A message from MARAD:
“ Good afternoon. My name is Chris Owsianiecki, a Maritime Security Specialist in the Maritime Administration’s (MARAD) Office of Maritime Security, a Maine Maritime ’98 alumnus, and the planner/organizer for our 2019 Company Security Officer (CSO) Meeting. Annually, MARAD and the National Maritime Intelligence-Integration Office (NMIO) jointly hold a commercial maritime CSO Meeting to discuss current threats in the maritime domain and possible mitigating measures to address those threats. These meetings are a close 50/50 split between U.S. government representatives and commercial maritime participants. A portion of this year’s meeting focuses on lessons learned from the 1987-88 “tanker wars.”
To address the lessons learned, a portion of the meeting will be based on the “tanker wars,” also known as Operation Earnest Will. I am contacting you to inquire if you, or others you know, sailed on the MV BRIDGETON (ex-AL-REKKAH), MV SEA ISLE CITY (ex-UMM AL MARADEM), SURF CITY, OCEAN CITY, CHESAPEAKE CITY, MIDDLETOWN, TOWNSEND, GAS QUEEN, GAS PRINCESS, GAS KING and/or GAS PRINCE operated by Gleneagle Ship Management Company in the late 1980s. For this meeting, 17-19 September, at the Maritime Conference Center on the campus of the Maritime Institute of Technology and Graduate Studies (MITAGS) in Baltimore, I have three Navy participants from this operation: CAPT Paul Rinn (CO, USS Samuel B. Roberts), CAPT Jim McTigue (CO, USS SIMPSON), and CDR Jamie Baldwin-LNO aboard the tankers. However, I am feverishly attempting to establish contact with any Merchant Marine officers involved in the operation to speak and sit on a panel regarding their experiences. Additionally, Kevin Tokarski from MARAD will sit on the panel to discuss the training of the Masters selected for this operation and an oil company manager will discuss the shore-side challenges of tanker operations during this period. The focus of this topic is to review how this operation applies to today’s maritime operations and educate the next generation of Navy and Merchant Marine officers through first-hand accounts of those who did it.
Thank you for your time and I look forward to answering any additional questions concerning this quest!
Best Regards,