National Level Exercise 2009 -- Series

Guest post by Deputy Commandant for Operations, Rear Admiral Brice-O'hara

Guardians!

This week National Level Exercise 2009 (NLE 09) will be conducted. A Tier I exercise, it is White-House directed and Congressionally-mandated. Tier I exercises are executed annually to provide the U.S. government opportunities to prepare for catastrophic crises. For the first time, the focal point of this exercise is terrorism prevention and protection vice traditional incident response and recovery.

Coast Guard participation will include DCO, LANT (Future OPCOM), FORCECOM, CG-2, CG-092, and 8th District command staff and units. We will be tested in terms of our ability to collaborate and share information with state, federal, private sector, and international partners. This exercise is invaluable in that it is an occasion to stress ourselves and to identify areas for improvement. As a result of our participation, we will better live up to our service motto, Semper Paratus.

For NLE 09, I will be acting Commandant and RDML Cook will be acting Deputy Commandant for Operations. Throughout the exercise, I will challenge participants to simulate actions as realistically as possible, to engage in good dialogue, and to pass timely, relevant, and actionable information. It looks to be a busy and exciting week. Visit iCommandant regularly for additional exercise insight.