MARAD is relieving the USMMA of their training ship, the [I][B]T/V King’s Pointer[/B][/I], and pushing forward with plans to transfer the vessel to Galveston Texas, home of Texas A&M.
Sources within Kings Point report that a closed-door meeting was called on December 9th, 2011, where staff was notified of MARAD’s order. Our source tells us, “but as with everything that (the Dec 9th meeting) is sensitive, it was not a secret (except maybe to the people who will benefit from this)”. Another source close to the matter told gCaptain that the move by MARAD is “shocking and unexpected”.
Very interesting. The article has more escape routes and switchbacks than a road built by a defense contractor though. The KP insiders are shocked by the news but it doesn’t matter because the dock rebuild means there would be no place to moor a ship anyway? I would love to know the timeline on this whole affair, something just doesn’t add up.
The article is very well written but one comment strikes me as a bit disingenuous, the clamor to close down a school that has long past its “sell by date” has not been silenced by the GMATS announcement. If anything that bit of news only reinforces the growing irrelevance of KP to the nation and the American mariner.
If someone at MARAD woke up long enough to realise that a training ship was not needed because private industry could supply sea time to a shrinking number of the student body who actually go to sea, maybe there is a chance someone else might even ask if the money spent to add another 150 baby mariners to a shrinking job pool is a worthy investment.
Tradition, marching bands, shiny youth with pretty uniforms pretending to be relevant and grateful for a free ride on the taxpayer’s back just doesn’t justify its continued existence. This is 2012, not 1941 or even 1964.
Dumping GMATS robs America of a valuable maritime resource. Maintaining KP robs us of resources that if invested better would have a positive impact on American security and the health of the American Merchant Marine.
Taking away the training ship is a start and for that I say “hats off” to some brave and thinking soul at MARAD.
[QUOTE=Steamer;59206]Taking away the training ship is a start and for that I say “hats off” to some brave and thinking soul at MARAD.[/QUOTE]
No way! Your “brave and thinking soul” at MarAd is already working on a plan to beg the Congress for more money soon the replace the training ship Kings Point so “desperately needs” just like the facilities have “desperately needed” renovation for the past 40years. The demand never will ever cease or come to an end. In keeping with the great wisdom at MarAd for deciding ships to convert to become training vessels, they’ll pick some ancient 1960’s breakbulker with machinery not to be seen anywhere else in the world other than the antiquated US merchant fleet. I love steam too but steam is dead EVERYWHERE except for the USA!
KP is a vast smouldering mountain of corruption that spews forth an endless lava flow of demands for more and more money to satisfy the appetite of the great bloated one (read Administration & Alumni here) who sits atop the steaming heap of fraud and waste!
So sad, you folks still can’t get over the fact that USMMA did not accept you. It’s time to talk about it. How did you feel when you realized you were not the caliber of person that gets accepted into that fine institution? Was it when you got your rejection letter? Or did you never even apply?
[QUOTE=UnRepKing;59297]So sad, you folks still can’t get over the fact that USMMA did not accept you. [/QUOTE]
If that is the best defense of continuing to waste tax money on KP then, thank you, you have shown just how indefensible it is.
Allow me to quote a recent post by ccaptain that you should take seriously:
[I]"Just so it is perfectly clear…my position to close Kings Point is that it is redundant and the purpose for which it’s funding is legitimized by its entrenched supporters is no longer valid and truly hasn’t been since the end of WWII. I object to any spending of money by a Federal Government (that has to borrow money from the Chinese to operate) on programs that to not have real demonstratable benefit to the nation. I believe that wasteful projects and programs make up at least one third of all Federal spending and should be eliminated whereever they are found and identified. KP is just one that is extremely easy to spot being painted pink with purple pokeodots all over it.
What do we as taxpaying citizens get for $86M a year? Is it a genuine real benefit to the US to justify that much money? I say NO, IT IS NOT!" [/I]
If KP places 150 baby 3rds in the industry each year (of whom very few stick around long), at more than $573,000 apiece I believe if the taxpayer even knew about this waste we wouldn’t be having this discussion. There is simply no defense of that kind of expense for such a negligible return.
[QUOTE=UnRepKing;59297]So sad, you folks still can’t get over the fact that USMMA did not accept you. It’s time to talk about it. How did you feel when you realized you were not the caliber of person that gets accepted into that fine institution? Was it when you got your rejection letter? Or did you never even apply?[/QUOTE]
A trifling statement ultimately hollow and meaningless…
Try again but this time try to add some thought and reason to it
[QUOTE=c.captain;59313]Try again but this time try to add some thought and reason to it[/QUOTE]
If “thought and reason” ever applied we wouldn’t need to talk about it. KP would have gone away in the first round of base closings in 1989.
Unfortunately the few people who are writing about this issue (except for Joe Keefe) seem to be editorializing a bit more than I believe is appropriate. The lastest spin is that the training ship was repo’ed to facilitate the pier work and is going to Texas for safekeeping. What? Is parking that scarce around New York? No mention is made of MARAD’s own explanatory statements. The spinsters in MARAD and the alumni group have opened all the nozzles on this issue now that it appears as if the smell is reaching beyond the campus and New Jersey Avenue.
It is worth following the sequence of articles over the past few months - or even the past few days. Reading the explanations as the principles have tried to perform damage control shows a glimpse behind a curtain they are increasingly desperate to maintain. This has nothing to do with the US Merchant Marine, maritime training, national security, or anything other than self preservation, pride, ego, and protecting a large basket of rice bowls.