The United States Fleet Forces Command (USFLTFORCOM) of the United States Navy is the part of the Navy responsible for operations in around the Atlantic Ocean. Originally formed as United States Atlantic Fleet (USLANTFLT) in 1906, it has been an integral part of the defense of the United States of America for most of the 20th Century. In 2002, the Fleet comprised over 118,000 sailors and Marines serving in 186 ships and 1,300 aircraft, with an area of responsibility ranging over the Atlantic Ocean from the North Pole to the South Pole, the Caribbean Sea, Gulf of Mexico, and the waters of the Pacific Ocean along the coasts of Central and South America (as far west as the Galapagos Islands). Its operational fleet (i.e. the collection of fighting ships) is the 2nd Fleet.