They have had 3 presidents since 1986 (Curtis, Tyler, Brennan). None of them were ex-military.
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@Capt_Phoenix I stand corrected. Most of the Maine guys talked as if their school was run by a disillusioned military leader and they thought this new guy would be a good step in the right direction. I guess most of them assumed the past leader was a military man. Sorry should have looked into it myself.
Appears that USMMA will be lifting the pause on SEA YEAR very,very soon.An agreement is pending with all concerned parties, as well as State schools, operators and unions.
Already have. Article includes link to relevant MARAD documents.
USMMA Sea Year program set to resume - Marine Log
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The ATRs had started assigning billets a number of days ago with December 22 as effective date.
Thatās an awful lot of requirements put on a master and crew for the āprivilegeā of having KP cadets onboard. Cadets get private staterooms with door locks. The ship and crew have more training, reporting, record keeping. Compliance reviews. (What penalties for compliance failures?)
My hands down favorite is this gem:
IV.5ā¦develop and implement expanded mandatory annual SASH training for all crew members including, but not limited to:
b. Micro aggression consciousness
There are others:
30.IV.6ā¦The [database] shall contain the names of all merchant mariners who are the subjects of substantiated reports of discriminatory, SASH-related, violent, or other violative behavior, ā¦ shall be recorded and accessible to all operators of U.S.-flag vessels.
31.V.1.c. recorded video monitoring of, at a
minimum, passageways immediately
adjacent to cadet staterooms.
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Man. . . . and folks wonder why I donāt sail any longer. . . . .
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IV.5 section B. So, If I tell a person (Male or female) from whatever Academy to āStay on the mother effing rangesā I get flagged? I guess I was āmicro aggresiveā to stay off the national newsā¦ I retired early as well, not because of this shit, crew was treated fairlyā¦
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Thatās a lot of requirements. Will it stop anythingā¦ā¦ ? That remains to be seen. What will the reaction beā¦ā¦ I imagine the program will wither and attrit as the repetitive nature of the requirements unfold. As I have said before not sure anyone has the answers to prevent deviant behavior and I am pretty sure I still feel that way after reading these docs.
Acta non Verba ( too much Verba)
Cameras outside cadet staterooms. Hahahahahahahahahahah
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I graduated Maine Maritime Academy 1958, and was in the Regiment. I cannot speak for the experience or feelings of others but the Maine Maritime Regiment taught this poor immigrantās kid from Brooklyn, New York, to stand straight; shine your shoes; keep your clothing, hair and hat neat; make your bed in the morning; learn to take orders before you can give them; no drinking and stay alert on watch and maintain discipline and order on the Bridge and Engine Room; Look and act like a āleaderā, Maintain morale; take care of your crew. The Regiment allowed me to receive a commission as an Officer in the US Navy (my Father cried when he first saw me in my Officerās uniform). and helped me immeasurably in the Merchant Marine.
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100% agree. Sadly, many out there think weāve evolved to some magical point in history where this system is obsolete.
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I can say that the regimental aspect of my training did much the same for me. Not sure that I had the personal discipline to get through a āregularā college. . . and I know of others, too.
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Plenty of GLMA grads who succeed despite no regiment, but an unusual student body and quite a lot of attrition (maybe of the kids who wouldāve benefitted from the regimentation).
The database thing seems highly dubious, what the hell is a āsubstantiated reportā
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There would need to be US flag jobs for mates and engineers.
Leaving Navy active duty in 1958, I found nothing for my third mateās license. I took a shoreside option as an ocean marine insurance hull and cargo underwriter trainee. There, I noticed the volume of cargo was already moving on foreign āflag of convenienceā ships.
The WW2 Merchant Marine consisted mainly of ships sponsored by the War Shipping Administration and leased to shipping companies. Kings Pointās job was to provide the mates and engineers to run them. After the war, no need, few ships, few jobs.
For now, the equivalent would be training people to operate and manage the supply chain logistics needed by US government and military activities.
Now, the containers used for such shipments become an important āvesselā to be tracked and managed. Proper inspections of containers and contents are needed for safe and secure voyage on the ship, but hard to do since the container is stuffed and locked before arrival at the ship.
I regularly refer to KP as the NY school of Buggy Whip Making.
KP does have value to the military- it cranks out officers. It does, also, to a lesser extent turn out merchant officers and maritime support industry workersā¦ but does it serve the US maritime industry to a greater degree than the state schools? If not, why should the fed bear the increased cost to educate a KP mariner vs, say a state school mariner? To that end, I think the blurred lines between the mission of KP as a military/maritime institution serves itself well- they canāt compete with the efficiency and cost containment of state maritime schools, but state maritime schools donāt turn out as high a percentage of naval officers among their maritime grads.
The SASH issues KP experiences receive a good deal of attention, but this past yearās survey on harassment shows that it is pervasive in ALL academies so that seems like it should be a separate discussion.
With great respect to the very senior mariners who contribute so prolifically, I have to add that that the discussions here occasionally remind me of rearranging the furniture on the Titanic. The industry has changed so much so rapidly on the afloat end that even active mariners often operate with an incomplete picture of current issues.
From a trade school standpoint, most of the academies are still training cadets for jobs that donāt exist or at the least are decreasing in number annually. How many cadets get to have some shipping time on an ATB or limited tonnage boat, where the bulk of the afloat jobs are?
How many junior officers leave the industry because there arenāt any good jobs? Most of them. What better metric of failure is there than that?
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Not to argue one way or the other for its continued existence, but only to address one point. KP is a national institution. It draws students from all over the country and territories. State schools do not, though they have a regional draw in way of tuition breaks. Many states and territories are left out if considering only the State Academies.
The counter argument could be made that those state schools could open up access to those other states that were left out and also increase full scholarships if the funding were even partially re-allocated to the state schools.
I donāt have a dog in this fight, just playing devils advocate.
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I agree the state schools could be made less āStateā by opening access and increasing full scholarships. If that happened, I have no doubt the added cost would be it would be paid by the Fed along with added strings attached.
Gentlemen
I think your points on limited tonnage opportunities are very valid. I have offered my POV on KP and its continued usefulness in prior posts. No need to dredge that up again. I think you may be a bit off on the State Schools. Although many of their students come from their respective states. They already have 25-30% of their students from other states. Granted I doubt they are recruiting in Iowa and Nebraska and the Dakotas ( although you never know). But I donāt think we need to ensure we replicate the KP model at the states schools, even in the unlikely event KP were to be eliminated in the future
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