I took a little vacation time this last week to catch up on some things around the house and relax. I was watching the coverage of the 9-11 ceremonies on Friday morning. As usual, I was checking Twitter to see what was happening in the world, when I read a Tweet that said something like this:
“Coast Guard confronts boat as Obama visits Pentagon, police scanner reports say shots fired.”
Quickly I headed to the Reuters mobile web site and read the short story posted there. I then headed to CNN’s site and checked the info there. I checked several cable news channels to catch the news about it.
I read another Tweet about “10 rounds being expended”
Planes were delayed from take-off at Reagan International. Most folks reading or hearing the stories, were probably thinking “Oh no, not again.” The President had been in the area for a 9-11 ceremony.
So, the next logical thought was that maybe some terrorists decided that they would attack us while we were memorializing 9-11.
Finally, it was determined (about 30 minutes later) that this was all an exercise being conducted by the U.S. Coast Guard. “A freaking exercise,” I muttered to myself.
The U.S. Coast Guard used very, I repeat, VERY poor judgment by holding an exercise on 9-11.
I heard the radio transmissions that were picked up by reporters. Thinking this was breaking news, the reporters called the Coast Guard’s public information office, but they received no answers into what was happening.
CNN released a statement saying they contacted the Coast Guard twice and were never told it was a real world incident or an exercise.
After hitting send on the bulletin going out around the world, it is a lot like trying to put toothpaste back in the tube. But this is the new age in media and if you are not first in the news reporting world, you are last. But more importantly, you want to get it right.
Vice Adm. John P. Currier of the Coast Guard held a press conference a few hours later, and let me just say that he did not come across very well to me. Yes, we know you have to “be ready” 24-7-365. We appreciate the men and women of the Coast Guard and all our military for protecting us.
Many years ago, while in the military, I was part of and also conducted several exercises for my men and women. This is very common in the military. Every radio transmission (which can be monitored by someone with a scanner) were preceded with the words, “Exercise, Exercise, Exercise.” At the end of transmission, the same words were transmitted. If we did not tell the listeners it was an exercise, some might have thought some terrorist action was happening – the same thing people were thinking on Friday. This is the post 9-11 time and people are still a little edgy (maybe not as much as they should be) when it comes to possible terrorist attacks.
I did not hear those words in any of the radio transmissions that were later broadcast on CNN.
The U.S. Coast Guard needs to rethink a few things due to this incident:
1. They need to plan and coordinate their exercises and let their Public Information Office and other Federal agencies know about them, in case there are calls.
2. Retrain the people involved to use the word “exercise” with every radio transmission, because someone, somewhere, is listening.
3. When major events are happening in the area, such as 9-11 ceremonies, take the day off from conducting an exercise.
We appreciate all that our military personnel do for us each day. I have been there and I know it’s sometimes a thankless job.
On the other hand, it is a sign of the times that our media all wants to be first.
I imagine some heads will roll as they investigate what went wrong with this exercise. Admiral Currier has some explaining to do, and I agree with him that it was unfortunate and a review will need to be conducted, but he appeared to me to have a blasé attitude toward this incident, as did White House Spokesman, Robert Gibbs.
The Western Word 
D.Q.
There are four things that could have prevented this exercise from being reported as a real world incident:
1. If those involved would have announced “exercise” during every radio transmission, there would not have been a problem – even on 9-11. Even CNN would have understood.
2. If the CG would have used an encrypted frequency to communicate during the exercise, none of this would have been public.
3. If the Public Affairs folks for the CG would have been briefed about the exercise, they could have answered the reporter’s questions.
4. If other federal agencies would have been notified, this would not have escalated.
I’m glad I wasted some of your precious time, and if you’re reading and/or responding to this post, I have accomplished that deed, twice!
Thanks for visiting TWW.
-JtB
No apology from the Coast Guard is warranted or remotely necessary. The fact that people monitor the Coast Guard's radio transmissions is beyond the Coast Guard's control. If, because they didn't monitor all of the transmissions they didn't hear the "exercise" preface nor the "bang, bang, bang", that is not the Coast Guard's fault. No heads will roll because nobody did anything wrong. You didn't hear the words "exercise…" in the CNN tapes because they're not there. They didn't record that part. They are in other agency recordings. You did hear the "bang, bang, bang". What did they think when they heard that? Want to know exactly what was said? Send the Coast Guard a request for transcripts. Like CNN you've made assumptions and come to conclusions without complete information nor does it appear that you have gone through any efforts to obtain that info. You just took CNN's word for it. There's always more to the story and it's not the Coast Guard's responsibility to educate you.
Admiral Currier had a blase attitude toward this event because it was just another distractor from doing the job he's assigned to do, one more thing to listen to someone bitch about because some idiot didn't have all the facts, one more thing to go try to explain when he had other more importnat things to deal with. Thanks for perpetuating the ignorance with your two cents. And this was a waste of 10 minutes of my life that I won't get back…