With their offices located in the heart of downtown Louisville, Ky., the 465 personnel of Coast Guard Sector Ohio Valley are responsible for maintaining the safety and security of all commercial and recreational traffic in their area of responsibility.  Sector Ohio Valley has an AOR that ranges from the eastern portion of Missouri to the southwestern corner of Pennsylvania, and from northern Alabama to Ohio.

Sector Ohio Valley maintains more than 8,000 miles of waterways with the support of their outlying units which include: six inland buoy tenders, three marine safety units, two marine safety detachments, five shore-side support detachments and nine small boats throughout the sector.

Their missions include: port and waterway security, marine environmental response, maintaining aids to navigation, conducting industrial facility inspections and investigations, enforcement of laws and defense operations as well as the occasional search and rescue case.

Thus far in fiscal year 2006, Sector Ohio Valley and their outlying units have coordinated and assisted 48 search and rescue cases resulting in 76 lives saved with an estimated $898,000 in saved property. With the aid of the crews of Coast Guard Cutters Chena, Chippewa, Cimmaron, Obion, Osage and Ouachita; Sector Ohio Valley maintains more than 5,500 aids to navigation lights and buoys in more than 3,000 miles of commercial waterways.

"Our objective is the safety and security of Americans who live and work along or on the Inland River System, which directly facilitates the annual flow of over $45 billion of products and commodities that are vital to our Nation's economy," said Coast Guard Capt. John Bingaman, Commander Coast Guard Sector Ohio Valley.

To ensure the safety of all boaters, commercial and recreational, Sector Ohio Valley continually enforces federal policies and laws on all commercial vessels and shoreside facilities.

The partnership between Sector Ohio Valley and more than 1,400 Coast Guard auxiliarists from 14 divisions has resulted in more than 140 hours of recreational boating safety classes so far this year and is estimated to reach 2,600 hours by the end of the fiscal year.