This is happening very soon. I suppose they will have to take off the guns, air-search radars, CIWS, etc…
What fun…our own ex-warship.
Where are they going to find the CIVMARs for this pet project? MSC may be streching itself a bit thin with this one.
Now…can you guess what ship will soon be painting on the MSC stack stripes?
We did this before right? USS GLOVER -> USNS GLOVER. An MSC Destoyer!
Yes Yes, I know about the AEs, AOEs, and ARSs we took, I don’t consider those “warships”.
Yea, another brilliant move, like command ships, tenders etc. Sure would be nice if Msc had real leadership… Other than hi ranking naval officers trying to put feathers in their cap for the CNO.
What purpose would an unarmed ex-destroyer serve for MSC? It cant haul anything useful for them.
[QUOTE=KennyW1983;60192]What purpose would an unarmed ex-destroyer serve for MSC? It cant haul anything useful for them.[/QUOTE]
Just guessing here. Test platform, target, training ship, etc…
[QUOTE=UnRepKing;60052]We did this before right? USS GLOVER -> USNS GLOVER. An MSC Destoyer!
Yes Yes, I know about the AEs, AOEs, and ARSs we took, I don’t consider those “warships”.[/QUOTE]
It was a frigate.
They can replace many of the deck, steward and engineering rates with CIVMARs but keep the combat rates USN. This is no different then the Mount Whitney (LCC 20). CIVMARs are cheaper then a gaggle of USN, their families, pensions and benefits.
They used the Glover as a survey vessel… T-AGS if my memory serves.
This is from a friend at MSC:
"We’ve been “requested” to man up the USS Ponce, which is an old piece of shit LPD. There was a study done to see if our civmar engineers could run the plant better than the Navy. Never heard about the outcome, then I saw where the program got canx. The whole thing is about the fact that the Navy can’t safely run the steam engine rooms. They’ve been getting blasted during OPPEs and INSURVs.
So anyway, magically the program is back on again with an extremely high priority and a very ambitious timeline for MSC taking over the ship. My read is that somebody high up noticed we fixed then operated the fucked up plants on the 2 sub tenders with less than half the engineers the Navy required. Plus, there is really not much of a training pipeline for Navy kids to go through to prepare them for boiler plant operation. The pipeline for civmar engineers is,…you got a steam license, then you’re experienced.
So, yes, MSC is gonna rob it’s fleet of every experienced steam license engineer it can find and throw them on the Ponce."
There us little wonder the present ay USN knows nothing about ships. Given they can be seen driving around in their $60,000 cars, live in condos and not in ships, have contractors fix, paint, maintain, and load stores on their ships is there any wonder? Sure, msc will take the crap LSD, fix it and the USN will be arrogant enough to come and do an " inspection" on a ship that have been proven incapable of operating. The joke continues.
The rest of the story: http://www.navytimes.com/news/2012/01/navy-afloat-forward-staging-base-ships-join-fleet-012812w/
Yep, another abortion plan they have the gall to call “hybrid”. What a joke the USN and Msc have become.
[QUOTE=UnRepKing;60051]This is happening very soon. I suppose they will have to take off the guns, air-search radars, CIWS, etc…
What fun…our own ex-warship.[/QUOTE]
With what the world has turned into I’d keep guns, air-search radars and such.
[QUOTE=UnRepKing;60051]Where are they going to find the CIVMARs for this pet project? MSC may be streching itself a bit thin with this one.[/QUOTE]
I’m available 
You guys are all a bit behind the curve. Ponce has already been through the yard, done a (sort-of) conversion and is deployed. Been on mission for quite a while now.
[QUOTE=Jeffrox;60286]So, yes, MSC is gonna rob it’s fleet of every experienced steam license engineer it can find and throw them on the Ponce."[/QUOTE]
I’m of the opinion MSC doesn’t have that many experienced steam license engineers these days. Could very well be wrong but all the ones I knew retired or are singing in the choir invisible. KP and State Academies still graduate cadets who hold 3rd A/E, Steam and Motor, but that doesn’t make them anything but candidates to finally find out what’s it all about and that takes a lot of on the job training. This could very well turn into a big cluster fuck.
There was talk some years ago of putting lic engineers and deck officers on USS ships, in essence Msc would be a taxi service. Then the USN could ride along, not worry about operating the ship, drink monster drinks, eat cheese balls, watch movies, award themselves with citations and metals, and when done talk about how they are war fighters. The idea died thank god.
You would be correct in my eyes. There may be some left, but the majority of them are gone, dead or retired. Steam guys generally didn’t want to be motor guys and remained with the steam ships until they went out of service. Personally, give me a steam ship, a first rate steam engineer and I’ll go anywhere in the world… I loved those old steam ships.
[QUOTE=Xmsccapt(ret);83898]You would be correct in my eyes. There may be some left, but the majority of them are gone, dead or retired. Steam guys generally didn’t want to be motor guys and remained with the steam ships until they went out of service. Personally, give me a steam ship, a first rate steam engineer and I’ll go anywhere in the world… I loved those old steam ships.[/QUOTE]
You are correct. After I worked on three steam ships which were put down for various reasons I decided it’s time to transition. Attended Calhoon Diesel Class and took a job as 3rd A/E, then with that experience under my belt I sailed 2nd, then 1st and Chief. Never felt I was anything, as my friend cmakin posted, but a mechanic, not that there’s any thing wrong with that but it didn’t have the same feel as an steam plant. Yes, once you are an experienced steam engineer that’s where you belong. I decided not to bother with motor any longer and became available to take whatever steam offering came my way; for me, that was a good decision. Funny, as I look back it’s only the steam ships I think about. I could tell you the name of every one I sailed but I’d have to break-out my huge stack of ship discharges to come-up with the names of the motor jobs. Something else, steam guys can transition, motor guys (with no steam experience) not so much.
[QUOTE=Xmsccapt(ret);83897]There was talk some years ago of putting lic engineers and deck officers on USS ships, in essence Msc would be a taxi service. Then the USN could ride along, not worry about operating the ship, drink monster drinks, eat cheese balls, watch movies, award themselves with citations and metals, and when done talk about how they are war fighters. The idea died thank god.[/QUOTE]
When I was in, we ate Easy Cheese, shot right from the can into the mouth. There was nothing worse on movie night than to hear that sputtering, last fart of propellant spitting out of the nozzle of one’s beloved cheese can.