Most here know what gCaptain’s John Konrad says is true, but we have the luxury to pretend it isn’t there – for now.
Those who don’t know it need to know about this unsexy but important challenge.
John is direct and to the point, and you need to read it all;
Nearly everyone in the United States Military and Merchant Marine, including myself, readily agrees that we need to do more to support domestic shipbuilding. That said everyone secretly knows another fact that few are willing to admit publicly. The fact is that in a large scale war against China the United States can take the ships we need or demand them from our allies.
What we can’t demand is that foreign sailors man these ships and sail them into combat. For that we will need strong allies and highly competent and well trained American sailors.
Today’s American merchant sailors are well trained and experienced but we are lacking skills in the latest technology and, as the number of US flagged ships decreases, so do our numbers. According to Adm. Buzby the USMM is about 1800 mariners short of the numbers needed to do sustained sealift operation using todays reserve assets (which are also insufficient).
If we can’t fully crew the ships we have available, how can we crew the ships we need? The answer is, I don’t know.
How do you get the supplies across the Atlantic, Pacific and/or Indian Ocean without sealift? How do you do it with the attrition peer war will bring? How do you do it over the span of years?
Is the human capital we do have ready on Day-1? Day-45?
Personally I attended four years of school at a merchant marine academy, sailed on ships for ten years, spent thousands of hours studying for US Coast Guard Examinations, sat in hundreds of hours of post-graduate classroom instruction and demonstrated my knowledge and experience in myriad of ways before earning a license to master the world’s largest ships.
Yet in all those years of study there are some questions I never learned the answers to:
How do I join a military convoy?
How do I share information with Naval Intelligence?
How do I contact a Navy Ship on a secure line?
How do I navigate a mine field?
Will zig-zagging help me avoid modern submarines?
What do I secure for radio silence?
How do I darken ship to naval standards?
The answer to all these questions (and countless more) is, “I don’t have a clue.”
Does our Navy look at protection of merchant ships the same, better, or worse than the USAF looks at CAS?
In recent months the US Navy has been honest in telling mariners that, in the event of a major war with China or Russia, the U.S. Navy is going to be busy with combat operations and we can not expect naval escort. What they don’t tell us is that they also have no plans to train us to defend ourselves.
Am I, as a captain in the USMM ready to sail my ship into contested waters?
The answer is I am fully ready to sail my ship anywhere, even into conflicted water, everywhere EXCEPT into large scale war.
John ends with a simple plea to the boss in waiting;
Admiral Moran, as our new Chief of Naval Operations do not let war be the reason we start working together. We can’t wait that long. Admiral Buzby and MARAD are working tirelessly to prepare the USMM for war but they do not have your budget, your influence or your ability to mandate immediate change. … and the civilian companies our Merchant Mariners work for today are just not going to prepare mariners for a full scale conflict. Most don’t believe a full scale conflict will ever take place.
The ball is in your court. Please help us so that when you need our help we are ready.
H/t SAP.
