wouldn't have been worth the cost.

So, I imagine all the C4SR stuff is boxed up and in some dilapidated old warehouse and ready to be paid for again.

Oh, and did I mention that I'm feeling as if I've been played?

Posted on 5/08/2008 09:29:00 PM
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Wednesday, May 7, 2008

I almost found religion
Posted by Peter A. Stinson

There's been plenty of activity on the Coast Guard Journal recently. The latest post, a missive from Vice Admiral Robert J. Papp, Jr., is Ancient Mariner SITREP #4 – Visit to Pascagoula and BERTHOLF.

I was hoping for answers.

I want to talk about the cutter first. I remain extremely impressed – she’s going to be a great Coast Guard cutter, and I can’t wait to get out to sea to observe her performance underway. Captain Stadt and his shipmates (and the Navy INSURV board as well) are very impressed with BERTHOLF’s almost effortless speed and maneuvering characteristics. I am confident that improvements in weapons systems, sensors, countermeasures, flight deck characteristics and boat launching and recovery will give BERTHOLF capabilities far superior to previous cutters. Command and control, particularly as it relates to the ship’s command center will be vastly superior to almost every shore-based Coast Guard command center. Her seakeeping ability and spacious topside arrangements and damage control systems will further enhance her capabilities and the safety of her crew.

. . . .

So what is this “preliminary acceptance”? It basically amounts to a period when we take the ship and begin to put her through operational test and evaluation (OT&E). The builder continues to have responsibilities to resolve the many outstanding “punch list” items, while we get a chance to see and confirm the ship’s performance and capabilities. With lessons learned from these trials, the builder will make production improvements and enhancements to follow-on hulls that will enable us to get them out and operational on a shorter timeline (and less expensively) than the lead ship. After the “punch list” discrepancies are resolved, OT&E is completed, the C4ISR systems are fully installed and certified for operation, and contractual responsibilities are met, the Coast Guard will sign for final acceptance. In reality, this is not much different than when I had my house built – even though I moved into the house, the builder had to correct discrepancies for a year before I finally signed off with him contractually.

. . . .

Challenges remain – as they would in any lead ship that pushes for new capabilities and technology. As we preliminarily accept BERTHOLF, the INSURV inspectors and Coast Guard staff have produced a substantial worklist that will be resolved. Most notably, issues still exist with secure communications equipment. BERTHOLF carries a substantial IT backbone to enable her missions that is more complicated than any other cutter. Consequently, this gear has received, is receiving, and will receive closer scrutiny, inspection, and information assurance testing than any other Coast Guard cutter to date. These issues, along with any others that the officers and crew discover during the next year or so, will be resolved. I have testified before Congress that these issues are correctable. I was convinced then, and I remain convinced now that BERTHOLF will be ready to perform all duties when called upon.

Okay, here's one of the things I see in this Journal entry: Yes, there were and there are various issues with the C4IT suite, but we're not going actually acknowledge that the blogosphere has the story right, or at least mostly right, but we're going to just move forward and not exhume anything in the past. We're going to get it right. It just may take some time.

Am I close?

Posted on 5/07/2008 10:49:00 PM
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Labels: by Peter Stinson, Deepwater

Did anyone else catch the irony?
Posted by Peter A. Stinson

I was struck by the irony present in Captain Patrick Stadt's recent entry on the Coast Guard's Journal, Legends Begin Here: USCGC BERTHOLF (WMSL 750): the crew-created motto is Legends Begin Here .

Do I stand alone?

Posted on 5/07/2008 10:26:00 PM
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CGBlog Find #2: My Coast Guard Career
Posted by Joe Coastie

This week we have changed our blog find name from "CG Blog Find" to "CGBlog Find," it's the little things such as the space that get me every time, so- it's now CGBlog Find, this makes a little more compliant with our site! On to the find...

This weeks find is from one of our own, that is, a Coastie. Connie Braesch runs this blog of a small town Midwestern girl who left home to enlist in the United States Coast Guard. The blog goes by the name of My Coast Guard Career and covers what Ms. Braesch finds interesting. Her posting career started in January 2008 with what seems to be an investigation into the New Media (a.k.a. Blogging) thing-

Why it is that I just started this blog? Well, as you continue to read my postings, you will find out that the Coast Guard is full of amazing opportunities and I am in the midst of one... a full scholarship to attend graduate school.
...
So, what does that have to do with a blog you ask? Well, I am learning how to use social media to develop an image (if you are reading this blog, you are probably well aware of the power of social networking). I am on an adventure to see how I can connect with others and develop an identity online. So, I am off like the tortoise!

I should also note that this blog was already featured here on CGBlog as one of the sites showing off the "mandatory disclaimer" in a post by Peter titled Mandatory disclaimer starting to pop up all over... Anyway the rest of her blog covers a wide verity of topic both in and out of the Coast Guard, however, I would like to highlight a particular post: SocialMedia. Though this post isn't CG specific, it's right up our (CGBlog's) ally. Check it out.

Check out this weeks CGBlog Find at MyCoastGuardCareer.blogspot.com.

**Have a blog you would like to see as a CG Blog Find? Leave a note in the comments or email me (Joe@CGBlog.org) for your weekly nomination. ~Joe

Posted on 5/07/2008 06:00:00 AM
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Labels: by Joe Coastie, CGBlog Find

Tuesday, May 6, 2008

Discussing Arctic policy
Posted by Peter A. Stinson

Interested in Arctic policy? Want to learn more and perhaps influence policy issues? The Department of State has made it possible at the Arctic Policy Forum for all US government employees.

If you are trying to access this page from home, you'll need to be logged in to Passport/Intelink.

And, if you're really interested in how Internet tools can help organizational management & leadership and knowledge management, check out Communities @ State.

Posted on 5/06/2008 03:19:00 PM
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Army embracing the Internet for knowledge management
Posted by Peter A. Stinson

Excellent article by David Axe over at World Politics Review, a foreign policy and national security daily: Internet Connects Future Army Leaders with Virtual Front Porch. It seems that the Department of State is not alone in addressing the knowledge management gap.

It was a decades-old Army tradition that junior officers would eat lunch together every day in Army-run dining halls. There they would trade ideas they'd picked up in their training. But in the last decade, to save money, contractors such as Kellogg, Brown and Root have replaced the old dining halls with civilian-style cafeterias, some boasting big-screen TVs. The officers stopped gathering . . . and stopped talking. That had the effect of isolating young leaders, preventing them from getting answers to life-and-death questions -- and from sharing their own answers they might have learned the hard way.

Lt. Cols. Tony Burgess and Pete Kilner were captains in the Hawaii-based 25th Infantry Division in the mid-1990s when they started noticing the absence of this traditional "informal knowledge-sharing." Besides the demise of old-school chow halls, a growing wave of political correctness had killed off the tradition of leaders drinking together at the Officer's Club after work. So Burgess, Kilner and their friend Steve Schweitzer, also a captain, instead had taken to hanging out on each other's front porches at night, talking shop. But they wanted some way to bring more people into the conversation. "Knowledge is out there," Kilner recalls thinking. "How do we help connect people to it?"

Do read the article by Mr. Axe, and don't skip over his comments about the Coast Guard.

We have a ways to go.

Posted on 5/06/2008 01:52:00 PM
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Monday, May 5, 2008

The 200nm offshore buoy... our new friend in MDA?
Posted by Joe Coastie

I have seen the future, and it's 200 miles offshore... well I haven't really seen it, but it will be 200 miles offshore. Today I came across two sites (here and here) reporting the future of offshore buoys for use by DHS, more specifically the Coast Guard, to help in warning of unannounced vessels or "dolphins and other creatures of the sea." Though I'm sure we'll be concentrating more on the vessels. Why are we looking into this?

Finding boats that aren't supposed to be heading for U.S. shores is a difficult task in vast, sometimes dangerous seas. Much of the surveillance is done by aircraft and satellites, which is very expensive work, Homeland Security spokeswoman Amy Kudwa says.

And as for this over radar, well it's only as good as the money we can put into it.

"Our efforts in maritime security are greatly dependent on our ability to know what's going on, and in some ways, the ocean is still the great unknown to us," says Dana Goward, director of Maritime Domain Awareness [MDA] for the Coast Guard. The buoys "tell you someone's there."

Now the only reason I put this last quote into this post is the fact that there is a great learning point here: the Coast Guard has a director of Maritime Domain Awareness! I've been in a few years and I no clue of this one.

And in case you were wondering:

The "sonobuoys" can pick up sounds made by everything from 25-foot speedboats commonly used in the drug trade to lumbering ships. If one passes through the invisible net of buoys, information will be transmitted by satellite to the Internet and read by security officials on land or at sea.

If a signal from a suspect boat is picked up, the Coast Guard or police boats would have time to intercept it before it reaches land, Goward says. "It lets enforcement authorities know what's going on, and if something bad's going on, we can respond to it," he says.

The buoys would be placed roughly 20 miles apart and anchored up to 200 miles offshore, so they would be far enough away from land not to pick up a lot of recreational boats.

I can't wait to see the price tags on these inexpensive toys buoys, but the real question is this: what's going to happen the first time we wrongly ID a vessel, send assets, and find nothing? Or even better, we miss one altogether?

Posted on 5/05/2008 07:02:00 PM
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Split Disbursement to become mandatory next month
Posted by Peter A. Stinson

Looks like "split disbursement" is not only here, but it's mandatory. From ALCOAST 215/08, SPLIT DISBURSEMENT OF TRAVEL REIMBURSEMENT, on the message board today:

SPLIT DISBURSEMENT FUNCTIONALITY WILL BE AVAILABLE FOR OPTIONAL USE STARTING 5 MAY 2008. EFFECTIVE 1 JUNE 2008 USE OF SPLIT DISBURSEMENT IS MANDATORY BY TRAVELERS WHO POSSESS A CITIBANK GTCC. THE FUNCTIONALITY MUST BE USED BY TRAVELERS TO PAY FOR, AT A MINIMUM, LODGING, COMMERCIAL CARRIER TRANSPORTATION AND RENTAL CAR CHARGES THAT WERE PLACED AGAINST THE GTCC. THE FUNCTIONALITY ALSO ALLOWS FOR THE INCLUSION OF OTHER EXPENSES CHARGED TO THE GTCC.

I just hope the functionality works. We'll see; I just completed a travel claim for my recent jaunt to Chicago.

Coasties who travel on official business, I encourage you to check out ALCOAST 215/08, among other things, the ALCOAST provides information about how to check to ensure your GTCC info is on file with the CG so your reimbursement gets credited to the correct account.

As to results, I'm betting this policy change will drive down the GTCC delinquency rate. It'll certainly drive my delinquency rate down, for sure.

Posted on 5/05/2008 03:22:00 PM
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