October 30, 2007: The U.S. Coast Guard, with centuries of experience sending boarding parties on to commercial ships, has set up a "Boarding Party School" in the Persian Gulf, to train sailors from the many navies that patrol the area, and board thousands of ships a year. The coast guard already had a boarding party training course. Many sailors have already developed their own boarding techniques, but the coast guard has one of the largest collections of experience and techniques in the world. Coast guard personnel have to undergo periodic boarding party training themselves, in order to remain certified to carry out the job. The sailors of the various navies operating in the Gulf noticed that the American coast guard boarding parties were particularly good, and that eventually led to the boarding party school. The coast guard course covers everything, from planning how to approach the ship to be boarded, how best to get aboard, how to deal with various types of obstacles, and how to cope with a wide variety of situations once aboard.