Another Military Sealift Command thread

Oh man, that looks like low-energy hell.

1 Like

That looks like something out of the history book. Only in America!!

Yeah, but at least MSC keeps the mariners in the pool on the payroll.

3 Likes

It is a neutral and slightly positive spend on the agonizing wait for a ship assignment. The pool is not fun.

Yes, and there’s a lot of people who do nothing but sit around in that pool for a career. Alot of guys gleefully gave me the low down skinny on how to do just that in Norfolk. MSC’s mode of operation breeds those who are content with being “wards of MSC”. But sure, everyone gets paid a little bit sitting around in their pool.

I wasn’t defending MSC. I was responding to a post that said sitting in the pool looked bad. I’ve done it, it was bad.

Looking back I would say for me it was stressful waiting for a ship in the MSC pool. But waiting for a ship at the union hall was stressful too, on top of that I was going broke.

Deep-sea has a pool too, but they are on stand-by for free.

3 Likes

“Wards of MSC” sometimes find themselves assigned to a ship. We had a kid, an OS, on a T-AOE ship with a big crew who never did a lick of work. After being assigned a specific task at muster, he would disappear and we could never find him. We called him “the shadow”.

1 Like

5 posts were split to a new topic: How (not) to Deal With Crew Problems

I came off a little snarky towards you, but I didn’t mean to. That snark was directed straight at MSC - I got quite the education on how to “work the system”, and, while it was pretty smart, it didn’t set well with me. It was all a game of cat and mouse there, with “minders” watching over the crowd, who were constantly trying to get away with everything they could. I don’t have a high moral standard toward such things, but I just felt I could make more $$$ at home as a bar tender than sitting around the half way house there in Norfolk, and be much happier.

1 Like

You have every right to criticize the Norfolk Pool. But Norfolk runs quite a bit differently than San Diego. They have no accountability to each other.

If I were to do a Video about the East Coast pool, the theme would probably be from something produced by X Clan.

In fact, I’ll do just that if I ever find myself, unfortunately, stuck there again.

2 Likes

I might have been a bit over-caffeinated when I replied.

I found MSC to be OK once I got on a ship.

I prefer to sail commercial / union but the best ship I sailed on in MSC ( theMercury) was better than the worse union deep-sea ship.

1 Like

Please do (but I don’t hope you ever get there again - I kept hearing the West Coast was the way to go!). It was a scene like the Walking Dead. It was one of the most depressing periods of my life - yuk.

Well, I’m a bit of a spoiled brat having spent most of my career in offshore drilling - so what do I know? But jeez, I never saw anything so antiquated and it was going to be months until I got on a ship somewhere (which is not what they told me would happen). I took my chances elsewhere and don’t regret it since things are working out now.

Damn, that’s just waste of human resources. Why not just have a calling list?

1 Like

The official answer I got to a similar question was that since we are on the government dime we have to be doing something during the day… even if that something entails getting on a bus to the pool M-F.

Edit I shouldn’t call that an official answer. You can ask 3 people the same question and get 3 different answers. It’s not consistent.

Sooo…the Cheif Mate sat me down today to inform me that due to extreme Deck Shortages my relief will be over due past 60 days.

He was a little confused when I smiled over what he thought was very bad news.

Actually the Boss wants me home to put me to work around the clock with several expensive home projects.

But at a tad over $12k per month over the past 6 months for an AB-Deck, I’ve found a new love ($$$$$) and find it very hard to just leave.

Of course I also have no life, but that’s a different story for another time.

Mamma told me there be days like this, there be days like this my mamma said.

5 Likes

I’m about a month overdue as it stands and won’t be heart broken if it’s another month. I likes gettin’ paid.

I have a question how good does your credit score have to be ??? I took my equip but failed because I missed putting in that I was in the army and thought it wasn’t important cause I didn’t finish bootcamp. but they told me to reapply now my applications been forwarded but they didn’t say anything about the credit I have about 1500 in credit card debt…

You could join the SUP, but you will need to complete STCW first

Other than that, you might try NOAA

You can also try Coastal, but They’re not hiring right now, but sometimes openings come up, but you would need to be in Seattle.

You might also want to check with the Lake companies.

Though my strongest advice would be to go to school.

It’s more about your credit history than your credit score or current debt level. If you have current debt that has been sent to collections you probably won’t get a clearance.