Inside the Department of Homeland Security's Marine Program

By Jackelyn Barnard First Coast News

BRUNSWICK, GA -- As the sun sets in Brunswick, the Emerald Princess floating casino gets ready to set sail. For a group of men and women nearby, it's time for some last minute instructions.

"Everybody wants to run to the fight to help but remember you still have your responsibility," an instructor tells the group.

The group is part of an elite class responsible for keeping U.S. waterways safe. The class is from FLETC or the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center.

The group is learning to be the best of the best on the high seas and they do it with a fleet of vessels that belong to the Department of Homeland Security. Everyone from Immigration and Customs to the Secret Service trains on the fleet.

"What we're doing is training them on how to defend against any type of vessel that would be coming into a secure area," says Ringan Doty, the branch chief of the marine training branch at FLETC.

Before Doty came to FLETC to teach federal agents, he was secret service protecting Presidents Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan. These days, Doty is making sure you, our ports and our waterways are protected. "The waterways are wide open. We feel if any attack were to come.... the country is so porous as far as the water... we're surrounded by water on three sides," says Doty.

He says no one federal agency can protect the entire coastline. So, dozens of federal agencies train.

His latest marine class is made up of those from the NCIS and the U.S. Navy.

The group already has experience operating boats. What the advanced class does is teach them to recognize terrorist targets and how to handle them.

The class is so hard, some will pass and some will fail. "There is a plan and the students will be exposed to that plan very quickly and will be forced to react," says Doty.

It's hands on training right on the open water. The job on this particular night is to protect the Emerald Princess Casino which is leaving the Brunswick River for international waters.

Those on board the floating casino know about the training.

Out on the open sea are good guys and bad guys. The good guys have a handful of boats and are in zones, surrounding the Emerald Princess, in order to keep the ship protected from every angle.

There are two boats out here full of bad guys. All on board are FLETC marine instructors. At any given moment, the bad guys can come from out of nowhere.

"It puts them in an extremely stressful situation where they are forced to react and hopefully react in the right way. If not, that's why they call it training we'll start all over and get them to perform in the correct manner," says Doty.

The bad guys move fast, zig zagging in and out trying to get to the Emerald Princess.

For hours, instructors test their students' skills. The goal for the good guys is to keep the bad guys out of their zone. They basically take up space and keep moving the bad guys out.

"They've been doing really pretty good. The seas are a little rough for them so it's difficult to handle the boat, plus they're doing some high speed close maneuvers. They've got to be really aware of what their capabilities are," says Doty.

For security reasons, we were not allowed to see all tactics. The ones we did see got the Emerald Princess out to sea safe and sound. While the group of students passed their test in keeping you safe.

FLETC teaches the BOAT program four times a year.

Last year, more than 50,000 federal agents and police officers came to FLETC for some sort of training.

Wednesday night at 11pm, First Coast News gives you a sneak peak at FLETC's newest training tool. It is worth more than five million dollars.

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