On Sat, 17 Jan 2004 07:00:56 GMT, Hewel
wrote:

I was looking at some photos of Coast Guard vessels. I'm puzzled, why do
Aids to Navigation vessels like the Juniper Class buoy tenders have
"provision for 25mm Bushmaster" chain gun? That's a lot of gun! I'd bet
every one of them is armed with the 25mm and then some, right now. I've
seen other buoy tenders, icebreakers and tugs with 12.7mm machine guns
and/or 7.62mm machine guns as well. Keep in mind these ships were
commissioned before the Department of Homeland Security in most cases.
The Coast Guard while having some military and law enforcement missions
was under the Department of Transportation. I look at a buoy and think
why would you need to shoot it?
I can see that those non-military and non-law enforcement
responsibilities returned to the DOT as civil service jobs at some
point, but would that mean these boats would have to become unarmed?
They don't let other civil service employees have weapons. Where does
that leave the Auxiliary? I wonder if it will end up becoming
militarized at some point. I hope not. It would be an easy step for
someone to take in Washington, kinda like a floating militia.
The job of the Coast Guard has become very complex. Perhaps there are
elements that should remain as military units and some that should be
pushed away from their military ties?

our charter as the auxiliary comes from congress. it would, literally,
take an act of congress to militarize the auxiliary. although the aux.
was armed during ww2, there is no plan to do so now and it's unclear
how it would be done.

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