On March 20, personnel from PSU 311 and PSU 313 helped secure Iraq’s offshore oil terminals thereby preventing environmental damage and ensuring the flow of oil for a post-war Iraqi government. When hostilities commenced, all Coast Guard units were manned and ready. on March 19, Coalition forces launched Operation Iraqi Freedom. LEDET personnel initially served aboard the WPBs and then switched to Navy patrol craft to perform MIO operations.Ĭoast Guard Cutter Adak, a 110-foot patrol boat, interdicts a local dhow in the Northern Arabian Gulf.Īt 8 p.m. Atlantic Area sent PSU 309 from Port Clinton, Ohio, to Italy to support PATFORMED while Pacific Area sent PSU 311 from San Pedro, California, and PSU 313 from Tacoma, Washington, to Kuwait to protect the Kuwait Naval Base and the commercial port of Shuaiba, respectively. The service also activated Port Security Units and law enforcement boarding teams, LEDETs, which had proven successful in the Gulf War in 1990. Atlantic Area sent four 110-foot patrol boats (WPBs) to Italy together with support personnel and termed their base of operations “Patrol Forces Mediterranean” or PATFORMED, and it sent four WPBs to the Arabian Gulf with a Bahrain-based command called “Patrol Forces Southwest Asia,” PATFORSWA. Port Security Unit 309’s port security boat underway.Ītlantic Area provided many units of its own, sending the high-endurance cutter Dallas to the Mediterranean to support and escort Military Sealift Command shipping and Coalition battle groups in that theater of operations. Their responsibilities would include MIO and Walnut, in conjunction with members of the Coast Guard’s National Strike Force, would lead potential oil spill containment operations. Both of these vessels had to cross the Pacific and Indian oceans to arrive at the Arabian Gulf and begin operations. In January, Pacific Area’s first major units deployed to the Arabian Gulf, including the high-endurance cutter Boutwell and ocean-going buoy tender Walnut. From November 2002 through January 2003, these units began activation, training and planning activities for an expected deployment in early 2003. Late in 2002, Coast Guard headquarters alerted various units in the service’s Pacific Area and Atlantic Area about possible deployment to the Middle East. From the very outset of Middle East operations, the Coast Guard’s training and experience in these and other maritime activities played a vital role in OIF. RAND's publications do not necessarily reflect the opinions of its research clients and sponsors.As in so many American conflicts, Coast Guard units and personnel in Operation Iraqi Freedom or OIF, performed several missions including escort duty, force protection, maritime interdiction operations or MIO, and aids-to-navigation, or ATON, work.

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Operation iraqi freedom