Special Missions Training Center News

Senior leaders at Coast Guard Headquarters in Washington formally recognized the service’s top enlisted and civilian members during the 2013 Coast Guard Persons of the Year Awards Ceremony. Vice Adm. Petty Officer 1st Class Travis Cutler, the 2013 Coast Guard Enlisted Person of the Year. Martin is a recreation assistant serving at the Coast Guard Academy in New London, Conn. Slate is an education services specialist serving at Coast Guard Sector Long Island Sound in New Haven, Conn. Mundy is a maritime enforcement specialist assigned to Coast Guard Special Missions Training Center’s Deployment Training Detachment Portsmouth, Va. “Mr. Martin, Ms. Slate, Petty Officer Cutler and Petty Officer Mundy, you should be very proud of your accomplishments,” said Neffenger.

Metal Shark Boats this week delivered the first new Response Boat-Small (RB-S) II to the U.S. Coast Guard's Special Missions Training Center at Camp LeJune, North Carolina. Designed to gradually replace the Defender-class RB-S as it reaches the end of its service life, the vessel is the first of 38 boats scheduled for delivery to the Coast Guard by April 2013. RB-S II's flexibility as a multi-function platform makes it ideal for use across the Coast Guard's full mission spectrum, including search and rescue, vessel boarding-team deployment, law enforcement, drug interdiction, and environmental response operations. Future deliveries will be assigned to various units including Maritime Safety and Security Teams (MSST)…

By Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class Jessica M. The U.S. Coast Guard’s Maritime Safety and Security Teams (MSSTs) lent its specialized training to the sixth annual Southeast Asia Cooperation Against Terrorism (SEACAT) exercise which concluded Aug. 21. SEACAT was an at-sea, scenario-driven, fleet training exercise involving the U.S. along with six Southeast Asian countries tracking and boarding simulated critical contacts of interest. U.S. Coast Guard Lt. David Alvarez, a planning action officer specializing in Maritime Security Operations for the Coast Guard’s Pacific Area Command, said the exercise is not only beneficial for the hands-on and live-action training experience, but also opens the door for information sharing and learning for everyone involved.

Commemoration of the Sept. We pause at this time to recognize the sacrifice of the victims of the Sept. 11th attacks. Our deepest sympathy goes out to their families, loved ones, and to the survivors. We appreciate the public’s support, understanding and assistance as the Coast Guard works to keep the nation’s ports and waterways safe and secure. We have made changes, refocused our efforts, and developed new tools and policies, but we already had many of the skills, authorities, systems and response plans and brave, dedicated men and women to immediately raise the level of security to protect the American people. As America’s premier multi-mission, military, maritime agency, Homeland Security and Search and Rescue are, and have been, our top priorities.