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Tailored Annual Cutter Training: the broom pennant By Petty Officer 2nd Class Teresa Knapp, USCGC Gallatin MAYPORT, Fla. - Proud smiles were worn by all on the Coast Guard Cutter Gallatin as the ship pulled out of Mayport Naval Base in Florida last month. Flying high overhead on the foremast was the ship’s first symbol of the "clean sweep" they had just earned at the 2005 Tailored Annual Cutter Training (TACT). It was a fresh straw broom with a wooden handle. The commanding officer of the cutter Gallatin, Capt. Michael Parks, stated the broom is long-standing tradition in the Coast Guard. He first learned of this tradition as an ensign on his first cutter. A borrowed tradition from the U.S. Navy, it began during World War II. The broom, usually tied to the periscope, indicated a submarine had completed a successful war patrol. Today in the Navy, the broom is used to signify that a unit has achieved the minimum percentage-based retention goal set forth for at least two fiscal-year quarters. The tradition is now used in the Coast Guard as an indication that a cutter has successfully earned a clean sweep of all exercises at TACT, thus also earning it the coveted Battle ‘E’ (expert) Award.
Petty Officer 3rd Class Joseph Shipley, hauled up the broom.
“The tradition was passed down to me from my chief boatswain's mate and my chief quartermaster when I was a non-rate on the Coast Guard Cutter Dependable,” Shipley said. “The broom is to be hung from the highest visible yardarm and is to stay there from the time the Battle ‘E’ is earned through the night, and it is hauled down once the cutter has passed through the jetties on its way to sea.”
Shipley went on to explain that upon returning to homeport, the broom is hauled up again to show family and friends waiting at the pier, the ship’s proud accomplishment. It is then brought back down shortly before “Quarters”, initialed by each member of the crew and given to the captain as a trophy of the ship’s success at TACT. The Gallatin’s crew accomplished the clean sweep at TACT and earned the Battle ‘E’ for the first time in more then four years. Captain Parks explained that only about one-third of the cutters that participate in TACT average above the 80 percent required to achieve a clean sweep. It is difficult for units to complete all required shipboard training requirements such as gunnery exercises due to mechanical casualties. Parks went on to stress that it is most important to ask what could have been done to make the training process better, instead of focusing on scores or grades. The emphasis must also be on making the training teams more efficient at training the cutter and its crew, he said. “TACT is focused training to develop shipboard training teams with the help of outside expertise,” said Parks. “It’s dedicated time that we rarely get, for experts to assess what we do.” -uscg- |
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