Per yesterday’s MEBA Telex Times:
DOD ENDS PRE-PO SHIP PROGRAM
The Department of Defense has decommissioned the Army’s supply ship prepositioning program that gives them access to equipment, vehicles, and supplies aboard Full Operating Status (FOS) ships that remain afloat and ready for rapid deployment in strategic areas. Cost savings were cited for the retirement of the Army Prepositioned Stock 3 (Afloat) program. M.E.B.A. crews five of the seven vessels in the APS-3 program.
Those vessels, deployed globally, function as floating warehouses stocked with essential military supplies, including ammunition, tanks, medical equipment, and spare parts. The military cargoes they carry complement the land-based supplies stored in the U.S., Europe, South Korea, and the Middle East. Five of these vessels are managed by M.E.B.A.-contracted Patriot and include the LMSRs USNS RED CLOUD, USNS CHARLTON, USNS WATKINS, USNS POMEROY and USNS
SODERMAN. The other two are the AMO-manned Ammunition ships MV LTC JOHN UD PAGE and MV SSG EDWARD A. CARTER JR. The contract for the PAGE was not renewed and the vessel has already been reflagged out of the U.S. fleet. The 45 American jobs attached to it were lost. The CARTER had its contract cancelled and was de-flagged from the U.S. fleet adding to another 45 jobs lost.As part of the proposal, recently signed off on by the DOD, operational control of the LMSRs would go over to the DOT/MarAd and the ships would be homeported stateside in Reduced Operating Status (ROS). In ROS status, the remaining vessels will carry no cargo, be minimally crewed and maintained, and will be subject to a five-day activation standard. With the end of the program, the Army will no longer have ready-to-sail vessels in standby status and will instead rely on MarAd to activate ROS vessels in the continental United States. The M.E.B.A. and other impacted groups have thus far been unsuccessful in stopping this transition. We believe it is bad for our nation’s military readiness and is counter to the Administration’s goals of increasing US-flag vessels and mariners.
