JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — The commander of Alaska's Coast Guard may be new to town — he took over for outgoing Rear Admiral Thomas Ostebo in June — but the mission of District 17 isn't likely to change.
In fact, the Coast Guard's three broad missions have essentially remained the same since it was formed, Rear Admiral Daniel Abel said recently during a speech at the weekly Juneau Chamber of Commerce luncheon.
"The traditional mission of the Coast Guard is to protect man from the sea," he said, referring in large part to its search and rescue mission.
The second mission of the Coast Guard is "protecting the sea from man," Abel continued, an increasing concern given devastating oil spills, pollution and climate change. The guard strives to make sure the sea is sustainable.
"We're sensitive to the marine life particularly in the Arctic," Abel noted.
The third, which has received more attention since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, is to protect the U.S. from "those who would do our nation harm," he said.
Abel oversees District 17, which covers all of Alaska and the approximately 2,700 active-duty Coast Guardsmen in the state. He noted that Juneau has about 300 members that either work at district command, Sector Juneau, Station Juneau or the cutter Liberty, which is homeported in Auke Bay.
"That's a huge presence," he said, equating it to the size of New York City's police department.
District 17 has increasingly spent more time in the Arctic, an area expected to receive more focus next year when the U.S. will serve as chair of the Arctic Council. The chair of the council rotates among arctic nations, and starting in April 2015 the U.S. will take over chairmanship for two years.
"That will bring even more focus on all things in the arctic," he said.
He noted that the amount of the amount of retreat of the ice is about the same mass as half of the continental United States.
"We're the Coast Guard, and there's a lot more coast than there used to be up there," he said, adding there's been an increase of human activity as well. Abel noted the Coast Guard has responded to three search and rescue mission in the Arctic since he took over the command, including one where a Canadian in an aluminum boat got stuck in the ice pack.
The Coast Guard also is concerned with land use.
"If you didn't know, 13 percent of the undiscovered petroleum is up there, 30 percent of the undiscovered natural gas, over a trillion dollars of minerals are up there," he said. "The best way I've heard it explained is: imagine if you have the Panama Canal and Saudi Arabia's worth of energy show up at the same place in your area of responsibility, how would you embrace that? So the Coast Guard is doing just that."
Abel ended his speech by saying how proud he is of the men and women who serve in the Coast Guard and those who are "on fire to serve their country."
"Thank goodness for those people," he said.
___
Information from: Juneau (Alaska) Empire, http://www.juneauempire.com
