In the wee-morning hours after the Deepwater Horizon exploded, a Coast Guard rescue helicopter being dispatched to pluck oil rig survivors floating in the fire-engulfed waters could not launch because its hoist was broken.
The crew of the 25-year-old chopper was forced to switch to another aircraft, costing it 38 minutes at a time when the Coast Guard was trying to evacuate the wounded and search for missing workers who leapt into the Gulf Mexico to escape the fiery oil platform on the night of April 20.
After the Haiti quake, two cutters were in such bad mechanical shape they had to return to the U.S.
It's a situation that has been in the making for years, according to documents and interviews. The Coast Guard's multibillion-dollar effort to modernize its fleet was mismanaged by the Coast Guard and contractors during the Bush administration, leaving it without most of the new equipment it paid for.
And recent budget cuts have only added to the worries that the service may be unable to complete its mission. The Guard's outgoing commandant warned just two months before the BP accident that the Coast Guard risks being a "hollow force" if its fleet isn't updated soon.
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