The manpower shortage is occurring in the Merchant Marines, the 5,500-person civilian workforce overseen by the U.S. Navy. Those workers, called mariners, work on numerous support vessels that resupply carriers, destroyers, cruisers, and submarines around the world. They also man vital transport vessels.
The plan to park the support ships was first reported by the U.S. Navy Institute which confirmed the plan with an unnamed defense official and a Navy officer.
The idea to sideline the ships, which is awaiting approval of the Chief of Naval Operations, has been nicknamed “the great reset” by top leaders at Military Sealift Command, or MSC, according to the USNI News article.
Among the 17 ships, the article says two of them are important mobile base vessels. Most of the other ships, 12 in all, are expeditionary fast (EPF) transport ships, known as the Spearhead class. Those ships are used for rapid deployment of company-sized U.S. Army soldiers and U.S. Marines. Two of those ships have already been sidelined.
Reacting to the announcement, retired naval commander Kirk Lippold calls it an “absolute failure” by Military Sealift Command and, to a lesser extent, the U.S. Navy itself.
“They have known about these manning shortfalls, literally sometimes years in advance, based upon the projections and the manpower needs,” he tells AFN.
In the UNSNI News story, retired mariners described an ongoing work retention issue in Military Sealift Command due to a grueling and unsustainable work schedule. The civilians are expected to be at sea for four months, away from their families, with only about a month at home before heading back to sea again. That demanding schedule worsened during the COVID-19 pandemic, they said, and now many have quit to be with their families and to even save their marriages, with no new hire to replace them.
“I can’t say much bad about MSC,” a former mariner told USNI News. “But when I left, I left because of my family.”
Sal Mercogliano, a history professor and former mariner, told USNI News the Military Sealift Command is “burning through people” after many years of neglect and mismanagement.
Lippold similarly tells AFN there should be some admirals “going home” and some civilians fired by the Biden-Harris administration for allowing this to happen.
