Tuesday, Feb. 10, I had the honor and pleasure to kickoff the Coast Guard's 2009 All Contingency Preparedness Summit at the National Conference Center in Lansdowne, Virginia. There were over 150 Preparedness professionals, planners, and exercise staff from the Sectors, Groups, Marine Safety Units, Districts, Areas and various Headquarters offices in attendance at this 3-day conference.
Significant discussions focused on initiatives to: share best practices for more efficient and effective operations; improve training and exercises; define a career path for military and civilian personnel; and, improve the network of preparedness professionals in the Coast Guard’s All Threats / All Hazards response environment.
A brief scan of the operational horizon reveals the Coast Guard living its motto of Semper Paratus, and being successful, in part, due to the contributions of its preparedness/planning community. Every Coast Guard District can point to recent responses that were anticipated, exercised and critiqued. Lessons were learned and plans improved. From mass rescues in D1 (USAIR) and D9 (ice floe); massive security operations in D5 (inauguration), D7 (Superbowl), and D13 (Olympic exercises); environmental responses in D14 (grounded vessel) and D17 (potential volcanic eruption); to critical LE operations in D11 (Southwest border), the preparedness community clearly played an important role in meeting the challenges of an all threats / all hazards environment. While the public often sees the end-game of operations that result in sensational rescues, averted disasters and successful law enforcement actions, these do not happen by luck and/or by the sole actions of the operators. As former Commandant Admiral Loy said quite frequently, "preparation equals performance."
Plans and exercises are great, but it is the process of planning and exercising that drives our best results. No plan survives first contact, but the intellectual capital and interagency/industry relationships that derive are sure to pay off when a response is required. Through the preparedness process, we gain a better picture of our capabilities, resources, gaps and most importantly, our critical relationships required to effectively respond to All Threats and All Hazards. It is through this cycle of Preparedness (Assess; Plan; Resource; Train; Exercise; Improve) that we create future success. As a former Sector Commander, I relied on my preparedness team of planners, subject matter experts and exercise staff to guide my approach to operations. From my current seat as Deputy Response Policy, the question is how to best prepare the preparedness community so that operations across the Coast Guard remain successful.
During my Q&A period, I was struck by this group's sense of purpose; their sense of ownership for the Coast Guard's operational challenges; and their very real desire to improve their community of professionals. Clearly, the preparedness community is energized and is looking for the support of the chain of command (at all levels) to support the planning, exercising and self-learning so critical to the Coast Guard's success.
Semper Paratus.
