Blue uniforms continue presence in Puerto Rico

  • Published
  • By Tech. Sgt. Ben Gonzales
  • Air Force News Agency
COAST GUARD AIR STATION BORINQUEN, Puerto Rico (AFNEWS) --  Since 1939, an American blue uniform presence has been on Puerto Rico to maintain a military force and to deter enemy forces from here or the homeland.

From 1939 to 1973, Air Force bluesuiters were stationed at what was once called Ramey Air Force Base in the northwest corner of Puerto Rico.  When the Air Force left, Coast Guard blue uniforms and Navy whites arrived at the already established base. 

Although the naval unit moved out three years later, the importance of a military presence on the island is as crucial today as it was in the past. When the Air Force was here, bomber pilots stood ready to launch at any moment, with peace as their profession. Today, Coast Guard alert crews are on stand-by 24/7/365 ready to search for and rescue anyone in their 1.2 million square mile area of responsibility. But that is not the only mission for the 100 Coast Guardsmen here.

"We support the Coast Guard mission by providing law enforcement, supporting the homeland security community, and standing always ready for search and rescue missions," said Coast Guard Capt. Thomas Wade, the commanding officer of the air station. "The biggest thing we do is look for migrants mainly coming from the Dominican Republic trying to illegally come here."

Through the years, the Air Force and Coast Guard have kept a solid relationship. Puerto Rico Air National Guardsmen recently have started doing patrols along the coastline that help the Coast Guard and border patrol find immigrants. Airmen in other Air National Guard units help keep the former Ramey AFB in tip-top shape. This is a difficult challenge since many old buildings were built well before the Air Force left 34 years ago.

"Up to three times a year, we invite Air Guard civil engineer units down for their two-week annual tour," Captain Wade said, who has led the air station for 1.5 years. "We pay for their housing and (temporary duty) costs, and they, in return, do construction work around the air station."

Air National Guardsmen have put in emergency backup power in the Coast Guard headquarters building, renovated the base exchange, and just recently, the California Air National Guardsmen from March Air Reserve Base upgraded the aerobics center here.

"This is a hugely beneficial relationship," the captain said, who is on his second tour here and was first at this air station from 1986 to 1990. "We are so thankful for their support in helping us maintain our facilities."

Four Coast Guard HH-65C Dolphin helicopters rest in one of three large hangars that once housed massive Air Force B-36 Peacemaker and B-52 Stratofortress bombers. The second hangar is used today for cargo, and the third is used by the port authority and international airport terminal.

Always standing ready is an HH-65C crew consisting of a pilot, co-pilot, rescue swimmer and flight technician.  It only takes a few minutes to get the helicopter in the air and this Coast Guard unit takes care of anyone in need from Haiti and the Dominican Republic, all of the Caribbean and around Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. Being constantly ready is vital to homeland defense, and since fiscal 2006, approximately 7,500 migrants were stopped at sea by Coast Guardsmen from this station.

"I've seen up to 198 people on a 60-foot boat," Captain Wade said, who is also a helicopter pilot. "All it takes is one small wave and that boat is in a lot of trouble."

But no matter who is in trouble at sea, Coast Guardsmen are ready in times of need.

"Search and rescue is our No. 1 priority," said Coast Guard Lt. Cmdr. Juan Lopez, an aircraft commander and the assistant operations officer at the air station. "We take the safety of any life very seriously. We don't ask who is in the water. We are there to save a life."

Before 9-11, there were more New York City policemen than there were Coast Guardsmen. The Coast Guard grew since then to a force approximately 40,000 strong because of an increase in the protection of the homeland from illegal migrants trying to come into America by any means possible.

By patrolling the seas in the area, Coast Guardsmen have been able to help significantly reduce the number of migrants reaching the shores of this American territory, and in turn have helped U.S. Attorney's Office officials in their fight to keep the homeland free.

"With the U.S. Attorney's Office taking a more aggressive role, we have helped the process of prosecuting 34 smugglers from May 2006 to March 2007," Captain Wade said, who has served in the Coast Guard for 24 years. "This policy is providing a strong deterrent for smugglers."

"Smugglers are ruthless," the captain said. "We have video of them throwing migrants off a speeding boat to avoid capture when the Coast Guard has to stop to rescue the person at sea."

In their battle on the war on terrorism, Coast Guardsmen here recently have begun using a biometric identification system to keep an eye out for terrorists.

"With biometrics, we take migrants' fingerprints and see if they match a database kept on the Coast Guard cutters," said the native of Opelika, Ala. "In just more than three months in use, 20 percent of the 600 migrants that we stopped came up as a hit." 

A hit is when someone is a repeat migrant, has been convicted of an aggravated felon, or shows up in other databases from the U.S. Attorney's Office. The third time a person is caught at sea trying to illegally come to America or its territories, the U.S. Attorney's Office may prosecute the migrant, Captain Wade said.

A Coast Guard Academy graduate, Air Force ties even run in Captain Wade's family. He and his wife, Lenee, have four children. Their oldest, Jacob, is an Air Force ROTC cadet at the Inter-American University in Aquadilla. Their other son, Ben, is a sophomore at Virginia Tech, while their daughters, Elizabeth and Sarah, are 13 and 11 respectively. 

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