If you walked into a MEBA hall today you would have to pay $150 in quarterly dues and if all your docs were in order you could register and grab a job off the board.
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I donât recall what I had to pay up front but this was in the ballpark. Not over $200 .
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I got the same email except I think someone in HQ made a mistake. The Soderman, Sisler, Watson and Red Cloud are all FOS and fully crewed without any gapped billets. These LMSRâs are not involved in this break out. I doubt many of those jobs are on the board, and if they are itâs merely by chance.
Not knowing any of the details with regards to job openings, it is possible personnel were transferred off the Soderman, Sisler, Watson and Red Cloud to assist in the activation of other ships.
I can confirm nobody left from 3 of them and only 1 of the 4 listed is in the states right now with nobody leaving for an activation off the CONUS ship.
I heard they did it becuase razor blade and shaving cream sales have been in the tank recently. I think they will activate 30 ships every two weeks until everybody has shaved.
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So the last few days Iâve been thinking about these activations. They can barely scrounge up enough people to activate them for 10 day assignments. Pretty much everyone is either on vacation from their normal job or a retiree. If they really wanted to see if they have the man power it seems they should make these 120 day activations. See how many people they can scrounge up then. If itâs all mariners on vacation from their normal jobs, who is going to crew up the container ships, tankers, and Great Lakes freighters if they took the job? I would venture most people wouldnât take one of these jobs if it was for more than 30 days. I did one back in 2014 on the SS Regulus. It was a great experience and I would do it again if I was on vacation and again under 30 days.
People donât wait around all year to only work a couple turbo activations a year. A good majority of the ships in decent shape should be moving DOD and other RORO cargo all the time keeping people busy working.
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What about the opposite thought: few people are taking them because it ONLY is a 10 day job.
I think the younger bucks would not want to take a 10day job for fear of missing a real job. But these guys would gladly take a 90 or 120 day job.
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If nobody wanted the job probably get it on a night card.
Iâm honestly deeply and increasingly skeptical of wartime sealift in any kind of threat environment. Merchant ships havenât changed much except each basket having a lot more eggs in it, while weapons and intelligence capabilities have increased immensely in the past 75 years. I understand the niche for the kind of wars weâve been tangled up in lately but the idea of refighting anything that looks like WW2 fades by the year.
The other big positive of a merchant fleet is the ability to keep cargo moving on your terms despite instability elsewhere, trade war, etc and various subsidies for building and running vessels that actually operate year round accomplish that aspect much more effectively than a reserve fleet.
Of course an effective shipbuilding industry makes both a lot more feasible!
I think in a real call up theyâd have a completely different situation too as far as manning. There are a lot of us that arenât MEBA or MMP that would dump our current jobs to go do sealift if the situation called for all hands on deck.
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Good point. Another option could be for Congress to add mariners to the law that protects a National Guard and reservistâs civilian jobs when they go active duty for drills or activation. In the event that a real sealift surge was needed there would be many folks who would volunteer if they didnât have to quit their regular jobs to do it.
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Exactly. Even in war Iâm not sure Iâd want to quit a steady job because the war will eventually end.
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In the event of a real war or sealift it wouldnât be just the unions crewing these ships up, it would be the entire USMM. They can draw on probably twice to 3 times the mariners, at least in ratings, from tugs, ferry boats, and the gulf. In time of real need it wouldnât be too far of a stretch to see experienced mariners with limited licenses (1600 ton masters for example) to be temporarily able to serve on unlimited ships as emergency 3rd mates.
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Youâve hit the nail on the head. MSP is the best money spent for ensuring sealift capability. Iâd love to see the program expanded.
Youâre right. The trouble would be convincing folks to quit their permanent jobs on tugs, ferries, the Gulf and shoreside to crew up ships for a temporary sealift if they wouldnât have a job to go home to. The patriots would still go. But I can see a lot of opportunistic fucks moving in and snapping up their jobs. There needs to be some job protection or the volunteer rate would be lower, maybe too low.
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Not sure if the Mariner Re-Employment has ever been used;
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Nice! I didnât know that existed. Thanks for pointing it out.
Edit: Damn. A condition is âpermanently employed in a shore-side position.â That would exclude any tug, ferries, or GoM folks.
Letâs be totally honest with ourselves here. Based on the numbers from WW2, and the military technology advances today, there probably wonât be many of us left to go back to our jobs after a few years of convoy duty.
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Agreed. Torpedo technology advances and the advent of anti ship missiles make survivability a moot point if you ask me.