The Bulletin was written by the District Staff Officer of 11NR, Ted Dunbar. He has demonstrated how Mobile radio facilities are used in support of the Coast Guard for SAR and Disaster cases.The article was informative and is offered as an example to other Districts.

This article addresses two interconnected communications programs currently in use in the Eleventh District, Northern Region. We have an Auxiliary Watch Officer program where an Auxiliary Watch Officer is on 24-hour rotation seven days a week and that's how all of our callouts are initiated, even for small cases.  We may send one, maybe two units.

 

Secondly, we have a new, now in prototype Auxiliary Rapid Response Team that is composed of a group of about 10 or 12 Auxiliarists who have had some special training including ICS-200 who can be called out in response to a major case.  Like an aircraft crash in the bay or a ferry sinking.  The Auxiliary Rapid Response Team (ARRT) has a core group (3-5 Auxiliarists) who are off duty ADSO-CM staff or Watch Officers who respond to set up a Coast Guard and interagency communications suite that is up and working by the time a Coast Guard Incident Commander arrives on scene.  In other words, he arrives on scene with a full-up and working comms system for the case.

 

We have tested it twice -- once for interoperability with a full-scale ICS exercise and once for response and the ability to set up a team and a communications suite.  Both exercises were a great success.  The response test was an unannounced drill with notice only as to about a two week period.  The first unit was on scene in less than 1/2 hour.  The full team was on site and full comms suite in place and working in less than an hour The following addresses the Auxiliary Rapid Response Team project.we have all discovered that having experienceds)the Rapid Response Team  By doing so, we will have trained the team member in what to expect in terms of organization in scene.  The communications organization is designed to fit right into that structure, so that we have no cultural problems.

We have tested it twice -- once for interoperability with a full-scale ICS exercise and once for response and the ability to set up a team and a communications suite.  Both exercises were a great success.  The response test was an unannounced drill with notice only as to about a two week period.  The first unit was on scene in less than 1/2 hour.  The full team was on site and full comms suite in place and working in less than an hour The following addresses the Auxiliary Rapid Response Team project.we have all discovered that having experienceds)the Rapid Response Team  By doing so, we will have trained the team member in what to expect in terms of organization in scene.  The communications organization is designed to fit right into that structure, so that we have no cultural problems.

The Communications Department in D-11NR with the assistance and advice of LCDR Mary A Cox, Director of Auxiliary, D-11NR, has organized a group dubbed the "Auxiliary Rapid Response Team, Communications, otherwise called the "ARRT". The central idea is that for major marine disasters (i.e. airplane crashes, ferry sinking, etc.) AS WELL AS FOR EXTENDED OR COMPLEX SAR, the active duty controller would call a "duty Auxiliary Watch Officer" (AWO).  For those that are not aware of it, the District maintains a Duty Roster seven days a week, twenty four hours a day.  That program has been in place for several years, now.  Anytime a Controller needs Auxiliary communications assistance, usually mobile communications support, the Controller calls the AWO and requests the support he needs.  The AWO then calls out the appropriate mobile unit(s) and then monitors the case, usually via one of our Auxiliary repeaters. The AWO would makes required notifications to comms units (fixed and mobile radio facilities); mobile radio facilities would deploy as directed by the active duty Incident Commander or SAR Controller; and, as occurred in the recent Group San Francisco exercise, Operations Splashdown on June 28, 2000, the Auxiliary would then be a primary player in the disaster or SAR response.  The participation of the Auxiliary is particularly important in interagency operations, such as we have in our District, since the Coast Guard often has difficulty in establishing and maintaining interagency comms.  Moreover, experience has shown that having experienced, Auxiliary liaison communications with a remote IC is of tremendous benefit to the Controller and deployed Coast Guard assets.

 

In appropriate cases, as defined in the Controller's Quick Reaction Sheet, the Controller, or the Coast Guard OPS Duty Officer would make a determination that an Auxiliary Rapid Response Team is needed for communications support.  It is the AWO's responsibility to complete a callout of the initial response (stage one) team (usually 3 - 5 Auxiliarists and the ARRT's responsibility to get on scene and set up a communications suite for communications at the IC and/or the UCP (Unified Command Post), an intrasite net , an interagency net and a communications net with the cognizant command center, usually the Group, although the COTP may be in the loop as well.  The ARRT consists of a two stage response.  First an ARRT team leader who responds with one or two other communicators and sets up the communications suite and collects and relays all of the C3I (Command, Control, Communications & Intelligence) that is available to the Group and holds updated data for the incoming Coast Guard IC.  The ARRT also ensures the Group Controller designates an On-Scene Commander (OSC) for the incident and sets up and maintains communications with that unit.  The OSC takes command of any on-the-water rescues/tasks.  Finally, the ARRT sets up liaison communications with the other agencies and identifies and maintains communications with the land agency IC. Note, however, that all command decisions are still made by the Group Controller.  The Auxiliarists in the field are not charged with making command decisions. They do make decisions in the field about their deployment and the frequency plans they put together.

 

The idea, of course, is that a Coast Guard communications suite is set up and functioning when the Coast Guard IC gets on scene, or at least shortly thereafter.  On a second tier response, several more Auxiliary Mobile Units are responded, and their assignment will be dependant on the structure of the ICS model that is in place.

 

Now that the Incident Command System (ICS), an incident management tool for a variety of situations, has been formally adopted by the Coast Guard, we are trying to get all members of Team Coast Guard trained in ICS - to different degrees depending on how particular people will participate in response to anticipated situations (i.e., there are four levels of ICS training - everyone should get levels 1 and 2; only the top brass need all the way through level 4).  This is an important issue now to the active duty Coast Guard, particularly with operations involving other agencies (most of which have also adopted ICS). We are currently planning to have all of the initial ARRT Team members trained in ICS within the next several weeks. Subsequent team members will have to take the courses up through ICS-300 to qualify as team members.

 

On June 28, 2000, the Prototype ARRT-C team participated with Coast Guard San Francisco in a 35-Agency drill, exercising plans for an aircrash in San Francisco Bay on approach to Oakland Airport.  Both the Group and the Auxiliary had specific goals for the exercise; we wanted to test the integration of the ARRT-C teams members into a full-blown ICS exercise, both from the water rescue but also to be able to monitor and report on the rest of the incident management, and to test the ability of the Auxiliary unit to be the primary communications suite for the Coast Guard. All of the objectives set out by both the Coast Guard and the Auxiliary were met.

 

On August 9, 2000 a second exercise was held to test the ARRT-C Team.  This time response time and the ability to set up the First Tier communications suite were to be tested.  This was planned fully and documented in the planning stages.  The objectives were set out and the exercise was unannounced,  All that was generally known was that an exercise would take place within a three week window.  Again, an aircrash, this time in the Bay on SFO approach, was used.  Active Duty personnel were at the scene to act as the Incident Commander and as observers. Again, all of the objectives of the exercise were met.

 

We can make electronic copies of the Exercise Plan, the check sheets and the evaluations sheets available for any one who might want to try do such an exercise.  We also have electronic copies of the ARRT-C Plan that is currently in place.  It contains the basic plan and all of the procedures and checklists as well as training requirements.

 

 

Communications may be addressed to:

Warren Schneider, DVC-OT             S157125@aol.com

Tom Mills,             BC-OTM             tmills@flash.net

Stewart Johnson,    BC-OTT            asj@rcn.com

Ted Dunbar,         DSO/CM 11NR     mobile9@aol.com