Enclosure (1) to COMDTINST 4000.5A
determine the Coast Guard's missions and provide funds. The Commandant and
Coast Guard Headquarters Staff interact with the Executive and Legislative
Branches to obtain strategic direction and funds. In dealing with the President,
the Coast Guard works through the Secretary of Transportation and Office of
Management and Budget. In this democratic process, Coast Guard funding and
missions are influenced by external factors such as political and environmental
concerns.
B. Macro View of the Coast Guard. To accomplish its many missions, the Coast
Guard has evolved into a large, complex organization. To understand the Coast
Guard, we divide it into four major functional elements:
1. Strategic level (Commandant and Leadership Council). This level provides
direction on organizational goals and priorities, and on allocation of
appropriated funds. They work directly with the President, Office of the
Secretary of Transportation, Office of Management and Budget, Congress,
and other Executive and Legislative Branch elements to set Coast Guard
strategic and performance goals.
2. Operations support. Operations support receives direction on goals and
priorities from the strategic level and provides mission guidance to operating
units. Operations support also identifies required mission capabilities. G-O,
G-M, Area and District commands perform this role. Area and Districts are
also the operational chain of command for operating units.
3. Logistics support. Logistics support receives direction from the strategic
level and uses logistics funds to produce and deliver logistics capabilities
(e.g., people, infrastructure, and information) to operating units, which
complete assigned missions. G-A, G-CFP, G-S, G-W, Headquarters units,
Maintenance and Logistics Commands, and their sub-units provide
capabilities to operating units. Limited logistics support is also provided by
Areas and Districts. The operating units accomplish local logistics support
internally.
4. Operating units. The operating unit is where mission assignments and
logistics capabilities come together so day-to-day operations can take place.
Operating units need both logistics capabilities delivered by logistics support
elements and mission direction from the operations support elements to
perform their missions.
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