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moved into something they call public-private ventures. DoD people are living in beautiful homes that make ours woefully inadequate. In comparison, I’m embarrassed for my people. We need to do better.” STEADYING THE SERVICE Those looking for spectacular, new initiatives from the Coast Guard over the next 3+ years are going to be disap- pointed. Papp explains, “Since September 11th 2001, we have put this service through multiple stressers. We took on many new responsibilities and in the midst of that, two major things occurred. First, the reorganization efforts by my two predecessors. Reorganization for the right reasons, but they create stress because you’ve got people who already have day jobs who also have to work to accomplish these reorganiza- tions. ADM Collins did it at the field, tactical mission deliv- ery levels by combining our marine safety offices and our group offices into sectors – that upheaval still hasn’t been completed. ADM Allen focused on the strategic level, reor- ganizing upper leadership structure. That required congres- sional action to authorize that we never got, so that project was never completed, either. It consumed a lot staff time and energy.” Papp cites deeper concerns. “We need to wrap up these things so that our people can start focusing on their core com- petencies. I am concerned that we’ve lost our edge in terms of professional skills. There are warning signals. We’ve lost 14 aviators in the last two years in accidents, recently lost a Petty Officer in a training accident and a couple of boat collisions have happened in the prosecution of cases. I’m concerned and I want to make sure that I’m doing all I can do to prepare our people for success.” Much of what ADM Papp espouses today is rooted in his formative experiences, rising up through the chain of com- mand. As a mid-grade officer, he commanded a 45 year-old buoy tender, the Paw Paw. At the time, it was nearing obso- lescence. “We were desperately in need of new buoy tenders, but struggling along because we could not convince Congress to build new ships. These were old assets that were tough to maintain and it took it out on our people because they had to not only do their work, but also do repairs to keep the ships running. That became deeply engrained in me that when I got to a leadership position, I needed to get the proper tools and resources out to our people. I’m living that today as we try to replace cutters and other assets,” adds Papp. DOING MORE WITH LESS (NOT ANYMORE) Papp admits that the Coast Guard’s FY-12 budget is fatter than most, but he also says that there is good reason for it. And, he promises, the way that the Coast Guard goes about fine tuning its mission set is about to change. It is here where he diverges (sharply) from his predecessors in terms of “doing the best they can with not enough.” That’s over, says Papp. “This whole ‘doing more with less thing’ never set well with me. We’ve continued to do more and more over the years. But, some of these things – we’ve done to ourselves. We have a can-do attitude and when we see the need, we try to fill that void. At some point, you have to say, ‘Are all of these activities warranted and are there other departments in the federal government that could be doing some of this? Are we trying to do too much?’ And that’s what we are in the process of looking at right now.” He points to U.S. Coast Guard deployable Special Forces as a prime example where the mission set has ramped up over the course of the last ten years. Papp admits that he has no authority to cut any Coast Guard missions. He does promise that his forces can only do so much, and what they can do, he wants to do well. “Take our aviators. We have task saturated them. It used to be that all they did was Search and Rescue and that was challenging enough. We devoted 40 percent of our flight hours to training; since 9/11 we’ve added airborne use of force, rotary wing air intercept and vertical insertion. Now, we are up to a point where 60 percent of our flight time is training hours. If the country wants us to do these things, it’s my responsibility to go to Congress and say, ‘we don’t have the resources to do that.’ Give me the resources, and I’ll do the job. Or, give it to some other agency.” PRIORITIES VERSUS RESOURCES It wasn’t too long ago that NTSB took over certain investi- gation responsibilities from the Coast Guard. That came with a political battle that involved fears that a lost mission might mean loss of prestige. But, some Coast Guard mission sets have always been in question. The maritime industry’s 200,000+ domestic mariners, for example, have long com- plained about the ability of the Coast Guard to properly administer its mariner credentialing function. Given the real- ities of the budget battles and continued “mission creep,” no options are off the table. Papp insists, “I’ll admit to a bias right up front that the Coast Guard can do anything it sets its collective mind to, bet- ter anyone else. Having said that, do we always have the resources to do that? No. On the other hand, I believe that there is a need for the country to do advanced interdictions out at sea. I categorize this as ‘short notice maritime response and advanced interdiction.’ We started to try and build the resources to do with before even coming up with a concept of how we do it.” He continues, “We need to decide if we’re capable of doing this on our own. If we’re not, then we need to put forth a www.maritimeprofessional.com Maritime Professional 35 ADM ROBERT PAPP
