Ya can’t make this stuff up! Who Knew we had a District Commander for the Merchant Marines?
http://www.baynews9.com/content/36/2010/6/7/627003.html?title=Gov.+Charlie+Crist+talks+oil+spill+in+Bay+area
[B]PINELLAS COUNTY (Bay News 9)[/B] – While he remains optimistic about the threat of oil not reaching the Bay area’s beaches, Gov. Charlie Crist said residents should be ready in case tar balls begin washing up.
Visitng Madeira Beach on Monday, Crist said residents should be prepared to protect their coastline.
Crist, who spent the weekend touring beaches in the Pensacola area, met with fisherman and boat captains. He also got a briefing from Coast Guard officials and attended a tourism meeting at the Tradewinds in St. Petersburg.
"Floridians are a unique group of people,’ Crist said. “Whether it’s hurricanes, tornadoes or the current disaster, they want to help. It’s all hands on deck right now to do what’s right to protect our state.”
[B]Marti Heath, the district commander for the Merchant Marines, offered a plan of attack.[/B]
[B]“We have thousands and thousands and thousands of trained merchant mariners with perfect safety records that we can send out here and contain this spill,” Heath said. [/B]
Crist said he’ll consider the plan. Meanwhile, as environmental concerns are growing, so are concerns about the economy.
Wait… didn’t i sign a volunteer form in case of national emergency? I guess ‘Captain’ Heath was appointed as the Merchant Marine czar by Obama. I feel much better now!
Further proof that someone, somewhere has their 15 minutes of fame just waiting… sometime!
As isusual the report is wrong. This is Capt Marti. I am District Commander of Merchant Marine Captains Association
We as a group received the blessing of our area WW2 Merchant Marine vets from Sarasota ,Bradenton , and pinellass. Our group also voted on the title and each member serves a year. It is all volunteer. The money comes out of our pocket including all rescues. We have had comments in the past of those who do not have to help the community but feel free to to trash talk those that give everything to help. Many known Captains belong to this organization which requires a perfect safety record, no failed drug test, no criminal history , at least a five year license, some experience in rescue. This is a far cry from those that sit on the sidelines and do nothing
The .Merchant Marine Assoc also has the blessing of the academy and used their Captains train disc. So please. have your information correct before reporting or slandering those that voluntarily risk their lives to help others. Our organization is filled with such members. In fact, you must be in the top ten percent as a captain to even join the MMCA.
Please take this opportunity to start a nationwide version of the “merchant marine association” and include not only captains but chief engineers as well. I will reluctantly accept the post of National Merchant Marine Association “Senior Chief Poohbah” as long as it comes with the authority to call up anyone with at least a 42 piece socket set or a Fluke voltmeter. It has to be a Fluke since a druggie or felon probably wouldn’t spend the money on a good meter and that saves on having to do background checks to join such an exclusive organization.
Of course someone could have stolen the socket set and meter but if they pay the initiation and “call out” fees in cash we must give them benefit of the doubt and an opportunity to turn their lives around. After all shouldn’t that be the purpose of such a beneficial organization?
No, it is no joke nor were the rescues that we did a joke. The merchant marines association was operational back in that time frame . The MMCA perfect safety record means just what it says, no accidents, no incidences, no problems with he coast guard, no criminal history no failing of drug testing. We were very proud as an organization to have many captains that despite the strict qualifications were able to join participate and enjoy being a part of the association. As you know, captains are professionals and go through an immense amount of training to get to the point where they can run ships above a hundred tons or 500 tons. So, who ever you are and the fact that you object to captains helping the community and their State and helping those in trouble on the seas out of the goodness of their heart and their own dime and their own time should be considered a good thing not a cruel joke. The cruel joke seems to be the fact that you object to people doing something good and risking their own lives to do so. The Merchant Marine Captain’s association was all volunteers paid for strictly out of the members pockets and they did their job strictly on their own time and gave freely and I think those member should be applauded not ridiculed in the news or on the Internet or anywhere else for that matter. That is all the creedence I’m going to give this post I just wanted to set the record straight, that being district Commander simply means that you’re serving your year term in the association to organize anything that needs to be done to benefit the community and the boating community are the Merchant Marine community we also produced a CD disc back in the day to help recreational boaters become better boaters, safer boaters so that there would be less accidents and deaths on the water. I find nothing funny or joking about that and I’m very proud of the individuals that put their time and money into helping others become better boatrts so that individuals could reduce the amount of deaths in the boating community what I would say is that you are the joke however as I stated earlier I find no reason to indulge you in any further conversation on this matter. a special thank you to all the captains of the mmca for the rescues they participated in, the help they gave during the BP oil crisis, the Pinellas county citizens who signed up to volunteer their time to help with the oil crisis if the need arose the a special thank you to those civilian citizens
Thank you gcaptain Santa for this early Christmas present!
For my two cents, rather than being a “known captain” I prefer to be a Captain from parts unknown. Would my ultimate warrior lifestyle fit into this esteemed organization? I’ve got several issues of five year licenses too.
