Class, During this week’s lesson, we learned about two different type of details.  Covert details are designed to blend in with the surrounding environment.  Vehicle selection begins with utilizing vehicles that are commonly found in the city, state, or country the principal will be traveling in.  Sending out a decoy motorcade to divert attention away from the actual principal is one common tactic found within a covert detail (McGovern, 2011).  The positives with utilizing this detail ensures the principal is able to move around discreetly with as little to no details made available to the adversary. Swapping vehicles multiple times is another way in which the protection team can keep the adversary in a reactive state to ensure maximum protection without broadcasting to everyone the principal is on the move.  The cons to this type of detail involves the actual principal not agreeing with the vehicle choice he or she may be traveling in.  Consistent threat updates and communication with the counter surveillance teams will help minimize the amount of exposure or risk to the principal.  An additional area of concern for the covert detail is the strict compliance of Operational Security as we learned in the last lesson. One small detail that is leaked to the public about the principal may tip off the entire covert operation (McGovern, 2011).  I would utilize a covert detail when making a visit to higher threat area.  For example, when I was deployed to Afghanistan the Secretary of Defense at the time flew into the country in what seemed to be unannounced.  Little did I know prior to taking this class this was called a “covert detail.”  By design the secret service detail did not want anyone to know he was flying in and thus landed in the middle of the night unannounced to “most”. An overt detail is the exact opposite.  During an overt operation a lot more, details are made available outside the protection team.  Public Affairs office and media teams have more situational awareness on when the principal is to arrive at least down to the day and sometimes the hour.  The planned itinerary is made available to more personnel.  Especially when there may be a planned speech to be given at a specific location at a specific time.  I feel this makes the job of the protection team much more difficult.  The counter-surveillance team has a lot more responsibility to ensure the information that is made available to the public is not used to plan a coordinated attack.  The cons to this type of detail include additional manpower and resources to “lock-down” a specific area more because the public is more in tuned to what and when is exactly going to occur. Nick McGovern, G. (2011). Protective Operations: A Handbook for Security and Law Enforcement.  Retrieved from http://web.b.ebscohost.com.ezproxy1.apus.edu/ehost/ebookviewer/ebook?sid=71c2fbb7-974b-41b6-9700-7db9e5cf88e6%40pdc-v-sessmgr01&ppid=pp_Cover&vid=0&format=EB Hello class, Overt and covert operati ...

1. Class,
During this week’s lesson, we learned about two different type
of details. Covert details are designed to blend in with the
surrounding environment. Vehicle selection begins with
utilizing vehicles that are commonly found in the city, state, or
country the principal will be traveling in. Sending out a decoy
motorcade to divert attention away from the actual principal is
one common tactic found within a covert detail (McGovern,
2011). The positives with utilizing this detail ensures the
principal is able to move around discreetly with as little to no
details made available to the adversary. Swapping vehicles
multiple times is another way in which the protection team can
keep the adversary in a reactive state to ensure maximum
protection without broadcasting to everyone the principal is on
the move. The cons to this type of detail involves the actual
principal not agreeing with the vehicle choice he or she may be
traveling in. Consistent threat updates and communication with
the counter surveillance teams will help minimize the amount of
exposure or risk to the principal. An additional area of concern
for the covert detail is the strict compliance of Operational
Security as we learned in the last lesson. One small detail that
is leaked to the public about the principal may tip off the entire
covert operation (McGovern, 2011). I would utilize a covert
detail when making a visit to higher threat area. For example,
when I was deployed to Afghanistan the Secretary of Defense at
the time flew into the country in what seemed to be
unannounced. Little did I know prior to taking this class this
was called a “covert detail.” By design the secret service detail
did not want anyone to know he was flying in and thus landed in
the middle of the night unannounced to “most”.
An overt detail is the exact opposite. During an overt operation
a lot more, details are made available outside the protection
team. Public Affairs office and media teams have more

2. situational awareness on when the principal is to arrive at least
down to the day and sometimes the hour. The planned itinerary
is made available to more personnel. Especially when there
may be a planned speech to be given at a specific location at a
specific time. I feel this makes the job of the protection team
much more difficult. The counter-surveillance team has a lot
more responsibility to ensure the information that is made
available to the public is not used to plan a coordinated attack.
The cons to this type of detail include additional manpower and
resources to “lock-down” a specific area more because the
public is more in tuned to what and when is exactly going to
occur.
Nick
McGovern, G. (2011). Protective Operations: A Handbook for
Security and Law Enforcement. Retrieved from
http://web.b.ebscohost.com.ezproxy1.apus.edu/ehost/ebookview
er/ebook?sid=71c2fbb7-974b-41b6-9700-7db9e5cf88e6%40pdc-
v-sessmgr01&ppid=pp_Cover&vid=0&format=EB
Hello class,
Overt and covert operations are strategies that can be used
depending upon the situation the protective detail finds
themselves in. Starting with covert details, this type of
operation requires the personal protective detail to draw as little
attention to themselves as they possibly can and blend in to the
public. On page 130 of the Protective Operations textbook, the
author states "if an organization is going to make the effort to
run a protective operation in a covert manner, then they must
deploy some subterfuge and guile thereby avoiding a pattern".
This type of detail can be used to transport a principal whos life
is believed to be in serious or immediate danger, to avoid
media/public attention, or to conceal where they may be
traveling to.

3. Overt operations are the opposite of covert; is it out in the open,
with much of the information about the principal such as where
they will be, what times they will be there and who they will be
traveling with are widely available. A good example of an overt
operation could be a law enforcement escort of a president to
give a speech at a designated location. One example of a
disadvantage of a covert operation is the attention it can draw
from witnesses. Motorcades that use all vehicles with tinted
windows will hide the location of the principal, but at the same
time it will look suspicious to random people passing by
(McGovern, 2011). Knowing the appropriate time to use each of
these strategies for a protective detail will make a big
difference in the execution of the operation.
-Trevor
Good day, Professor and Class;
For our first discussion, the first part of the discussion is
to explain the key elements of the GTS, including the methods,
intermodal connection, and impact. According to the lesson, the
Global Transportation System contains air transportation which
transports air cargo, land transportation, rail transportation, and
Maritime Transportation (MTS). The MTS includes many
elements such as 25,000 miles of navigable channels, 250 locks,
3500 marine terminals, thousands of recreational marines, and
the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Seaway (DOT, 2021). The
MTS focuses mainly on transporting freight because of the cost
and effectiveness to move a large amount of freight for long-
distances. The advancement in mineral and energy trades
enriched the maritime transportation mode. The comparative
advantage had a role to play in the growth of maritime
transportation and add to that the technology improvement in
the cargo ships engines and terminals. The MTS has the ability
to connect countries and nations from different continents due
to the intermodal connections it creates, which are connection

4. points for changes in the mode of transportations (HSDL,
2008).
Due to the connections seaports create, seaports have both
direct and indirect effects on the economy. Seaports contribute
to the growth of the job market and also to the growth of the
regional products. As stated above, maritime transportation is
cost-effective, and it creates activities in the ports (Jugovic,
2021).
Because maritime transportation transports over 90% of global
trade and 99% of the U.S trade, any disruption to maritime
transportation would be devastating. The maritime
transportation industry is responsible for about 23 million jobs
in the U.S (Wendler-Bosco & Nicholson, 20189and creates
about $4.5 of revenue directly and indirectly. Any disruption to
maritime transportation will have implacable economic and
security effects.
The Maritime Transportation Security Act of 2002 developed
port-level security plans and security strategies by conducting
inspections on the security plans and increased the security of
pots by mandating the use of access cards to ensure only
authorized personnel has access. The MTSA also allowed for
the screening of vessel crew and vessel escorting and boarding,
making the vessel more secure (Gasperetti, 2018).
References
Department of Transportation. (2021). Maritime Transportation
System
(MTS). https://www.maritime.dot.gov/outreach/maritime-
transportation-system-mts/maritime-transportation-system-mts
Department of Homeland Security. (2008). National Strategy for
the Marine Transportation System: A Framework for Action.
Department of Homeland Security Digital
Library. https://www.hsdl.org
Jugovic, A. (2021). Journal of Marine Science and Engineering.
Marine Science and
Engineering. https://www.mdpi.com/journal/jmse/special_issues

5. /transport_management
Wendler-Bosco, V., & Nicholson, C. (2019). Port disruption
impact on the maritime supply chain: a literature review.
Sustainable and Resilient Infrastructure, 5(6), 378–
394. https://doi.org/10.1080/23789689.2019.1600961
Gasperetti, B. (2018, February 9). Security Since 9/11:
Creating the Maritime Transportation Security Act and the ISPS
Code - Homeland Security Today. Homeland Security Today.
https://www.hstoday.us/uncategorized/security-since-9-11-
creating-maritime-transportation-security-act-isps-code/
The Global Transportation System (GTS) includes a maritime
component. Explain the key elements of this mode of
transportation to include methods, intermodal connections and
impact.
Our maritime system in the United States is so vast that it is
truly hard to envision. It covers waterways and ports, that also
consists of channels, locks, marine terminals, marinas, along
with the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Seaway (Department of
Transportation, 2019). All of these elements coordinate with
almost 175 thousand miles of railways in the US, Canada and
Mexico. They also coordinate with 45 thousand miles of
highways and 115 thousand miles of supporting roads
(Department of Transportation, 2019). According to the DOT
(2019), there are “1400 designated intermodal connections” (p.
1), which basically lets freight or people use more than one
method of transportation to get where it, or they, need to be.
For example, freight make come to the US on a shipping vessel,
then it may be moved to a train or an airplane for its final
destination. Almost 100% of global shipping is done by the
waterways in the US, therefore, it is vital to the economy that
global shipping continues to prosper and runs smoothly and
efficiently, while also maintaining top security for the cargo

6. that arrives in our nation. The efficiency and security of
maritime transportation falls to the Department of
Transportation, under the Maritime Administration, or MARAD,
as it is widely known (Department of Transportation, 2019).
What is the impact of a disruption?
With almost 100% of incoming cargo being through the
waterways, a disruption of this would have significant up to
catastrophic impacts to our nation’s resources and also to the
economy. Post disaster situations could be dire for the affected
communities if the ports were disabled or disrupted. Things
such as food, water, tarps, health and medical supplies would all
be impacted. This would make the US vulnerable and would
negate any resiliency that communities have built up (Errett et
al., 2018, p. 1).
Describe the key attributes of the Maritime Transportation
Security Act (MTSA) of 2002. How has this law impacted the
overall governance of security within the 360 ports within the
United States?
The Maritime Transportation Security Act of 2002 was
implemented to establish a consistent measure to all ports and
waterways to provide a safe, secure and efficient way to move
cargo and persons through the waterways while keeping threats
and vulnerabilities to a minimum. This is achieved with
increased baggage or cargo screening, increased security of our
waters by the US Coast Guard and increased personal
identification procedures.
References
Department of Transportation. (2019, June 20). Maritime
transportation system (MTS) | MARAD. |
MARAD. https://www.maritime.dot.gov/outreach/maritime-
transportation-system-mts/maritime-transportation-system-
mts#:~:text=Improving%20the%20U.S.%20marine%20transport
ation,25%2C000%20miles%20of%20navigable%20channels
Errett, N. A., Tanner, A., Shen, X., & Chang, S. E. (2018).
Understanding the impacts of maritime disruption transportation

7. to hospital-based acute health care supplies and personnel in
coastal and geographically isolated communities. Disaster
Medicine and Public Health Preparedness, 13(03), 440-
448. https://doi.org/10.1017/dmp.2018.64
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