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CG: Sept. 11 training ‘ill-advised’

A Coast Guard training exercise held on Sept. 11 was “ill-advised” on a day when Washingtonians were commemorating the loss of Pentagon employees in a terrorist attack eight years earlier, Vice Adm. R.J. Papp Jr. said in a report released Tuesday.

Papp, commander of the Coast Guard’s Atlantic Area, wrote that Coast Guard Station Washington followed standard policy and procedures regarding training but failed to exercise common sense when deciding to move forward with training exercises originally scheduled for Sept. 4. Coast Guardsmen were unaware that President Barack Obama’s motorcade passed over Memorial Bridge near the training exercise on the Potomac River on its return from a ceremony at the Pentagon.

“Although the unit adhered to current policy and practices and had no specific knowledge of [the president’s] exact movements on [Sept. 11], STA Washington’s decision to conduct training on that morning in the selected training area was ill-advised,” Papp wrote in a six-page final action memorandum dated Oct. 2. “STA Washington should have considered the potential for misinterpretation and sought guidance from Sector Baltimore.”

CNN reported Sept. 11 that shots had been fired on the Potomac after staffers noticed three Coast Guard patrol boats with mounted machine guns chasing another small boat on the Potomac and heard service members say, “Bang, bang, bang,” and the simulated number of shots fired over a Coast Guard marine radio channel. CNN had been trying to gain confirmation from officials at the Coast Guard for 24 minutes before anchors went live with the false report. The Coast Guard continued the training exercise even after two D.C. Metro Police Boats and a Secret Service agent inquired about their activities and told the Coast Guardsmen that the president would be traveling over a nearby bridge.

Among other changes, Papp ordered that the Coast Guard will:

• Notify local law enforcement of a monthly calendar of training exercises.

• Scramble the frequency once Rescue 21 is installed in the area in January 2010.

• State clearly at the beginning and end of the broadcast that a drill is being conducted in any exercise in which simulated shots or explosions are discussed.

• Require stations in high-population areas to be aware of large events and communicate their activities to local law enforcement.

• Establish better contact with the media about training exercises in the area.

Coast Guard Commandant Adm. Thad Allen has seen the report and agrees with its findings, said his spokesman, Lt. Cmdr. Tony Russell.

“He’s familiar with the [final action memorandum] and concurs with its findings and recommendations,” Russell said.

The memorandum stated that commanders at Station Washington and Sector Baltimore would be counseled about the incident, but no disciplinary action has been ordered, said Cmdr. Ron LaBrec, a spokesman at Coast Guard headquarters in Washington.

LaBrec said the memorandum does not rule out future Sept. 11 training exercises. He said future drills will be discussed at the sector level to evaluate whether a training exercise is appropriate, and proper authorities will be notified in advance.

See more:

Read the full Coast Guard report