PORT ANGELES — A multi-agency security operation for the 2010 Winter Games improved the flow of intelligence between U.S. and Canadian forces, a Coast Guard admiral told members of Group/Air Station Port Angeles.
Rear Adm. Gary Blore, Coast Guard District 13 commander, handed out six plaques to Port Angeles section leaders on Friday for their work in Operation Podium.
Operation Podium was a joint security effort of the Coast Guard, U.S. Navy, Canadian Navy and Royal Canadian Mounted Police for keeping the Olympics safe. The Games were held in Vancouver, British Columbia, in February.
“We really only had two majors objectives,” Blore said during a half-hour ceremony at the Coast Guard hangar on Ediz Hook.
“To prevent threats from leaving U.S. waters and going to Canada and interrupt the Olympics, and assist the Canadians in any way they requested us to.”
The section leaders who received plaques from the district commander were Dana Reid of Group/Air Station Port Angeles, Jim Herzog of Station Bellingham, Mark Petty of cutter Cuttyhunk, Mike Winans of cutter Adelie, Orion Bloom of cutter Swordfish and Joshua Gunn of cutter Terrapin.
About 850 Coast Guard personnel joined 1,000 U.S. Navy personnel in Operation Podium. No major arrests were made.
“We didn’t really catch any terrorists,” Blore said.
“I have absolute confidence that if we tripped over something during the event that we would have appropriately dealt with it.”
Blore described the Canadian Navy and RCMP as “easy to work with.” He said Operation Podium strengthened the bond between the U.S. and Canadian forces.
“We have had some distance with the Canadians in certain aspects, and one of them was intelligence,” Blore said.
About five years ago, some Canadians officials felt the U.S. misused intelligence about Canadian citizens, Blore said.
“Since then they’ve been a little reluctant to give it to us too early, and that basically ended with the Olympics,” Blore said.
“With the Olympics, we were getting intelligence about an hour after the RCMP got it. So that was a really great thing. I hope we can maintain that.
“I hope our country appropriately uses intelligence we get from the Canadian government in the future.
“So we’ve reachieved the relationship we had with them about five years ago on intelligence sharing. That’s a huge thing, just being able to operate with them jointly.”
Blore was flanked at the ceremony by Group/Air Station Port Angeles Capt. Scott Pollock and Command Master Chief David DeWald.
Pollock awarded a citation to Michael Anderson for his civilian service to Group/Air Station Port Angeles from February 2006 through next week.
After the awards ceremony, Blore took questions from Coast Guard personnel. The questions dealt with new leadership at the top and the proposed budget cuts being considered in Washington, D.C.
In 2012, the Obama administration wants to cut about 1,000 active duty forces while adding 300 civilian Coast Guard workers.
Blore said the Coast Guard’s budget will probably look a lot different after it makes its way through Congress this fall.
“I just don’t know, to tell you the truth,” he said of the budget cuts.
Coast Guard Vice Adm. Robert Papp Jr. will succeed Adm. Thad Allen as commandant in May.
“He’s kind of known as a sailor’s sailor,” Blore said of Papp.
“I think that you’ll see him emphasize professionalism and being an expert in the field.”
Blore tried to dispel the notion that Papp is anti-Homeland Security.
“That’s not true,” said Blore, who knows Papp.
In response to a exercise in which top Coast Guard officials were asked where they would cut the budget if they had to, Papp said he would cut some funding in the agency’s homeland security plan beginning in 2012, an internal memo showed.
The Coast Guard moved from the Transportation Department to the Homeland Security Department in 2003.
In times of war, it may be transferred to the Department of the Navy.
There are about 42,000 men and woman on active duty in the Coast Guard.
District 13 includes Washington, Oregon, Idaho and Montana.
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Reporter Rob Ollikainen can be reached at 360-417-3537 or at rob.ollikainen@peninsuladailynews.com.
