Quote:
Originally Posted by Anaraxes
The Coast Guard does have personnel with (US Army) sniper training. They operate with the "HITRON" (Helicopter Interdiction Tactical Squadron) unit based out of Jacksonville, FL, mostly in drug interdiction. There are also "Precision Marksman/Observer Teams" (PMOT), which are part of their Maritime Security Response Teams. Those would be available out of Boston, if needed.
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Boston is 103 miles away from Jewell Island. Their response time would then be determined by how fast someone in authority could make the call that this situation merited such an extreme response,* plus the 30 minutes to two hours needed to prepare a helicopter or fast response boat for a night mission and gather a tactical force and the time it takes to travel 103 miles by the chosen means of transport.
Of course, the problem is that if the radio distress call was a stupid prank by an unusually well-informed prankster,
any kind of immediate response on a Friday night is really too much, as the guard force on the island can deal with its own radio problems and the bored investigators who need to investigate the computer crime can visit the island on Monday, when the work week starts.
On the other hand, if Special Agent O'Toole was telling the truth about the guards themselves, under the command of the Warden, having attacked federal agents, kidnapped and tortured one (who is urgently in need of emergency medical assistance) and may have kidnapped or killed another federal agent, a single helicopter would be an ineffective response.
If the distress call was essentially truthful, there is probably a hostage crisis on the island, with potential hostages numbering around 45-50 (most of them criminally insane mental patients, which is its own kind of security challenge) and the OpFor is essentially a paramilitary platoon emplaced in a strong position, with heavy weapons support and small unit tactical equipment that matches top-of-the-line 1995-2000 US armed forces load-outs.
Responding with any force which does not have at least numerical parity, armed air support and heavy weapons of its own would be suicidal and as likely to harm hostages as help them. A really adequate response force to the situation as described in the distress call would probably number over 40 tactical operators, several helicopters, at least two armed boats or cutters and support elements, including logistics, medical and psychological suites, of at least as many again.
How long to put together something like that from Boston, Air Station Cape Cod, Portsmouth, NH, and the local Coast Guard stations in Maine, such as Kittery, Rockland, South Portland and whatever others may apply?
*Remember, after the initial radio distress call by Special Agent O'Toole, which contained limited, if alarming, information, the Coast Guard has not been able to reach anyone on Jewell Island by radio. Calling the Manhanock Asylum for the Criminally Insane or the number for the mothballed Coast Guard facility on the island (still minimally serviced by Coast Guard reservists or Auxiliaries among the guard force) will probably result in the Warden or someone working for him answering, however. And they are unlikely to admit that they kidnapped a federal agent or two and attacked some others. They'll probably make up some story about a prank and/or 'hackers' messing with their radio equipment.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Anaraxes
Taking the word "sharpshooter" literally, they do have a markmanship course where high scores earn you a Sharpshooter or (better) Expert marksman ribbon. Graduates of this course are probably more common than the specialized anti-terrorism units. It's a skill in addition to your regular job, rather than a full-time task like the units in the first paragraph, so I'd think a GM could get away with assigning a decent rifle skill to a Coastie as needed.
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I will certainly be arguing to my GM* that one or two of the crew of the nearest Coast Guard Vessel should be decent rifle shots and that even an unarmed coastal buoy cutter might carry an M14 Tactical rifle or two.
Unfortunately, the flip side of that is that I'll be making the case that out of 8-10 former Coast Guard among the guard force, most of whom were Boarding Team Members in their service and at least half of whom now belong to a private security SRT with special law-enforcement privileges due to being commanded and partially manned by part-time federal law enforcement officers, there will probably be at least one and maybe more people who are even better shots.
After all, the bulk of the guard force is composed of people who were already on Jewell Island at the end of the 20th century, back when the Coastie and Army contingents on the island were guarding an ultra-secret DoD black site where you needed a TS-SCI clearance to even know it was there and unauthorised personnel were shot on sight.
Twenty years later, probably none of them are in the same kind of shape that they were as twenty-two to thirty-five-year-old ratings/enlisted chosen for sensitive guard duty which demanded the most trusted men, able and willing to shoot intruders, but it's not like age 39-55 is too old to retain shooting skill. Especially if you make some effort to maintain it. And the Jewell Island SRT might have grown into a lazy, entitled group of undisciplined rabble as their commander slowly grew more insane, but I've got a sneaking suspicion that his insanity took the form of increasingly frequent and elaborate training drills, not their abolition. And as he's been stockpiling survivalist equipment worth at least several tens of thousands of dollars, I'm going to guess he bought pallets of ammo as well, so the guards might well have been enthusiastic range shooters in their copious off time.
*My role, in addition to player, is Assistant GM for research assistance, background, worldbuilding, plausibility, consistency and GURPS-rules compliance.