A number of ships have already reported losing licensed engine billets because of manning. Funny they think this is how to solve the manning crisis. I guess it looks better on paper?
It would seem they are only targeting tankers and 86ing one of the 3AE billets. Why punish an already thin crowd?
For a while now they have been forcing T-AKEs to keep one 3rd AE billet gapped. Not that big of a deal really considering that the ships were billeted for five 3rd AEs.
Funny to think about 7 or 8 years ago, they had so many 3/Os and 3A/Es, ships had “augments”.
Not just the engine department. The official goal for filling AB billets, on all ships, is 50% manning!
Yet the Navy still wants all stations manned for UNREPS. They need to bite the bullet and lay up a few ships, and take CIVMARS off Navy/MSC manned vessels, and let them be all Navy again.
All of the armed forces are having trouble meeting recruitment goals. Adding a bunch of ships to the Navy is only shifting the problem, not solving it.