Transcript
CARLOS PASCUAL: A recent article on our guest speaker in U.S. News and World Report was entitled "Always Ready for the Storm," and that about says it all about Admiral Thad Allen. He is the 23rd Commandant of the U.S. Coast Guard, and he's going to lead us today in a discussion of disaster response interagency operations.
But, in reality, what I would claim is that he's going to lead us in a discussion of what the role is for the Coast Guard in the 21st century because it's really those issues that he's touching on right now. To some extent, they might involve issues of homeland defense, in other cases, disaster management, in other instances, immigration control or, in other cases, counter-narcotics operations. The reality is that all of these are a part of his life and a part of the functions and the roles of the U.S. Coast Guard today.
It, in effect, demands the integration of defense and civilian agencies and functions. It demands an integration of international and domestic capabilities perhaps in a way that is unique internally within our government.
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