Column: Port Security: A Historical Perspective
Dennis L. Bryant, Senior Maritime Counsel at the law firm of Holland & Knight, Washington, D.C., is a contributing editor of MR/EN. The first foreign terrorist attack inside the United States was not the aviation-based assault of September 11, 2001. Eighty-five years earlier, foreign terrorists attacked a vital marine port facility in the Port of New York and New Jersey. Lest we forget. Port security was first formally recognized as a national priority, and a Coast Guard mission, during the World War I era. Early on the morning of July 30, 1916, a tremendous series of explosions ripped through the waterfront at Black Tom Island in Jersey City, New Jersey. Even though Europe had been at war for almost two years, peace still reigned in the United States. Although officially neutral, U.S.
65th Anniversary: A U.S. Coast Guard Mission Since 1917
The horrific attacks on 9-11, and the subsequent increase in maritime security required to protect against asymmetric maritime attacks, has dramatically changed the U. S. Coast Guard. They have changed the service's emphasis on port security as well as its ethos in the eyes of the nation it serves. Previously, the Coast Guard received national media attention mostly when it was involved in a dramatic at-sea rescue leaving a public perception of the service as lifesavers. Since 9-11, because of its port security efforts and its overall role in Homeland Security, the Coast Guard has received more national level public, political and media attention than at any other time in its long history and its public image is rapidly shifting from lifesaver to protector. Consider the following examples.
