As a soldier, Army Major General Peter Gravett (Retired), a San Pedro native, has been all around the world. Now he’s back on home turf with what could be his toughest assignment—helping to secure the Ports of Los Angeles (POLA), and Long Beach.
     Taking care not to cast himself as the expert on the port security, General Gravett spoke with quiet conviction about the incredible security challenges that remain despite the increase funding, new Homeland Security measures, and increased vigilance that have occurred since 9-11.
     “This port was not built with security in mind. It was built with shipping and transportation in mind. It was not built to thwart a terrorist or terrorist group,” General Gravett remarked. “It was not built with the intent of stopping a fast speed boat laden with explosives coming into the harbor and ramming into a ship.” The retired two-star general explained the change in security using the example of a high-end hotel. “The security [systems] that they have in place were designed to reduce crime. They were put in place to look for people stealing cars out of parking lots, or someone breaking into hotel rooms, or pickpockets. We’re not about that.”
     Gravett’s group, Sentinel Systems, is a Homeland Security consultant company that works closely with POLA, analyzing security plans of incoming shipping companies, specific terminals, and cruise ship lines. Sentinel Systems also works with school districts, trucking companies, and upscale hotels in other parts of Los Angeles.
     He’s the guy who goes to a five-star hotel and looks at wrap-around driveways to assess vulnerability to a car-bomb. It’s a whole different ballgame from checking that a parking lot is secure enough to prevent car theft. The questions he asks, “Are gas lines and water lines secure? Can someone place some kind of device on the air conditioning system? If a terrorist wanted to burst into the hotel shooting, does the hotel have a panic system in place?” Five and 10 years ago, no one had to ask these questions in the Harbor Area.
     With earnest intensity, General Gravett further explained the sorts of questions he asks to assess a security plan. “Have their employees been thoroughly screened? Not just in terms of if they have a criminal record—and they probably don’t, that is probably all they check. But who is at the port? What country do they come from, what is their background? That is the kind of thing we do.”
     The challenge in securing the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach also lies the sheer volume of traffic that is handled—well over 40 percent of the nation’s containerized commerce, 5.6 million twenty-foot equivalent units [TEUs] floated through the ports’ breakwater last year. Ten to 15 thousand owner-operated truckers pick up and drop off containers at the port from the 710 Long Beach freeway, the Alameda Corridor, and to a growing extent the 605 and 110 Harbor freeway. POLA alone encompasses 80 shipping lines and 12 cruise lines on 43 miles of waterfront and 7500 acres of property.
     Gravett explained the gravity of the challenge of local port security. “We’re talking about millions of containers per year. Any one of those at any given time can have a dirty bomb… inside of them. To check all of those containers as they are off loaded [from] the ship, they do a random check. At the most, they check only two percent of all containers. And those that are checked in that two percent, they are singled out by country of origin and the ship that it is on . . . that’s only the tip of the iceberg,” he said. “But that two percent is a monumental task. Ships are checked, their papers are checked, their crews are checked, but still it’s a challenge.”
     Then, there’s the landside security challenge. “We’re talking about tens of thousands of trucks everyday that bring containers and bring empty containers back and forth from the port.”
     The explosion this April in the Trans Pacific Container Service Corp. (TraPac) terminal is a glaring example of what could happen under lax security. The explosion ripped through the top, sides, and back of a container being pulled by a tractor-trailer. The TraPac container came onto the docks without supporting documents, but the workers were told to move it to the ship anyway. According to the planning manifest for the ship, the container that exploded was supposed to be loaded just below a container that contained hazardous materials. The explosion and pressure from the ILWU forced the Port of L.A. to increase vigilance at the port.
     “Can you imagine what would have happened had that been a bomb in there…or if it had Sarin gas, or some type of nuclear device?” General Gravett said, in dismay. “The potential threat in the harbor is great. That was a very simple container with butane in it that exploded. Thankfully, no one was injured and no one was killed.”
     At the Port of New Jersey and New York, he said, “The Port Authority alone has 1,600 officers while the Port of Long Beach and L.A. only has law enforcement officers of a few hundred.”
     Whatever the future holds, General Gravett remains at the center of the last line of defense, protecting the port in the hometown where he grew up.

Army Major General Peter Gravett (Retired). Photo: Lynn Nishimura, MISA/misaphoto.com