Only the Coast Guard Would Have Me with Captain Sean MacKenzie - TAS #1
Release Date: 02/07/2020
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info_outlineWelcome to The Alaska Show Podcast! Seeing how Alaska really lives and works through the eyes of our exceptional people.
For our first episode we sit down with Captain Sean MacKenzie, head of Coast Guard Sector Anchorage. He talks to us about the extensive missions the Coast Guard has throughout Western Alaska and takes us through his storied career that has taken him from overseeing the NY Harbor on 9/11, to Operation Iraqi Freedom in the Arabian Gulf, to Washington DC and Brussels, to counter-narcotics operations in the South Pacific, and finally to overseeing the bulk of Coast Guard operations in Alaska.
Your hosts Josiah Coe and Alex Trokey also discuss the Coronavirus evacuee stopover at Ted Stevens International Airport, the Anchorage doctor found guilty of dentisting while on a hoverboard, and announce upcoming events including the Ice Art Championships in Fairbanks and the Ice Climbing Festival in Valdez.
Introduction, Events and News (1:41)
Interview with Captain Sean MacKenzie (9:51)
More content on https://www.theakshow.com/
Also check out "The Homer Alaska Podcast" wherever you listen to podcasts!
Interview Notes
Captain MacKenzie oversees Sector Anchorage with over 600 personnel under him
Career taken him from Northeast to New York Harbor on 9/11 to Iraq to California to Germany to Alaska
38 sectors in the Coast Guard
He was Coast Guard liaison to European command
Most people think the Coast Guard only does search and rescue in Alaska
Based on JBER in Anchorage
Fairly significant Coast Guard presence in Valdez with small boats, patrol boat, vessel inspection unit, and support element
Valdez has 125 people and Anchorage only has about 100 - terminus of the TAPS terminal makes it a key place
In 2014 the Coast Guard moved to JBER for better communications and use of other military infrastructure like force protection and medical care
The main Coast Guard Missions in Alaska are:
- Search and Rescue
- Law Enforcement and Fisheries Enforcement - enforcing fishing regulations
- Oil Pollution Response - keeping Alaska's environment pristine
- Facilities Inspections - inspecting things like bulk oil fuel facilities on maritime nexus
- Waterways Management - organizing traffic so everyone in a community can have safe access through waterways
- Vessel Inspections - proactively inspecting vessels for safety from deep draft to fishing vessels
- Investigations - if there is a marine casualty the Coast Guard inspects
Marine Safety Task Force
- Over 400 bulk oil storage facilities across western Alaska
- Typical village will have 4+ 12,500 gallon heating fuel storage tanks
- Much of this infrastructure is aging and number of oil spills are increasing
- This is a "trainwreck in slow motion"
- Marine Safety Task force is Sector Anchorage's pitch to get more resources to get these facilities inspected annually or bi-annually and help get funding to resolve issues
Captain MacKenzie born in Asheville, NC
The Coast Guard Academy was the only military academy that accepted him into college
Coast Guard Academy has changed culture to lower attrition rate from 50% when Captain MacKenzie went to school
Out of the Academy he worked a buoy tender in the Hudson River
Then Executive Officer of a 110-ft boat in 1994
Went and got a MBA in Financial Management in William and Mary with his wife Dorothy
Then did a financial tour
July 2001 took over command of 110-foot patrol boat ADAK
On 9/11/2001 ADAK was repairing steering system in Sandy Hook New Jersey and got the word a plane crashed into the World Trade Center
Cell phone towers were on the twin towers so the cell phones didn’t work
First coast guard ship on the scene and designate command of New York Harbor
On 9/11 had to facilitate emergency response logistics and stop people from entering Manhattan through the harbor
In command of the harbor through the first 12 hours after the World Trade Center attack
Other buildings fell down around the twin towers
The wind switched and blew ash and smoke into the harbor for a period
The Coast Guard responsibilities changed after 9/11 from fisheries law enforcement boat to homeland security
Trained for four months to deploy to Iraq: weapons training, doing ship maintenance, adding guns to the ship, gun shoots underway, chemical weapons training, and medical training
Loaded 4 110-foot patrol boats onto a commercial vessel and took them to Bahrain, then went to Arabian Gulf
The Coast Guard shifts and operates under the Navy during times of war. The Navy doesn’t build 110-foot patrol boats with knowledge that if they need them they will get them from the Coast Guard. They have a standard Navy communication suite on those ships, standard weapons and ammo, and crypto gear.
Mission in Iraq was to engage Iraq’s one patrol boat if necessary
Pulled three Iraqi POWs from sunken ship out of water
Did a congressional affairs tour in Washington, DC after Iraq
Then was stationed in Coronado, CA to do counter-narcotics operations
Took over as skipper on leased Seal Team 179-foot patrol boat that could do 36 knots painted with camouflage
Caught cocaine smugglers with two-boat boarding operation
Primarily caught fishing boats which only did 6-8 knots
Intercepted over 7 tons of cocaine worth hundreds of millions of dollars
Coast Guard ships as temporary floating prisons