Not stoked to have a submariner from the Heritage Foundation (project 2025) leading a fleet of surface ships manned by civilians. I’m all for hoping things will change, but I don’t love the nominee.
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I don’t think it’s a bad pick, and I’m not even mad that it’s not a mariner at the top spot. It’s better to be a warrior in a garden, than a gardener in a war I suppose. I ran out of Chat GPT deep research for the month, so I had to ask Elon Musk’s Grok his opinion on the matter. All things considered, despite heritage foundation ties, he at has been talking about all the right things, and I think he’ll do a fine job if approved.
I don’t disagree with anything he said here:
The Jones act may get in the way of the administration’s ambitions, but I optimistically, and naively believe that they may put something better in place if there are changes to be made.
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The alternate definition of insanity “is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results”…
Yet another high ranking Naval Officer with NO experience in the Commercial Merchant Marine is being hawked as a nominee. Mariner? What kind of Mariner? Submariner- Yes. Merchant Mariner- Not. What about Commercial Merchant Marine Business Practices? Has this individual ever stepped foot aboard a U.S. Flag Merchant Ship?
No the ineffectual leadership within MARAD and MSC (yes these were also high ranking Naval Officers who retired and then attempted to shape maritime policy for the better. Look at the sad state of affairs that those organizations are in today.
Then there’s the obvious disdain for the Jones Act, the membership in the Heritage Foundation which has openly and continually attempted to further their goals of destroying the Jones Act and thus all of the US Flag shipping that goes with it…
No, no more retired Admirals, no more DEI selectees- let’s get some top flight US Commercial Shipping Executives in there and start charting the right course.
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The man has two masters degrees, and graduated from USNA with honors, and is a prolific writer and leader, Who the hell would the industry put forward in this type of role? John Konrad who can’t even proofread his own articles?. What commercial shipping executives have a maritime background? See if Robert Kiyosaki could do a better job? The CEO of OSG has a Bachelor of Arts in Chinese Language and Literature, that’s what you think would do a better job? Or are you thinking more like just put it up on the union Job board and let the most senior person from AMO, MMP, MEBA and SIU duke it out?
I think it’s easier to take someone with an deep understanding of military logistics and let them research maritime policy, than taking someone from a shipping company’s boardroom and hoping they can learn military logistics.
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I agree with both what you’ve said and to some extent @2GENUSMM
I think there is for sure a middle ground where you can find someone who’s sailed in the USMM in some capacity and have served in the USN to have both backgrounds. Would it be a unicorn? Sure, but they exist. There are SSO 06’s who have worked the commercial sector in their day jobs. Finding the person who values the National security aspect of the JA and understands MSC/MARAD and their value to the war fighter is the right guy. I’m not sold that a submariner has any hands on experience with MSC aside from watching the crew from the Frank Cable drive home at 4 pm in Guam every day.
This is the worst route possible. High rank commercial shipping execs want to protect their money, and the Jones Act isn’t helping them do it. I think I’ve mentioned it before but I met a ship owner once who said “it’s nothing personal, but if the JA ever gets repealed I’m taking all you guys off the ship that day”
JK put himself forward one year in a hilarious article based on nothing but his want for the role.
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Keep the Merchant Marine and Navy as two separate entities. We were in a very similar place prior to WWII. In 1937 through 1939 extensive attention was paid to the U.S. Flag Merchant Marine; shipbuilding took off in 1939 with few large shipbuilders. By 1942, this was not the case. The Maritime Commission was headed up by Admiral Emory S. Land- who realized that US Flag Merchant Ships were an invaluable part of National Security and Defense. The duties of the Maritime Commission encompassed Manpower, Shipbuilding, Training and other facets. Admiral Land retained the services of a large amount civilian steamship executives as well as noteworthy Naval Shipbuilders. This needs to happen again.
The 1920 and 1936 Merchant Marine Acts promulgated this rapid change. The War Shipping Administration (led by civilians) marshalled the sealift resources needed to support our wartime victory. The War Shipping Administration was essentially gutted and disbanded (and returned back to the Maritime Commission) after WWII ended. Secretary Forrestal (as the first Secretary of Defense) urged (and later got) that the military- specifically the US Navy be in command of all sealift and formed what was then the Military Sea Transportation Service which later became MSC. Some job they’ve done.
There at least three highly qualified individuals with similar educational attributes who have sailed as Master and who have reached the corporate heights with US Flag Shipping Companies- they would be by far a much better choice. John Parrott- formerly of Tote/Saltchuck/Foss would be in my mind a much better choice… Sadler wants to head up a shipbuilding evolution- fine- similar to that as Adm Land and Ship Construction team- appoint Sadler to the Office of Shipbuilding not a Maritime Administrator.
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What I’m getting at, is clearly this guy is smarter than the average bear. Every Nuke I’ve worked with was already smart, but with the extracurriculars on this guy’s resume, I think he knows enough to be effective.
But @2GENUSMM I think we need to recognize that WW3 is a much different conflict than WWII. I fear many people are concerned about the number of horses in our calvary, but the fight is going to be Armored warfare; to draw a parallel to WWII. We’re going to come out of this with unmanned shipping, that’s where this is heading. I think comparing WWII to WW3 is going to be apples and oranges in hindsight.
We’re looking at supporting an island hopping campaign in the pacific, I don’t thing anyone alive in the positions you are looking at are any better of a choices with this in mind. With the exception on the tug and barge operations in Alaska, I can’t think of relevant institutional knowledge on this sort of operation. This is a 3rd hand sea story at this point, but the Crowley WAK guys showed up to a DOD meeting with a plan for supplying fuel in the pacific, and were laughed out of the room with no real backend support planning. Not to mention we can’t be waiting for perfect conditions to deliver cargo.
There’s a “distain” for the jones act because It’s preventing building like we need to. We need to be building, crewing, and operating lil baby tankers like the Pohang Pioneer and the SLNC Pax, but all we get legal loopholes like ATBs and ITBs, which are way more complicated than they have to be, and generally a bad time in overseas trade.
When the starting gun is actually fired, then yes, it will be all hands on deck, but if we’re going to be running around with challenge coins that say “laborare pugnare parati sumus” I think I’d rather have a warrior in my garden.
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@jdcavo ? 
Probably gonna have my next renewal stuck in vetting limbo for eternity for putting that evil on him now. 
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Ask for reconsideration.
Would it be to much to ask for an actual merchant mariner to be in chargevat MARAD?
No, ot just a KP grad.
An actual merchant mariner, who has worked the Halls and sailed.
I would suggest Tony Poplawski, Vince O’Halloran, or Dave Nolan
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For expertise in shipping cargo to isolated areas in a hostile environment look at the programme High Arctic Haulers showing the operation of the Groupe Desgagnes.
Oh dear, I forgot that you have declared Canada an enemy.
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