Coast Guard Steers a New Course

The two men are unaware they’re being watched as they struggle to stand in a tiny white boat bobbing in four-foot seas in Santa Monica Bay. One of the sailors steadies himself and slowly reaches down to grab something off the floor of the craft.

All hands on the bridge of the Coast Guard cutter Halibut, floating several dozen yards away, snap to attention. They adjust their binoculars to zoom in on the man wearing the blue jacket and his shipmate as they maneuver their boat under the path of airplanes taking off from Los Angeles International Airport.

“What do you think?” asks Coast Guard Executive Petty Officer Brian Smith, pulling back on the power so the crew can get a better look at the fiberglass dinghy.

The Halibut’s crew is sizing up boats in the waters off LAX in response to a request from federal officials, who asked the Coast Guard to increase patrols nearby earlier this year. The airport’s location makes it particularly vulnerable to shoulder-fired missile attacks launched by terrorists from tiny skiffs or nearby oil platforms, officials say.

Airliners make prime targets for portable shoulder-fired missiles because an accelerating aircraft’s engines give off a “heat signature” that a missile’s guidance system could lock onto, and because takeoff schedules are more predictable than landing times, security experts say.

The 10 Coast Guardsmen aboard the year-and-a-half-old Halibut work directly under departing aircraft several times a day as they ply the waters to the west of LAX’s four runways.

On the blustery day in the surf off Dockweiler State Beach, the seamen aboard the 87-foot cutter determine that the occupants of the nearby dinghy are doing nothing more than fishing. Satisfied that they mean no harm, the Halibut’s captain, Lt. Shad Thomas, and his crew train their binoculars on a second pleasure craft speeding by off the port bow. “We’re looking for anything out of the ordinary,” said Thomas, 27, resettling his Oakley wraparound sunglasses. “We have 50 years’ experience on this bridge.”

Before the Sept. 11 skyjackings, the Coast Guard was perhaps best known for towing wayward sailors to shore and for its made-for-TV chases of drug smugglers across international waters. The Coast Guard, which was part of the Department of Transportation but is now in the Department of Homeland Security, is also charged with duties as diverse as enforcing fishing regulations and inspecting signal buoys.

Shifting Duties

Since the terrorist attacks, the Coast Guard’s mission has broadened to include boarding cruise and cargo ships to search for biological, chemical and nuclear weapons, and increasing patrols off the nation’s 95,000 miles of shoreline and 361 ports.

For the Coast Guard’s 11th District, protecting LAX -- cited in a recent government report as the state’s No. 1 terrorist target -- is a duty on top of increased patrols of some of the nation’s busiest shipping lanes -- the entries to the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach. The Coast Guard uses equipment and personnel based at an air station at LAX and at facilities in Marina del Rey and San Pedro to patrol waters near the airport.

During the federal government’s recent orange alert, about 50 National Guard troops joined the Coast Guard in defense of LAX by increasing surveillance of the 3,500-acre facility’s perimeter and by piloting Humvees around the sand dunes at the end of airport runways.

The military presence at LAX stems in part from heightened concern that followed an attempt by terrorists to shoot down an Israeli passenger jet last November as it took off from an airport in Kenya. Two missiles narrowly missed the airliner and the 271 people on board.

The incident prompted LAX security officials to update maps that designate potential missile launching sites around the airport. The FBI and the Transportation Security Administration also recently conducted security assessments of 80 of the nation’s busiest airports -- including LAX -- to determine where a terrorist might position himself to fire a missile at an airliner.

Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge said last week that the threat of missile attacks on airliners is so serious that taxpayers may have to pick up the tab for the installation of antimissile devices on thousands of jets in the U.S. commercial fleet -- a program that could cost billions.

Back in the waters off LAX, all is quiet as the Halibut’s captain and crew take in a rare crystal-clear view of downtown Los Angeles and discuss how their law enforcement training -- together with small arms and automatic weapons on board -- make them confident they can deal with seaborne terrorists.

But even with increased patrols and more resources at the ready, could harbor security officials reach a terrorist bent on firing a missile at an aircraft in time to stop the attack?

Brian Jenkins, senior advisor to the president of the Rand Corp. and a former member of the White House Commission on Aviation and Security, said the system isn’t foolproof but is still helpful.

“Even if, let’s say, you figure that they cannot get there in time to prevent someone from immediately standing up and firing a missile,” Jenkins said, “launching a missile would clearly be a very observable event and they could probably get there in time to apprehend the individual. That has some deterrent effect.”

A Coordinated Effort

The Coast Guard works with the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department’s Harbor Patrol out of Marina del Rey and the Los Angeles County Fire Department to keep an eye out for unusual activity in a box-like area to the west of airport runways.

This coordination among departments allows multiple vessels to respond to a call within minutes, Thomas said.

Airport patrol duty is certainly preferable, crew members agree, to afternoons spent warning residents to stay away from sea lions sunning themselves behind the breakwater in Marina del Rey.

As the Halibut passes alongside an oil tanker unthreateningly dubbed the New Amity -- literally, friendly relations -- crew members compare the peaceful day with their experiences the day before when they were called on to assist in three rescues.

The previous afternoon, the seamen fished a downed windsurfer out of the ocean about a mile-and-a-half off Cabrillo Beach.

The man, who wasn’t wearing a life jacket and was suffering from hypothermia, was hugging his board to avoid being pulled under the pitching seas.

“We’ve always had many missions,” said Smith, the executive petty officer. “It’s just now that we have to worry about terrorists in addition to drug smugglers and migrants.”