Twenty-five years ago in response to the 9/11 terror attacks, America’s mariners, long accustomed to operating quietly as a critical backbone of our nation’s economy, answered the Coast Guard’s call for “all available boats” to make their way to Lower Manhattan to assist with rescue efforts. 

The mariners who responded that day were typical hardworking men and women who, up until those fateful moments, had been going about their daily work moving America’s waterborne commerce, continuing the life-sustaining work of generations of American mariners before them since our nation’s founding 250 years ago. 

Acting without hesitation despite the uncertainty of what might come next, these 9/11 mariners worked tirelessly alongside the Coast Guard to transport 500,000 people to safety, resulting in the largest maritime evacuation in history and surpassing even the number of Allied soldiers rescued during the “Miracle of Dunkirk” in World War II.

What became known as the 9/11 Boatlift was an extraordinary, and highly visible, moment of partnership between the Coast Guard and the U.S. maritime industry, but that shared commitment to keeping people safe and our waterways secure did not end there. The same spirit of partnership that animated that historic maritime rescue effort has endured ever since, and through today has served as the foundation for cooperation that, while less visible to the public than the events of 9/11, has been vital to our homeland security in an increasingly dangerous world.

In the weeks after the attacks, the domestic maritime industry and Coast Guard came together to develop a Model Vessel Security Plan to protect barges and towing vessels from terrorist attack and prevent them from being used for nefarious ends, a full year before Congress mandated the development of such plans through the Maritime Transportation Security Act of 2002. 

Industry and the Coast Guard continue to build on this track record of security cooperation as threats to our nation’s inland and coastal waterways and infrastructure evolve.

And evolve they have. In the intervening years, threats to the Marine Transportation System have expanded well beyond physical attacks. Cyberattacks on our nation’s domestic maritime assets have steadily grown in frequency and sophistication, and bad actors continue to acquire new, formidable capabilities in this area. 

The Coast Guard and the U.S. maritime industry have been longtime partners in navigating the cyber threat environment, and those efforts continue today to implement newly crafted maritime cybersecurity regulations on incident reporting, training and security plan development.

The Coast Guard and the maritime industry joined forces to keep our waterways safe and secure, and their efforts have been enhanced not only by continuous assessment of evolving threats but also by a shared commitment to forging a strong industry safety culture that protects people and our waterways, whether in times of calm or crisis. 

Founded in 1995, the Coast Guard-American Waterways Operators Quality Partnership has been a driving force for strides in maritime safety, from the collaborative development of federal Subchapter M towing vessel safety regulations to steady reductions in operational fatalities and pollution incidents, and much more.  

At the heart of the Coast Guard’s and industry’s cooperative endeavors to keep our people and our nation safe—whether during the catastrophe of 9/11, or in wheelhouses, on decks and around conference tables in the years since—has been the tenacity, ingenuity and selflessness of the American mariners who navigate our waterways, day and night, through all manner of challenging conditions. 

Working alongside our brave Coast Guard personnel, the mariners who came to the aid of so many on September 11, 2001, brought those qualities to bear in force that day. May we continue to be guided and inspired by their example.

James Loy served as the 21st commandant of the U.S. Coast Guard from 1998-2002 and subsequently as deputy secretary of Homeland Security. Jennifer Carpenter is president and CEO of the American Waterways Operators. They wrote this for www.InsideSources.com.