CG to do more with next to nothing with 2011 budget cuts

[xcgmk3]

Sad to say but the public's general perception of the Coast Guard has never reflected the reality of its true form and function, nor the full spectrum of its duties. To most 'John Q. Public' types, sadly, the Coast guard only flies around rescuing people and sometimes plays "water policeman": ignorant of of the vast array of other duties carried out by the Coast Guard. A few folks in coastal and areas with navigatable waters may know about MSO units but for the most part the full scope of what the CG is and does remains undiscovered. Given this, the bean counters within the Washington DC beltway are no exception. Heck, there are even still to this day Veterans of  of the other four branches who don't belive we are "real Military" and you can find a number of LE forums on the internet where the status of BO's and BTM's being "real LEO's" exists in debate. Bottom line is that ignorance in general by the public and even members of the goverment in what the Coast Guard is and does is what is hurting the CG when it comes to budgets and equipment. Yet another generation of Coasties may be faced with the ever continuing task of band-aiding old cutters and decomm'ed Navy tugs to perform their duties like the rest of us did in our day and giving tours to the public and hearing old Navy Vets exclaim with joy that they have not see a [insert equipment of your choice] since [insert time period].

[JerryM]

  .  .  . Heck, there are even still to this day Veterans of  of the other four branches who don't believe we are "real Military"   .  .  .

There are things even worse than that. A few fer instances:
1. Some people with long service in the Coast Guard don't believe  we are "real military".
2. Our Commander in Chief seems to doubt that we are real military.
3. Many of those who SHOULD be fighting for the funding needed to perform the missions that keep piling on seem to feel that there is more merit in "sucking it up" and doing more & more with fewer & fewer resources.

The "can do" attitude combined with a feeling that we can't demand the same high standards from others that we demand for ourselves has always been a major problem for the CG.
Many years ago when I was responsible for a few vehicle radios, I found out the hard way that I needed to know if a vehicle was scheduled for a paint job - because if I didn't remove the antennas they would be painted over. Then when I had to remove the insulator to clean the paint off it, the rust around & under the insulator would come off, ruining the paint job. When I mentioned the problem to the officer responsible for contracting the painting, he informed me that the dealership couldn't be expected to remove the antennas (or the rust for that matter) at what we were allowed to pay for a paint job. I doubt they even washed the salt off the vehicle.