Coast Guard Commandant Adm. Paul F. Zukunft has said "the best place for us is the Department of Homeland Security and I agree with him," Vice Commandant Adm. Charles Michel said on Friday at the annual Military Reporters and Editors conference in Arlington, Va., outside Washington, D.C.

The service is the smallest branch of the U.S. armed forces and the only one that falls under the Homeland Security Department rather than the Pentagon -- an organizational structure recently questioned by a lawmaker.