and contingency operating bases located around Iraq and Afghanistan. RAID teams generally travelled to these sites by aircraft such as Black Hawk and Chinook helicopters, and C-17 and C-130 transport aircraft. Occasionally, RAID members joined land convoys that moved between posts. In the end, RAID personnel collectively logged 35,000 miles per year, and in many locations, the men and women of RAID were often exposed to hostile fire. RAID personnel were carefully selected for this demanding work. The members were drawn from the ranks of senior Coast Guard reservists, often law enforcement or response veterans in the civilian sector. Boatswain mates and machinery technicians predominated at first, but eventually the teams included nearly every rating, especially electronics technicians, storekeepers and yeomen. Toward the end of the RAID mission, high- performing active-duty personnel were added. Members attended a considerable amount of predeployment training. They first attended preparatory weapons and force protection training. They also did a month of intensive combat training and theater orientation at Fort Dix, N.J., conducted by experienced soldiers. Later teams received training on the reconfigurable vehicle tactical trainer, which simulated the detonation of a roadside bomb. In the meantime, all personnel acquired the qualifications required of Coast Guard inspectors. RAID members normally arrived first in Kuwait, where they conducted inspections at Camps Arifjan, Buehring, and Patriot under the Army’s 595th Transportation Brigade. After this initial stop, they rotated forward. RAID members were often jokingly asked about what coastlines they were guarding or what naval forces they were supporting, but, as RAID’s activities gained visibility, it increasingly became a respected part of the war effort. All RAID members were volunteers, and the unit’s esprit de corps was high. While enhanced pay, priority selection for future assignments, and a rest and relaxation trip to anywhere in the world were among the incentives offered by the Coast Guard, most personnel wanted to do their part by supporting troops in the combat zone. At first, RAID teams had as few as five members. But eventually 32 members were associated with overlapping teams of 17 (15 enlisted, two officers) incoming or outgoing. The standard deployments were a year of active duty with nine months in-country. There was never a lack of volunteers, as only a tenth of the applicants were selected for the dozen-and-a-half RAID teams deployed to CENTCOM. During their off-duty hours, RAID personnel volunteered to tend wounded servicemen in base hospital emergency rooms, teach English to local children, and staff the USO’s entertainment centers. They left a large footprint wherever they went. And they brought back reminders of their mission, such as RAID’s Humvee Eleanor II, shipped out of Afghanistan for the stateside Coast Guard Museum in Connecticut where it will be displayed in quiet tribute. The Coast Guard maintained the RAID deployment until May 2015, when all of the personnel returned stateside, usually highly decorated. The Combat Action Badge and the Bronze Star Medals were given to those who had come under explosive device and small arms fire attack from Iraqi and Afghani insurgents. In the field, far from a major body of water, RAID teams were often the only Coast Guardsmen that Americans and coalition forces might see. These personnel proudly represented their branch by serving as its “tip of the spear” in a combat theater of operations. They facilitated the entry and exit of cargo to and from the theaters of operation for America’s longest conflict. They held unique certifications, skills and expertise in moving military equipment onto trucks and then onto Military Sealift Command vessels or the Air Forces Air Mobility Command aircraft. The contributions of the RAID teams will add to the lore of the Coast Guard to be marveled at by generations to come. � Editor’s note: Dr. Kent G. Sieg retired from the Coast Guard as a lieutenant commander after serving at numerous assignments, including a deployment to the Middle East. Members of the Coast Guard's Redeployment Assistance Inspection Detachment (RAID) display their uniform patches March 29, 2004. From left, Master Chief Petty Officer Paul Pomroy, Lt. j.g. Dean Horton, Chief Warrant Officer John Simpson, Master Chief Petty Officer C. Lee Haynes, and Chief Petty Officer Ray Spawn. The mission of the RAID teams is to ensure the containers that are packed and loaded in Iraq and Kuwait are safe to be shipped to the U.S. Their primary goal was to ensure the proper loading of hazardous material such as acetylene, oxygen, fire extinguishers, batteries, radioactive instruments, fuel, etc., and that each container is properly labeled. During an average week the RAID assisted 149 Army units, inspected 435 containers and 259 pieces of rolling stock such as tanks, trucks and armored personnel carriers. Photo by Petty Officer 1st Class Matthew Belson Issue 3 • 2021 � RESERVIST 39
