Quote:
|
At one time, maybe even today they were using EC3 Hawkeye ( navy) aircraft to track aircraft smuggling into the states ( and Cuba) They may have been "loaned" to the CG but I wasn't part of that.
|
I've done that mission a few times (1999 and again in 2001). It's the E-2C Hawkeye, but close enough
We would work with the Coast Guard, coordinating through the Joint Interagency Task Force (JIATF), but we weren't officially assigned to the Coast Guard. We'd detect and track the suspicious boats (and sometimes aircraft) heading North, and vector an Air Force fighter aircraft or a Navy P-3 Orion down to get a visual look and/or take pictures. If needed, the Coast Guard did the actual boarding and searching.
It was also fairly common to have a Coast Guard sniper flying in a Navy helicopter. The sniper could disable the boat's engine(s) under Title 14 of the US Code, something that the active-duty military couldn't do in that region under our Title 10 authorities.