By ANN Correspondent Rob Milford

We think of Coast Guard Aviation in their brilliant White and Orange paint scheme, using a variety of aircraft, some unique to the service, which is now part of the Department of Homeland Security.

They are known as lifesavers. From the air station at Opa Locka, Florida "The World's Busiest" to long-range search and rescue bases on both coasts with C-130's, plus their North Atlantic Iceberg search, they've been in the air for more than 80 years. Yet, for the first time in peacetime, the "Coasties" are flying armed aircraft on routine patrol on drug interdiction missions.

The first squadron is based at Cecil Field, west of Jacksonville, and is the only U.S. unit flying the MH-68A "Stingray". Civilians would know the aircraft as the Augusta A-109E. About 140 total aircraft are now operating in the U.S. Built in Philadelphia, the 8 Stingrays operate as single ship detachments on Coast Guard Cutters operating in the Gulf of Mexico and the eastern Pacific.

What you notice first is that the officers and the flight crew are all armed. Not just with M-9 pistols, but M-16's and the M-240 belt-fed 7.62mm machinegun. There's even a .50 caliber bolt-action rifle. They're also wearing bulletproof vests. They're on static display in the shadow of the Wright Monument atop Kill Devil Hill. These are serious guys.

Lt.(JG) Mike Salemi is one of the young hard-chargers who is effecting a sea-change in Coast Guard operations. A former Army W-2 spent six years flying the OH-58 Kiowa-Warrior with the 10th Mountain Division. His command pilot today is being media-shy, but we learn that he spent his Army years driving an AH-64 Apache. Between the two of them, they have been there and done that when people start shooting, including the two gunners who work from the back end of the aircraft. Billy Greer and Leroy Skinner have completed aerial gunnery school, but continue to wear the Naval aircrew wings, not the gunnery wings worn by so many men during WW II who crewed on B-17's and B-24's.

Salemi (call sign "Nitz") says the arming of their helos was the next step in counter-drug operations AND homeland security. "it's part of Operation New Frontier" he says "And we haven't seen a target yet that we can't stop!"

I ask about what makes the MH-68A , uh, "different".  "We have a satcom, a loud hailer, GPS-INS and a FLIR, 2 MFD's for the pilots, and unlike any other Coast Guard aircraft, the bottom of our choppers is painted black. Makes it harder for the bad guys to see you at night!"

And about the handling and flight characteristics of the Stingray?

"Comparing it with the OH-58, it's not as maneuverable…but there's a lot more power. We like having two engines when we get 50 or 75 miles away from the cutter!"

Not everyone in the Coast Guard is in favor of the arming of their aircraft. Other places in the flight establishment look down their nose at "HITRON"(Helicopter Interdiction Squadron), some saying that they didn't join the Coast Guard to shoot people. However, Admiral Vivian Crea, the commander of the First District, encompassing all of New England from Maine to New Jersey, knew Lt. Salemi when she walked up to the aircraft on Tuesday afternoon…knew that he was being transferred to CGAS Cape Cod, where their HH-60J's will be armed during 2004. The Admiral knows her way around a cockpit, too, having earned her wings in 1976, and spending lots of time in the front seats on C-130's, H-65's and the Coast Guards' sole VC-11.

Salemi tells ANN "The leadership wants this change, and at Hitron, we know it works in stopping drug shipments, and protecting the nation. It's simply a matter of time to get that message through all of Coast Guard aviation."

FMI: www.uscg.mil