{"id":69020,"date":"2017-03-18T08:19:42","date_gmt":"2017-03-18T12:19:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/?p=69020"},"modified":"2017-03-18T08:19:42","modified_gmt":"2017-03-18T12:19:42","slug":"trump-congress-get-it-says-coast-guard-commandant","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/?p=69020","title":{"rendered":"Trump & Congress \u201cGet It\u201d \u2013 Says Coast Guard Commandant"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Admiral<\/a>
\u201cWe are, first and foremost, an armed service.<\/em><\/strong>\u201d said Admiral Paul Zukunft, Commandant of the United States Coast Guard, in today\u2019s annual State Of The Coast Guard Address<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

by John Konrad
\ngcaptain.com<\/p>\n

In his\u00a0annual State Of The Coast Guard Address<\/a> today USCG Commandant Admiral Paul Zukunft focused on topics that are priorities to the Trump administration and Congress including the Coast Guard\u2019s role in border protection, law enforcement and infrastructure.<\/p>\n

Zukunft also reiterated the role of the Coast Guard in national security and, as a branch of the Armed Services, in national defense.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Coast Guard is an armed service.\u201d said Zukunft. \u201cYet we are not postured to benefit from vital national security investments because our funding is classified incorrectly.\u201dThe commandant\u2019s speech comes less than a week after the Office of Management and Budget announced a proposed 14 percent cut<\/a> to the Coast Guard\u2019s diminutive $9.1 billion budget. Zukunft did not address this news directly but did acknowledge a history of fiscal challenges that need to be rectified in order to improve\u00a0the nation\u2019s military readiness.<\/p>\n

But the Commandant\u2019s tone remained positive stating that \u201cthe Trump Administration and Congress \u2013 get it\u201d. Zukunft called for the Coast Guard to build six new icebreakers, add 5,000 active duty billets in the next five years and replace the Coast Guard\u2019s inland cutters.<\/p>\n

The speech also prioritized other Trump initiatives including working directly with the head of Russia\u2019s Coast Guard, improving border security and the use of technology to increase the surveillance and military capabilities of the Coast Guard. \u201cWe lack enough \u2018eyes in the sky.’\u201d said Zukunft. \u201cThe Coast Guard must acquire land-based, unmanned or remotely piloted systems (drones) in a meaningful way.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Commandant made scant mention of anything related to the maritime or offshore industries with the exception of the role short sea shipping<\/a> could play to\u00a0alleviate\u00a0the problems with\u00a0America\u2019s infrastructure, another Trump priority. \u201cOur waterways are a critical part of our infrastructure. They provide resiliency while they relieve other modes of transportation.\u201d said Zukunft. \u201cJust one tank barge takes the equivalent of 144 trucks off our already congested highways\u2026. Overall, I\u2019m talking about millions of trucks removed from our roads.<\/p>\n

Missing from the address\u00a0was any mention of the U.S. Merchant Marine or the American mariners sailing with Coast Guard licenses or shipyard workers building merchant ships flagged by the Coast Guard. The Commandant\u00a0also failed to mention anything about the topic of highest priority to most gCaptain readers\u2026 the Coast Guard\u2019s\u00a0role\u00a0in the search and rescue of mariners in distress.<\/p>\n

___
\nhttp:\/\/gcaptain.com\/trump-congress-get-says-coast-guard-commandant\/<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cWe are, first and foremost, an armed service.\u201d said Admiral Paul Zukunft, Commandant of the United States Coast Guard, in today\u2019s annual State Of The Coast Guard Address by John Konrad gcaptain.com In his\u00a0annual State Of The Coast Guard Address … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-69020","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69020","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=69020"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69020\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=69020"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=69020"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=69020"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}