PJ Media

All,

Admiral Allen did know about the letter. At the Coast Guard there is a computer system managed by the IT shop and the singular purpose of that system is to manage letters from and to Congress. It has 1 and only 1 purpose to track, manage and respond to all things congressional. It is the most important unclassified system in the USCG HQ.

I can assure all readers that letter is in that system. It has dedicated IT support and dedicated aministrative support in the Admiral’s office. Tje system is not easily identified in various documents, it is identified in procurement documents USCG uses to buy IT services. The Admiral’s office knew. Period.

Regarding the USCG assessing quality. This is the same Coast Guard that could not assess quality on its own ships and radios. USCG directed contractors to make a number of compromises in the design of Deepwater ships. When those poor design decsions showed up as flawed ships, the Coast Guard blamed the contractors. They did not accept responsibility for their bad decisions and they blamed others for Coast Guard failures.

Coast guard sailors and Non-commissioned officers (NCO) live and die to protect our coasts – a core Coast Guard mission. They live the USCG motto “Always prepared.” The Coast Guard officer core operates under a much different ethic – blame shifting and blame avoidance is the Coast Guard officer ethos. I’m sorry to inform all of this. Fundamentally, the organization compromises on holding officers accountable for poor decsions. The NCOs make the Coast Guard a service to be proud of.

The complaint on quality strikes me as the officer ethos at work – OOPs we did not check the letter database and route the letter to Adm Allen. No worries, the company’s booms are of poor quality – No Booms are better than booms that may not meet Coast Guard officer standards. Is this the story we are asked to believe?

I assure all, I know USCG NCO’s. Had they known of this company’s resources, some action would have occurred.