An internal review by the Coast Guard has found that a training exercise conducted on the Potomac on Sept. 11 was “ill-advised,” although no policies were violated.
The Associated Press obtained a copy of the review, which said the commander of the Coast Guard unit that performed the exercise “considered the significance of 9/11 before approving response readiness training on that date and determined it was an opportunity to pay respect to those tragically lost.”
The commander and others will receive “appropriate administrative counseling,” according to the review.
The routine training exercise led to frantic news reports that the Coast Guard had fired on a suspicious vessel close to the Pentagon, where the President had attended a memorial service.
CNN was the first to report, based on information from police scanners, that shots had been fired. But in reality, no shots had been heard over the scanner — only a participant shouting, “Bang bang bang!” Other news organizations soon picked up the story.
According to the AP, “FBI agents rushed to the scene; the Coast Guard ordered one of its helicopters based at Reagan National Airport to fly over the river to investigate the reports of shots, and the FAA grounded 17 flights departing from the airport, which is located on the Potomac.”
The review, conducted by Vice Admiral Robert J. Papp, commander of the Coast Guard Atlantic area, found that the unit conducting the exercise didn’t know the President would be in the area, and would have re-scheduled had it been aware.
Papp determined the unit “followed standard police and practices,” but “the decision to conduct training on that morning in the selected training area was ill-advised.”
Papp also found it was ill-advised to continue the exercise even after the Coast Guard began receiving inquiries about shots fired.
He noted that starting next year, the Coast Guard will use scrambled transmissions for its training exercises. He also said that in the future, the Guard will provide training schedules to other law enforcement agencies.
