>>Fake Coast Guard Boat Raises Alert
By Gavin McCormick
Associated Press Writer
Friday, Nov. 2, 2001; 4:15 p.m. EST
CHARLESTON, W.Va. –– Several area chemical plants have been
warned to take extra precautions after a boat masquerading as a Coast
Guard vessel was spotted on the Kanawha River.
"They should do whatever is necessary to protect the facility if the boat
approaches at high speed," said Lt. Renee Kern, chief of port operations
for the Coast Guard's Huntington office.
"We left the decision entirely up to them whether to move vessels in the
way, or to shoot, or to use a crane, or whatever," Kern said.
Coast Guard officials warned the area's five largest chemical and energy
plants on Oct. 5 that the boat had been spotted near Charleston. Kern
didn't identify the plants.
Of the more than 30 chemicals that federal authorities say have the
potential for mass destruction when they are in large containers, 28 are
manufactured in West Virginia.
The phony Coast Guard boat was spotted at least four times on the
Kanawha River from Oct. 5 to Oct. 20, moving at high speeds or "lurking
around power plants and chemical facilities," Kern said.
A state trooper saw the boat on a trailer on Oct. 18 but did not know
then the boat was suspicious.
In an Oct. 11 letter sent to 48 area chemical and energy plants, Coast
Guard Lt. Cmdr. Steven Wischmann of Huntington described the rogue
boat as a light gray 20-footer with "US COAST GUARD" written on the
side and a bar of lights atop the cabin.
The boat had no Coast Guard number painted on its side and no Coast
Guard flag.
A boat matching a similar description was seen in late September on the
Ohio River near Cincinnati, said Lt. Cmdr. Paul Mehler, executive officer
of the Coast Guard office in Louisville.
Officials at the Coast Guard's Atlantic Area command office in
Portsmouth, Va., said a small number of sightings of phony Coast Guard
vessels have been reported since Sept. 11. All reports other than the boat
seen on the Kanawha and Ohio rivers proved to be unsubstantiated.
Kern declined to give an exact description of the boat's lone male
occupant. She said he fit the description of a "Joe average American."
"We don't know if the boat meant to scope this area and then move on to
the next, or if it was doing something else illegal," Kern said. "Maybe it
was someone not taking their medicine who thought they would be doing
the government a favor." <<
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