Port Angeles Coast Guard first to arm helicopters

Coast Guard Air Station Port Angeles, the first Dolphin HH-65 helicopter unit in the nation to arm its helicopters, has completed its final training tests, CG District 13 headquarters announced.

The enhanced use of deadly force stems from demands for increased security after 9/11 to protect potential terror targets like bridges, ports and waterways, with large groups of people, after 9/11, the Coast Guard said in a press release. The helicopter's guns will not be used in routine law enforcement missions, Coast Guard officials said.

The Port Angeles aircrews who completed their final training tests last Thursday are "hand-selected, highly trained indivicuals specifically chosen for their maturity, judgement and sound decision making skills," the Coast Guard said in a press release.

The Coast Guard adds its aviation wing to the armed boats, cutters and maritime security boarding teams it already has.

Local Coast Guard officials said the Port Angeles air station crews have been conducting extensive land-based and open-ocean firing range training and hostile-boat intercept maneuvering drills since the initial phase of training began in the spring of 2008.

That was when the air station received upgraded MH-65C helicopters outfitted with M-14T rifles and M-240 machine guns.

By the way, you can download and watch a Coast Guard video of these aircrews in action, as an Astoria, Ore. MH-60 crew medevacks a sailor off of an unnamed, moving Navy submarine off the Washington Coast last Wednesday.