With the shortage of officers- are USMMA graduates completing their sea service requirements of 5 years or are they finding loopholes to work shoreside?
Ha! No way.
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Close KP.
Or at least open it up as a maritime training center for all US mariners.
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It’s a really low amount. It’s been getting better but sometimes over 1/2 of he KP SSO’s are delinquent in their service obligation. Many go shoreside with no waiver but almost always get away with it.
It’s been getting enforced more lately which is good to see. But I know tons of KP kids who graduated and did nothing in the Navy, got discharged after 8 years, and nothing else.
Or just hold them accountable. No more active duty, make them do 5 years at MSC to fulfill their commitment.
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That’s funny. It would probably shut down KP almost immediately.
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You’re probably right. And it’ll never happen. Shocking how making Merchant Marine Academy grads work in the real Merchant Marine would deter people from attending.
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I’m pretty sure the OP was asking about the requirement for graduates to sail on US flag ships, not their Navy reserve duties.
Well yes it’s a double sided service obligation. They do nothing in the Navy, and nothing in the US Merchant Marine.
Still get discharged with no penalty.
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Some are, most are not. If you want evidence, look at LinkedIn. It is criminal to see over the past 30 years the lack of masters and chief engineers for each class from a school designed to create merchant marine officers. The school is ripe for a GAO audit, which should have happened a long time ago, and bills for noncompliance.
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Never forget that KP does not exist because the merchant marine needs the place, it exists because of political payoffs and paybacks. It is a social and political playing card.
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We certainly can use KP grads going to sea so the 3rds can get relieved. Not useless in my opinion. Not KP grad.
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I think it is useless in its current condition. There are plenty of other sources for baby 3rds. The only benefit I see for KP is if it is reestablished as a MARAD funded training facility for existing credentialed mariners at all levels. As it stands now, the extremely high costs of meeting the ever increasing number of required courses for upgrading or even maintaining a license has virtually eliminated the path for a competent and committed mariner to raise his certification level.
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Its been 25 years, but the year I graduated 1 company came to hire 3 third mates and selected 3 females, MSC said they could only take me on as an AB, AMO never really got back to me and MM&P Long Beach told me they would take 5,000 dollars for a book… When I asked what kind of jobs were on the board they pointed to 3 state school guys living out of a station wagon and eating microwave burritos who had been there for a month with 1 night mate job each during that time. So hard no for me.
Yeah I mean it’s hard for them to enforce their seatime requirement when there simply isn’t enough US flag vessels. What is it like 84 US flagged foreign trading vessels vs 1,400 that China have. Right now there may be some 3rds openings at companies that simply do not pay wages that are competitive. But for companies that pay well there is no issue. Land wages have gone up significantly and are competitive or pay more that what you can make at sea. Forcing these these new grads to take a sub par sea job when they have rent to pay seems stupid. However at least they don’t have loans to pay like the other maritime academies so I guess they could take an “volunteer” with a company lol
Which circles back to public funding. KP is a factory turning out too many units. Too many left unsold. So reduce production, or close it and let other factories increase capacity…
Or…
Simply admit that tugs etc. are our merchant marine and insist graduates take jobs there . I have no patience with people who say tugs are low paying jobs. Most aren’t. What they are really saying is they don’t want to get their hands dirty. Their choice. My choice to vote against paying their education.
I agree with the others here who say that MARAD itself needs to be repurposed to promote and educate the merchant marine as it is (I.e. every commercial vessel regardless of tonnage) and KP turned into a national school/institute/think-tank to do that.
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Buddy the AMO board and MSC would beg to differ. There are plenty of jobs right now
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Buddy read the rest of my comment. Jobs that pay bro. I mean if AMO isn’t getting people for Crowley Jones Act tankers or the seabulk heavy lift ships then look at the wages. Then you will know why. Divide MSC wages out by the days of work and factor in the lack of reliefs and messing with people’s lives yeah hard pass
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And MMP is apparently pretty desperate on the LMSRs too (not a member but I get their bulletins, so I can’t 100% vouch for that).
The heavy lift on the board is Patriot.
The TSP tankers pay fairly well and they’re on the board constantly. 2nd highest paying contract is on the board often.
These ships pay well and they’re always looking for people too.