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USS Fitzgerald collision in C7F

Hair Warrior

Hair Warrior

Well-Known Member
Contributor
ChuckMK23 said:
We haven't had a true naval battle in 75 years - SWO's have long lost a combat / operational culture mindset. Its now a profession around industrial management - not seamanship.
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The surface navy has definitely had some setbacks, but they’ve also demonstrated some impressive capabilities in recent years, relative to other navies. They’ve gone alone and unafraid into the Black Sea. They’ve defended themselves from Houthi anti ship missiles. They have taken out Syrian airfields and chem factories with TLAMs. That all takes some serious work, preparation, discipline, and leadership. It’s not all a bad news story.
 
ChuckMK23

ChuckMK23

FERS and TSP contributor!
pilot
Hair Warrior said:
The surface navy has definitely had some setbacks, but they’ve also demonstrated some impressive capabilities in recent years, relative to other navies. They’ve gone alone and unafraid into the Black Sea. They’ve defended themselves from Houthi anti ship missiles. They have taken out Syrian airfields and chem factories with TLAMs. That all takes some serious work, preparation, discipline, and leadership. It’s not all a bad news story.
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Peace there - great points!!!
 
Hair Warrior

Hair Warrior

Well-Known Member
Contributor
Hair Warrior said:
The Navy has a program to recruit merchant mariners (some of whom have captained USNS types), commission them as 166X strategic sealift officers, and have them evaluate/support bridge procedures and watchstanding underway during busy transits to improve safety. The merchant marines do a good job at nautical instruction. The Navy could probably benefit from schools like SUNY-Maritime as a source of new SWO accessions, because trying to teach someone to safely drive big ships is not a fast process.

It’s also worth asking whether SWO should be split into a couple designators like aviation splits NAs and NFOs, with one designator focused solely on safe ship driving (bridge procedures) and the other focused on everything else (weaps, propulsion, maintenance, etc.). The idea would be to take work off the plate of surface navy JOs so they can focus on a narrower skill set, and become more specialized in it. I think the surface navy is already going that route with COMMOs on CRUDES as either a SWO-IP option selectee or a straight stick 1820.
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Belay my last. The plan is now to take SWOs and commission them as merchant mariners.

www.navytimes.com

Why Trump is trying to help sailors become merchant mariners

The president's executive order comes amid fears that the United States won't be able to muster enough qualified merchant mariners to sustain combat operations abroad.
www.navytimes.com www.navytimes.com
 
ChuckMK23

ChuckMK23

FERS and TSP contributor!
pilot
sevenhelmet

sevenhelmet

Low calorie attack from the Heartland
pilot
Sort of... You can't milcomp an ATP though, and the USCG license (assuming they mean unlimited size/HP) is more or less the marine equivalent. I thought this SWO to MM thing was a decent idea at first, but I see some potential problems. Are there sufficient numbers of SWOs who actually want to sail civilian after they get out? If so, MM sailing jobs are more limited than one might think- what happens when more experienced former SWOs start to displace newly-licensed US or state MMA graduates? How will competency be determined (e.g. exams?)

Food for thought.
 
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Duc'-guy25

Duc'-guy25

Well-Known Member
pilot
ChuckMK23 said:
So Mil-Competency Mariner ratings for SWOs.... which has been in place for pilots for decades...
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It's been around for the surface community for decades as well, just in a different form (Military to Mariner). Also, comparing military flight training to its civilian counterpart is far different than comparing navy shiphandling/navigation to its counterpart. Unfortunately this isn't going to do much for them either since there's hardly any jobs in the US Merchant Marine currently. Have fun being homeless living out of the union hall.

Edit: sorry @sevenhelmet totally didn't read your post. ^What he said.
 
ChuckMK23

ChuckMK23

FERS and TSP contributor!
pilot
Duc'-guy25 said:
It's been around for the surface community for decades as well, just in a different form (Military to Mariner). Also, comparing military flight training to its civilian counterpart is far different than comparing navy shiphandling/navigation to its counterpart. Unfortunately this isn't going to do much for them either since there's hardly any jobs in the US Merchant Marine currently. Have fun being homeless living out of the union hall.

Edit: sorry @sevenhelmet totally didn't read your post. ^What he said.
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Good explanation - thank you!
 
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