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quireraents of national defense, aids to 

 maritime navigation, ocean stations, ice- 

 breaking facilities, oceanographic research, 

 and rescue facilities for the promotion of 

 safety on and over the high seas and waters 

 subject to the jurisdiction of the Unit«d 

 States 

 • To maintain a state of readiness to func- 

 tion as a specialized service in the Navy 

 in time of war. 



An analysis of Coast Guard activity pre- 

 pared for the Commission indicates that of 

 its program funding 70 per cent is related to 

 multipurpose search and rescue, navigational, 

 port security, and enforcement activities; 13 

 per cent to oceanography, meteorologj', ice- 

 breaking, and other marine sciences; 13 per 



cent to military preparedness activities; and 

 4 per cent to merchant marine inspection 

 and safety. Thus, although most Coast Guard 

 activities relate to transportation, they are 

 similarly related to other uses of the seas. 

 Search and rescue functions, which require 

 35 per cent of total Coast Guard funding, are 

 required most commonly in support of recre- 

 ational boating. Provision of aids to navi- 

 gation, which requires 28 per cent of the 

 agency's budget, is critical to the whole span 

 of marine activities. The law enforcement 

 activities, 7 per cent of the budget, include 

 enforcement of fisheries and recreational 

 boating laws as well as port security. Only in 

 merchant marine safety and inspection are 

 tasks solely related to transportation. 



The Coast Guard's tremendous physical 

 and manpower resources — a complement of 

 approximately 5,400 officers and 31,000 en- 

 listed men supported by 5,900 civil service 

 personnel — are at the disposal of many kinds 

 of users, responding to routine needs and 

 grave emergencies with a high and admir- 

 able professionalism. In the broad and often 

 dangerous reaches of the sea, the Coast 

 Guard does just about everything but guard 

 the coast in the military sense. In a wider 

 sense, the Coast Guard is indeed the Nation's 

 guardian against the hazards of marine oper- 

 ations, serving the entire marine community, 

 from swimmers to petroleum explorers, in so 

 many ways that it often is impossible to de- 

 fine the proportion of Coast Guard effort 

 attributable to any one category of needs. In 

 fact, a principal characteristic of the Coast 

 Guard's vessel and shore station operations 

 is their multipurpose nature. A single Coast 

 Guard vessel may tend buoys, enforce fish- 

 cries and pollution laws, search for lost 

 pleasure boaters, rescue endangered fisher- 

 men and their vessels, conduct oceanographic 

 investigations, or perform other services, all 

 within a single year. 



