Not Your Father's Coast Guard: The Untold Story of U.S. Coast Guard Special Forces Kindle Edition

Despite being personally opposed to the War on Drugs, I find the missions undertaken by military and law enforcement in support of the war to be nothing short of fascinating. Tales of raw courage under fire and sheer grit can be unearthed, even if the underlying cause is (in my opinion) ultimately unjust.Operation: SNOWCAP is one bit of history that particularly grabs my attention. From 1987 to 1994, several federal law enforcement agencies participated in what would be termed in the military special operations community as foreign internal defense missions, aiding host nations in standing up anti-drug forces and taking the fight to drug cartels throughout South America. The DEA is front and center in SNOWCAP's history, along with the Border Patrol's Tactical Unit.Little known about SNOWCAP are the contributions from the Coast Guard. Devised by a commandant who saw combat in the Vietnam War, what would come to be known as the Drug Interdiction Assistance Teams (DIAT) were the first of their kind, a Coast Guard special operations unit that pushed the envelope in taking the fight to the narcos.Undergoing infantry training with either the US Army Rangers or the Marine Corps, learning explosives at the FBI Academy at Quantico, and training alongside the DEA to form a cohesive unit, DIAT (sections of which would later come to be known as the International Maritime Law Enforcement Team, the International Maritime Law Enforcement Training Team, and the International Training Division) started out with riverine operations and quickly escalated to small unit missions in-land with host nation forces, destroying drug labs and narco airplane runways.The pros of this account are that the Coasties involved are comprehensively interviewed, and their history is documented. Tales of derring-do and political battle in DC are covered in detail, and it serves as an eye-opener to those unaware of the fighting Coasties and their lesser-known contributions to the Drug War.The con is that the narrative can be disjointed at times, hopping back and forth between timelines and leaving the reader slightly confused. But, I found that this was eventually overcome and the book served as an extremely educational piece of non-fiction.I'd highly recommend this to fans of Coast Guard history and those wanting to delve into the nooks and crannies of the Drug War.

As a retired Coastie, I was quite amazed at how much I did not know. Very enjoyable a little heavy on detail but enjoyable even for that. Really interested in the relationship between the people in the field and headquarters. Certainly recommend this for anyone that has interest in the Coast Guard from a different perspective.

My review is written from the perspective of a Coastie...The long flights from Juneau to, well, anywhere gives me ample time to read and digest books (I'm playing in Yorktown this week) so I usually jump in right away to get a book or two behind me. This fist book has been on my radar since it came out a few years ago... I just kept forgetting to read it.Not Your Fathers Coast Guard, by Matthew Mitchell (a Coastie no less), takes you back to the anti-drug operations circa late 1980s through the early 90s. Most think they know about the War on Drugs- but aside from what one could see on the evening news there wasn't much that would be know about how embedded the USCG actually was initially.I first heard of our services foray into international drug operations via a Chief of mine. He'd tell fables of some ops that he took part in "down south" before my entrance into aviation in 2000. Honestly I did chalk these up as "fables" or, at the very least, a way to keep me excited about aviation and nothing more; after all, why was the Coast Guard in Bolivia? I read the book... now I know.Appropriately the forward, and book opening, concentrate on ADM Paul Yost (Ret.). I'm not going to spoil it for you but it would sufice to say he had his hands in some of the most exciting operations the CG has ever been part of.Mitchell takes his readers on a worlwind tour of an "international" U.S. Coast Guard diving into foreign authority's and our associated missions (Coast Guard jungle ops anyone?). He does so in a way you wish your teachers would have taught you.The first half, or so, of the book looks at how the Coast Guard's answer to Special Operations Forces (SOF), the Drug Interdiction and Assist Team, DIAT, came to be. The second part concentrates on how the U.S. Coast Guard came to be pseudo Plank-owners to newly formed Coast Guards around the world. It also looks at the evolution of our International Training Division and the demise of an potential SOF contingent.The dreams of a U.S. Coast Guard SOF were nearly upon us as a service. Mitchell looks at what went wrong and even allows the reader to draw some of their own conclusions on the matter. It's worth your time for a look at our past. It would seem we were nearly in a position to try and recreate that push for a SOF within the last few years. However, history has a nasty habit of completely repeating itself time and time again. Via ryanerickson.com

The author does a very good job of presenting one side of the story. I was fortunate enough to know personally many of the participants the author describes during my own tour of duty at CGHQ from 1990 to 1995. I'm even mentioned by name in passing during one of the sections of the book. I think the book minimizes the contributions of people like Pete Ganser in La Paz, Mike Collier in Bogata and John Wcislo in Mexico City, all being Coast Guard Attache's. They were as much in the "front lines" as the talented folks working for the DIAT and in some cases more so as they got to deal with Ambassador's on one side and CG flags on the other. To some extent, the book paints ADM Kime in a bad light which I don't think is 100% fair. Unfortunately, I believe the author was unable to interview one of the key players, Gerard P Yoest, who at the time of many of the events described in the book, was the Director of International Affairs (G-CI). Gerry unfortunately passed away prior to the writing of this book (I believe since he wasn't quoted/interviewed by the author) and his comments might have lent a bit more balance to the HQ side of the story and ADM Kime's ultimate decision to change direction of the effort in Bolivia. All and all a good read and a good story that hopefully records some of what would otherwise be forgotten by the "official" history.