I agree with you that US maritime education lacks a regulatory/vetting prep scheme. The one difference that I see between US verse foreign ship’s officers is that the foreign officers seem to have a slightly better grasp of regulatory and vetting/PSC preparation. But, overall, I see very little difference in professional skills.
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I agree that a great many people in the USCG from Admirals on down are non-mariners.
The USCG has some very good mariners, but they are not the majority.
The USCG has some very good inspectors, but they are maybe 1 out of 5. Most of the kids who are inspectors know next to nothing beyond how to do the paperwork.
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Hello all
Any idea if NTSB will release their preliminary findings in early ‘May’ as advised? Hope the FBI involvement does not prevent them from doing so.
When any preliminary report comes out the level of details will be inversely proportional to the level of interest by the FBI in potential criminal activity.
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2 posts were merged into an existing topic: The FBI is aboard the DALI this morning
As one of the very few former PSC officer who as a reserve USCG commisssioned officer was simultaneously a sailing merchie, your observation is accurate. As a deck officer it was tough enough but knew enough what I was looking at to make correct assessments. The USCG almost lost the entire “M” program now part of the moniker of “Prevention” in 2007-2008 when Rep James Oberstar nearly succeeded ripping the “M” Inspection program from the CG. The declining institutional memory, the USCG refusing to create an LDO type stovepipe and abandoning the legacy program years before which recruited retired senior merchy engineers and masters, gave them a rank of LCDR and segregated them from the never ending churn which has plagued the “M” program for years and eroded competencies, NCOE centers or not is the problem and was identified as early as post WWII in Congressional hearings of 1946/47. The maritime industry and my admonitions at HQ went largely unheeded as I was a non-CGA mustang reservist and hawsepiper merchie and did not have the correct pedigree despite being the project officer setting up the NCOEs. Recruiting maritime grad engineers helps but recruiting them after say 6-8 years sea time would be far better.
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