Portland Rose Festival Fleet Week: A glimpse into the operational flexibility of reserve crews Story by Chief Petty Officer Jim Merten, Station Portland, Oregon The Portland Rose Festival is an annual festival in Portland, Oregon, held in early June. The festival includes a parade, fireworks, a carnival, and most importantly, Fleet Week. During Fleet Week, vessels from the Coast Guard, the Navy, the Royal Canadian Navy, and Job Corps moor at Waterfront Park along the Willamette River. Since 1907, visiting ships and naval vessels have made their way upriver to Portland’s waterfront to visit the communities that may not normally see military ships. Throughout the year, reservists at Station Portland use their weekends to prepare for their two-week active duty [ADT] period. Last summer, their ADT was planned to coincide with Fleet Week. Qualifications and training happened at a fast pace prior to ADT, since newly reported personnel needed to get spooled quickly in order to contribute to the mission. This preparation time gave the chiefs an opportunity to plan for training and operational needs. Each coxswain and boarding officer finished up currencies, hit the range and reviewed their seamanship skills. By the time Fleet Week rolled around, we were ready. Station Portland reservists are not usually involved in tactical missions for the Rose Festival, but this year was different. Significant staffing and policy shortfalls among some of the partners meant they would not be able to participate as fully as they had in the past. This left additional tasking for the Coast Guard to accomplish, and more specifically, the Station’s reservists. We were initially tasked with providing two boat crews to and USS assist the San Diego-based USS as they turned into the Willamette ensuring fishing vessels and recreational vessels were out of the way of the large 14 RESERVIST � Issue 3 • 2022 ships heading upriver. Our tasking also included staffing a 24- hour tactical action officer watch. The TAO watch was located at the waterfront, and Portland Fire and Rescue allowed us to use their state-of-the-art mobile command center. From there, the TAOs were responsible for coordinating and authorizing vessel transit through the security zone, coordinated the removal of non-compliant vessels, and kept in regular contact with the incident commander. While the TAOs were running the security zone, the boat crews were delivering K-9 teams to conduct tug and barge sweeps, assisting Multnomah County Sheriff marine units clear the zone, and responding to any life safety issues in or near the security zone. Although there were some curve balls thrown by the introduction of protestors at the festival, our reservists remained flexible, providing shoreside security, VIP escort, and access control. Our reservists have civilian jobs as police officers, firefighters, port security specialists and executive protection professionals, so their depth of experience helped us identify problems, recommend courses of action, and work to respond to any threats calmly and professionally. As the ADT period concluded, the crew was tired but still stoked regarding their participation and performance in the success of the mission. We performed as a force multiplier, using our depth of operational experience to provide accurate recommendations, conduct training, and earn new qualifications. As we walked out of the station, having packed up our gear and moved back into our civilian lives, we were proud to have represented our command and the Coast Guard Reserve through professional threat response and operational capability. � Michael C or onado Monsoor
