“Midrats” is a one hour, weekly blogradio talk show that addresses primarily naval topics. Sometimes the topics are Coast Guard related. (Episode 39 was an interview with Cdr. Westfall, then CO of the Escanaba, and the topic was the Coast Guard and Counter-Narcotics.)
This Sunday, Sept. 9, the hosts will interview Brigadier General Donald A. McGregor, the Deputy Director of Operations for Domestic Operations, Headquarters, United States Northern Command (NORTHCOM).
Because the Coast Guard has an on-going relationship with NORTHCOM for counter drug ops, disaster response, counter terrorism, and contingency planning, some of you might find it interesting. In addition there are opportunities to put questions before the guest.
The Sunday’s show will be titled Episode 140: NORTHCOM and Disaster Response.
To listen, clicking here on Sunday at 5pm (Eastern U.S.) or if you miss the live show, you can find it and previous episodes here or on iTunes.
Chuck Hill's CG Blog 
Chuck I saw this article today http://news.yahoo.com/feds-cant-catch-cartels-cocaine-filled-submarines-010821526.html and it comes to mind that we once had the ability to track and deal with submarines, up till the 378’s were FRAM’ed. I served in Chase for three years during the early 80’s and we tracked subs both foreign and domestic regularly according to the ST’s which of course we also no longer have.
Its no longer just about drug interdiction, it goes to a much greater threat than that. Equally unbelieveable is that the Navy has built three LCS to date that still lack a ASW suite. Recently it was in the press that a Russian sub operated for two weeks in the Gulf of Mexico without detection until a month later from other sources. These facts do not build conficence in our maritime domestic security in the littorals.
To your original articles point this is certainly something NORTHCOM could address!
A couple of things you should know.
The Navy is beginning to buy towed arrays for at least some of the LCS.
The report of the Russian submarine in the Gulf of Mexico turned out to be bogus.
Still there is plenty of reason to consider adding at least a towed array to at least some of the larger cutters, and preparing them to operate ASW helicopters.
They have the potential to help find both true drug subs and self propelled semi-submersibles that are otherwise difficult to locate, and
The submarine threat that seemed to have disappeared when the Soviet Union collapsed is returning. The Chinese now have the largest sub fleet in the Pacific and it is getting better all the time. Less of a concern, but there are also lots of other potential submarine operators that might some day be unfriendly.