Something awful happened in a conference room at a hotel in Falmouth on Dec. 18. The U.S. Coast Guard revealed itself to be totally politicized in its review of radar and safety issues arising from the plan of a Boston energy entrepreneur (Jim Gordon) to build a wind farm covering 25 square miles of Nantucket Sound.

The Coast Guard's motto is Semper Paratus. Those two noble words mean "always prepared"; but many people in that hotel conference room were unprepared for what they heard and saw. We saw the venerable U.S. Coast Guard cowed into submission by hidden economic and political forces. This noble service has allowed crass commercial deception and political bullying to tarnish its distinguished 218 years of service, obscure its expertise and sully its honor.

This hastily scheduled meeting was supposed to last from 9:30 until noon. But, when things got hot for the Coast Guard it ended, shortly after 11. This truncated gathering was the Coast Guard's shabby attempt to honor the promises it made in the same room on Oct. 7 during an all-day conference when the Captain of the Port of Boston, Capt. Raymond Perry, announced that based on what he had seen and heard he would need a good deal more time to decide how the Coast Guard would respond to the Cape Wind proposal and how he would craft new rules of the road to deal with the project's impacts on marine radar and maritime safety.

In October Cape Wind's expert on radar issues, British Master Mariner Dennis Barber, presented what he admitted was an unscientific analysis of marine radar operating in two English wind farms built in shallow coastal waters. Each wind farm is about 25 percent the size of Cape Wind. Barber offered a Power Point presentation that, he claimed, showed that marine radar is not hurt by wind farms.

More than half of the room disagreed with him. One man, Eli Brookner, Ph.D., had done his own analysis of Barber's work and found it wanting in fact and accuracy.

Dr. Brookner said as he pointed at some of Barber's images, "I don't know how you got those results unless you simply turned down the gain." By turning down the gain on a radar set an operator can see structures such as turbines more clearly while losing the ability to track smaller objects such as boats. Eli Bruckner retired from Raytheon Corp. after 46 years there. He is globally recognized as an expert in radar technology.

Another distinguished voice said to Barber, "Radar does not work like that and you don't show any side lobes. There will always be side lobes. I don't know how you got these results but radar does not work like that."

That voice belonged to Dennis Picard, retired chief executive of Raytheon.

Joining in the parade of foes were USCG retired Master Chief Jack Downey; ferry captains and operators who account for more than 2,000 passages into or out of Hyannis, Nantucket and Martha's Vineyard each year; the Massachusetts Fishermen's partnership; the Alliance to Protect Nantucket Sound; the operator of Cape Cod's largest marina, in Hyannis; the president of the American Passenger Vessel Association, and more.

Barber and a number of Cape Wind supporters tried to defend the study he had done as a follow on to an earlier study, funded by the British Wind Energy Association. At the end of that day Captain Perry assured everyone that his $100,000 independent radar study would be made available for a second meeting and there would be 30 days of public comment. We believed him.

On Dec. 18, a hastily performed study based on four scenarios designed by the Coast Guard for its consultant, Technical Services Co. of Maryland, was presented. None of the several computer simulations of conditions within and near the wind farm showed more than three vessels, unlike an ordinary day in spring, summer or fall when hundreds of vessels might be operating in that same area.

No navigation buoys were included, nor was the wind farm's 20,000-square-foot transformer platform. In one simulation, a Boston Whaler was traveling inside the wind farm at 33 miles an hour. In that simulation a large radar missed that craft and the presenter had to struggle to find it, using his red laser pointer. Simulated sea and wind conditions were average, but the boat was lost on radar.

Ed LeBlanc, the Coast Guard civilian who ran the second meeting, declared we were out of time, supported by Lt. Commander Russ Bowman, of the Judge Advocate's staff. The meeting was over. LeBlanc also said there was never an assurance of further public comment or discussion.

Neither statement was true. The Cape Wind project has been shown to radar experts to be unsafe for marine and maritime interests and for the public. Because of the enormous political pressures seeking to force this bad project on us, the Coast Guard and every agency reviewing Cape Wind should remain Semper Paratus.

So should we all.