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Article: 9-11 spurs Coast Guard, Air Force to step up security.
- Article from:
- Northwest Florida Daily News (Fort Walton Beach, FL)
- Article date:
- August 20, 2006
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2006 Northwest Florida Daily News. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Byline: Mladen Rudman
Aug. 20--DESTIN -- The $120,000 "response boat" is fast and has mounts for machine guns. It's in Coast Guard's Station Destin's four-vessel fleet because its mission expanded after terrorists in hijacked airliners killed more than 2,000 people in New York and at the Pentagon on Sept. 11, 2001.
"We actually got a fourth boat for the homeland security mission," said Boatswain's Mate 1st Class Scott Blackketter, who helps manage the station.
Coast Guard seamen have been through classes and seaborne maneuvers to learn ways to establish security zones around potential targets during a national emergency. But doing their regular ...