“We have to tell us what to do.”

This chapter discusses how, instead of establishing a top-down command and control structure, the Coast Guard — from the top brass down to the on-scene rank and file — allowed for the organic, needs-driven, decentralized response that played an enormous role in the ultimate success of the waterborne evacuation. This approach, in turn, allowed mariners to take direct action, applying their workaday skills to singular circumstances, without being stifled by red tape. No one had foreseen the sudden need for evacuating a huge swath of Manhattan Island. Yet as terrorized people continued to flee to the waterfront, more and more boats turned up to rescue them. As greater numbers of vessels and evacuees amassed along the shoreline, streamlining operations became the biggest challenge. The only solution was to get organized, and that organization was implemented in large part by Lieutenant Michael Day and the pilots operating aboard the New York, which continued its barrier patrol. Their efforts were made easier by the relationships that both the Coast Guard and the Sandy Hook Pilots had with the New York harbor community.