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Local Initiative to Track Vessels at Port of Hampton Roads Goes National

Posted on: Monday, 27 March 2006, 21:00 CST

By Peter Dujardin, Daily Press, Newport News, Va.

Mar. 25--PORTSMOUTH -- A Coast Guard and Navy vessel tracking initiative that began in Hampton Roads in 2001 is going national.

The Joint Harbor Operations Center, which monitors ships on local waterways through a combination of radar systems, cameras and vessel tracking devices, is now being implemented in San Diego.

It's soon to get off the ground in Jacksonville, Fla., and Seattle. Eventually, it's expected to go to other port cities, too.

"This center is about maintaining awareness," said Capt. Robert O'Brien, the Coast Guard's captain of the port in Hampton Roads. "And that awareness is key to the safety of our port."

Coast Guard officials showed off the center Friday to elected officials, guests and the media, touting its implementation elsewhere around the nation.

The JHOC, as it's called, has evolved greatly from its early days operating with only a handful of people out of the old watchtower on the Elizabeth River at Norfolk Naval Station. Since the summer of 2004, the center has been headquartered at the Coast Guard base in Portsmouth, with millions of dollars worth of computers, software and equipment.

The center keeps track of vessels, particularly those of more than 300 gross tons. It also helps determine which ships need to be boarded by Coast Guard security teams before being allowed into the port.

The idea for such a center is the brainchild of Capt. Joseph Bouchard, the former commanding officer at the Norfolk Naval Station.

After the terrorist attacks on the USS Cole in Yemen in late 2000, Bouchard began brainstorming ways to bolster the defense of the Navy base. The base, the largest naval facility in the world, lies only several hundred feet from a major shipping channel used heavily by commercial ships and boats.

Because the Coast Guard -- not the Navy -- is primarily responsible for monitoring vessel traffic, Bouchard reached out to Capt. Larry Brooks, who was then the Coast Guard's captain of the port in Hampton Roads, to join him in the quest.

Brooks used his authority to make Bouchard's idea happen. He not only agreed to have the Coast Guard oversee the tower's operations, but also agreed to jointly staff it with Coast Guard personnel.

Starting out with walkie-talkies and binoculars, the center soon had many high-tech tracking systems. By the summer of 2004, the center outgrew the increasingly cramped watchtower at the Navy base.

It no longer physically overlooks the water as it did at the base, but operates with numerous cameras, radar and tracking devices.

About 50 people -- about 12 Navy sailors and 38 Coast Guard personnel -- operate the center out of a 2,500-square-foot space. Plans are to double its size in the next several years, adding space for personnel from other federal agencies, such as the FBI, Customs and Immigration, said Lt. Cmdr. Robert Nelson, the Coast Guard's supervisor for the center.

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Copyright (c) 2006, Daily Press, Newport News, Va.

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Source: Daily Press

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