All Hands Messages
Commandant's SITREP 4 - Forging Ahead with Mission Support
To the Men and Women of the Coast Guard:
As I've traveled around the country the past few months, many of you have asked me during All Hands meetings about our plans for reorganizing and modernizing our mission support system. I know many of you are interested in knowing how the Coast Guard will change and when these changes will occur. This All Hands outlines decisions made at a recent Leadership Council meeting and reflects the planning guidance I provided last week to the Mission Support Planning and Integration Team (MSPAIT) as well as the first combined Atlantic and Pacific Area Cutter Commanding Officer Conference.
We intend to unify our entire support structure and business practices into a single mission support model for the Service. Currently, we have three levels of support for the majority of our equipment and platforms. The first is unit level support, accomplished by the field unit with the personnel assigned. The next level is intermediate maintenance. That is the support provided outside the field unit by an ISC, Sector, NESU, ESU, or MAT. The third and final level of maintenance is depot level maintenance for complex maintenance, repair, or construction. Examples of depot level support include the Aircraft Repair and Supply Center at Elizabeth City, the Coast Guard Yard, the Maintenance and Logistics Commands (MLCs), and the Command and Control Center (C2CEN) in Portsmouth, VA.
Under our new mission support organization, all support activities will transition to a bi-level structure. All support services that are not accomplished at the unit level will be coordinated and managed through service centers. We will, in effect, consolidate both intermediate and depot level maintenance or support similar to what we do now at ARSC for aviation. For example, ARSC Elizabeth City manages and coordinates all support above the air station for all aircraft maintenance, repair and supply. ARSC is also organized around product lines, which are our various aircraft, such as the HH-65C, HH-60J, or HC-130H/J.
The responsibility of these service centers will be to deliver maintenance service and support along product lines to field units and integrate those services across the Coast Guard. Service center leaders will report through Assistant Commandants to the new Deputy Commandant for Mission Support (DCMS). These centers will provide 24-hour customer service, one-stop technical support and assistance for all maintenance, logistics, and supply matters that go beyond the expertise of the unit. Some of these centers will oversee detachments in the field to ensure timely, on-site support where necessary.
Once we complete necessary environmental planning and other milestones, we will establish the following service centers (the primary locations and formal titles will be determined in the coming months):
- ARSC Elizabeth City will become the aviation service center and will retain all of its current functions.
- A surface forces service center will be established to consolidate the support currently provided by the CG Yard, Engineering Logistics Center, MLCs, NESUs and MATs. This center will unify support under a single organization for our surface forces. Like the aviation community, it will be organized along product lines, including patrol boats, small boats, MECs, HECs/NSCs, ATON vessels, and so forth.
- In a similar manner, we will consolidate electronics and IT support under a C4IT service center. Included will be the C2CEN, the Telecommunication and Information Systems Command (TISCOM), MLCs, and the Operations Systems Center (OSC).
- The shore infrastructure service center will consolidate support provided by our Facility Design and Construction Centers, Civil Engineering Units, and MLCs. This center will provide all depot and intermediate level support for our shore facilities, including our air and small boat stations, integrated support commands (bases), and industrial facilities.
- A new personnel service center will unify all personnel and human resource support now provided by the Personnel Command, Personnel Service Center in Topeka, Recruiting Command, and some functions currently carried out by Headquarters, the MLCs, and ISCs, including services such as housing, MWR, CGES, educational services, health and safety, and work-life.
What does this mean for our operators and support personnel?
Service delivery will be more direct. It will ensure standardized maintenance processes, faster service delivery to the field, better configuration management, and increased accountability and transparency; all focused on mission execution. All maintenance and repair will be managed either at the unit or depot level according to the product line. This means that if a unit is doing repair work or routine maintenance on a particular piece of equipment, the mission support organization will define those responsibilities (unit or depot level), provide standard procedure cards, identify the necessary tools, and supply those parts retained in centralized inventory. Work that is beyond the scope or expertise of the unit, including equipment casualties, will be managed at the depot level through the product line manager at the service center. As I noted earlier, ARSC in Elizabeth City already performs this function for our air fleet.
For our operators, this means you will spend less time planning and coordinating maintenance and repair, and more time conducting operations. For support personnel, this means there will be fewer layers between you and the field units you support, which equates to more timely service and support.
Finally, where are we on these efforts?
We recently initiated two pilot programs to test this process for our small boat community, one at Sector Baltimore and the other at Sector San Francisco. We are learning a great deal from these pilot programs as we develop the bi-level support organization for our shore stations. We are taking similar steps to develop a bi-level support organization for each of our other product lines.
We have working group members from both the field and headquarters putting this together now to ensure we get it right. Their dedicated efforts are vital to our modernization. Their planning will inform our decisions to implement the final mission support organization, which will take some time to implement across the Coast Guard. You will see these initiatives taking shape in 2009, but not at any single point in time. They will be phased in and synchronized to ensure we re-align effectively. Some elements of the plan also require legislative change, which we are pursuing. At each step, we are looking at the impact the changes will have on each of you. I am committed to keeping you informed as we develop the details, make planning decisions, and forge ahead.
This mission support structure is just one part of our modernization. We have already transitioned to a single Assistant Commandant for Operations. We are also planning the transition to a single field CG Operations Command (CG OPCOM) and a CG Force Readiness Command (CG FORCECOM) in 2009 as well. I will provide updates on those efforts in the near future.
Each and every one of you plays a critical role in mission execution and mission support. We succeed as a Service because of your dedication. Thank you and stay safe.
Semper Paratus!
Admiral Thad Allen
Commandant, U.S. Coast Guard
For more info on Coast Guard Modernization, check on the overview “Change is Underway” on CG Central.