both the new strike team and the center were in commission. The Atlantic Strike Team responded to its first case just days later. Today Today, each strike team consists of 35 individuals (seven officers and 28 enlisted personnel), all of whom are trained in response techniques. The Gulf team is located at the Coast Guard Aviation Training Center in Mobile, Alabama, and the Pacific team is at Hamilton Field, Novato, California. As a result of OPA 90, their inventories of special response equipment has been significantly updated and expanded. A Public Information Assist Team assigned to the coordination center staff provides a pool of four public affairs specialists trained in response techniques and issues. They lend rapid support to on-scene coordinators in dealing with the me-dia at the scene of a pollution incident. Centralized management of the three teams has generated a "seamless" National Strike Force and has improved standardization of equipment, training and response techniques. Multi-team response to incidents, sharing both expertise and learning opportunities, is now common. Santa Clara I All three teams and the coordination center sent personnel and specialized equipment to assist on-scene coordinators when arsenic trioxide containers were lost at sea and deadly magnesium phosphide spilled in holds aboard the M/V Santa Clara I last January. The Atlantic Strike Team sent documentation and response specialists to help locate the containers of arsenic trioxide lost overboard during a storm while the Santa Clara I was midway between New York and Baltimore. The Gulf team sent truckloads of equipment and trained operators to Charleston, South Carolina to assist in the cleanup of the spilled magnesium phosphide. The Pacific team sent personnel to both sites to augment the staff. Strike teams use a variety of equipment, packaged and stored as "ready loads" for quick transport by truck or air. Ready loads sent to the Santa Clara I included a special purpose boat, mobile command posts, hazardous material response vehicles, air monitoring equipment, chemical sampling equipment, communications equipment, personnel protection gear, and documentation camera equipment. Continued on page 68 Continued from page 67 New missions The coordination center also performs several new Coast Guard missions, including: ⚫ maintaining a computerized list of all national and international oil spill response resources to be available to on-scene coordinators responding to a pollution incident. The data base is being designed with the help of the Coast Guard Research and Development Center and will be operational in FY 1993. It will provide on-line data support for both incident response and contingency planning. ⚫ developing a logistics network to expedite the shipment of spill response resources to the scene of the incident. This will include reviewing all logistics-related memorandums of understanding and interagency agreements, and developing detailed lists of private industry capabilities and procedures. ⚫ developing and administering a national preparedness exercise program. This will include the tabletop exercises, now conducted by the Marine Safety School at Yorktown, Virginia, and a new unan nounced equipment deployment exercise, which will require the actual use of spill response resources. These exercises will begin in October 1992. Conclusion CAPT Donald S. Jensen, commander of the National Strike Force, developed a strategic plan. He said, "The plan includes broad guidance from the commandant's strategic agenda and Marine Environmental Protection Program policy, and includes several specific objectives which we are required to achieve and that I want to accomplish during my tenure. This plan represents the first generation of a strategic agen-da to guide the direction and development of the National Strike Force." As a result of the new programs and missions, the National Strike Force will remain at the forefront of pollution incident response and will ensure that the Coast Guard fulfills all its marine environmental protection responsibilities in a true "Semper Paratus" manner. PAC Rick Woods is a member of the public information assist team of the National Strike Force Coordination Center at Elizabeth City, North Carolina. Telephone: (919) 331-6007. National Strike Force members tie pump float to oil containment barrier during exercises. Photo by PA1 Glenn Rosenholm. |