Reagan happened. Worst. President. Ever.
1 Like
well I will not waiver that the worst in US history is in the Whitehouse today however Ronnie Raygun’s Administration certainly inserted one massive FID into the USMM!
I had to laugh before your edit with the Washington train wreck blaming it on Bush!LOL!
CP Ships was bought by Hapag-Lloyd in 2005 who in turn merged with United Arab Shipping Company (UASC) in 2016.
Do you not think that if a major sealift is required by the military–a sealift that the US fleet cannot feasibly hanlde–, that the .mil and .gov will merely charter vessels from around the world to carry their goodies? Worried about the cargo not making it? Easy solution, put some Marines on board.
so not worry about using all the LMSRs and RRF ships which today are sitting at layberths withourt crews? we have plenty of ships but not nearly enough men to operate them if there was a surge like in 1990. As is stands, I wonder if there is enough qualified US citizen manpower to man half the fleet if they had to be all mobilized simultaneously?
a very sorry assed situation if it came to pass where we had to pay foreign shipowners to carry our own military and can you just imagine what the charter rates would be? I wouldn’t be surprised if they averaged over $200k/day if it was a “HOT” war. you know those shipowners wouldn’t load the cargo unless they were going to pay off their mortgages in one voyage.
1 Like
I don’t know the condition of these ships personally, but I do know old equipment sitting and not being used for many years is pretty worthless when it needs to be used in a hurry.
The academies are graduating tons of new officers each year, with not many places for them to work. I don’t think manpower is an issue. It may be an issue to find experienced 1st and chiefs on steam, but a shortage of manpower can easily be solved with .gov bending rules.
I think the bigger issue is lack of reliable vessels.
1 Like