Superb insights. The vast array of ships available for purchase globally reveals innumerable craft available for a wide range of USMC/USN missions. We could buy everything we need while our own military ship building capacity sorts itself out. Why is that not done? Well, it is complicated…..if you don’t want to solve the problem.
The second portion of the problem is manning the ships. The first priority of the Navy should be manning its ships. The tooth to tail ratio is badly broken. Yet, on the other end of the spectrum the Navy can’t even purchase enough trousers for the Navy.
Imagine a college football coach who briefs the University President and reveals that he has the full complement of coaches, assistant coaches, trainers, conditioning coaches, administrative staff, public affairs people, academic tutors, a day care center, guidance counselors, community outreach team, DEI evaluators and 60 scholarship players but will not be able to field 11 offensive and 11 defensive players. Not only can’t he field a whole team, but those he can field may not have trousers.
The upper echelons of the civilian and uniformed leadership seem to be perfectly comfortable revealing their impotence and incompetence without regret or shame. It has become a culture tolerant of repeated failure spawned by incompetence, apathy, ignorance, corruption and denial.
Doug, your last line: "It has become a culture tolerant of repeated failure spawned by incompetence, apathy, ignorance, corruption and denial." is a superb summation of so much in our military today. I believe there does exist an active duty cadre that eschews what is going on; however, their voices are muted against the existing leadership that proffers the destructive policies currently in vogue. I cannot comprehend how our Corps' culture and ethos could have been so negatively twisted by individuals who have borne the uniform. As you have said, there is still time to turn this ship around from its current errant course; however, the window of opportunity is closing.
"If the Marine Corps is not able to make use of the EPFs and ESBs, it makes it even more imperative for the Marine Corps and the Navy to work together to find new ways to accelerate amphibious ship maintenance and construction. Every possible amphibious ship alternative and every possible shipyard must be pressed into service now."
The issue is not lack of facilities. The issue with ship maintenance is the continued deferment of maintenance and the lack of skilled tradesmen to effect these repairs. I have been shouting from the rooftops about the lack of available skilled tradesmen and women to work in the shipyards.
Who has not seen the "We build giants" commercials that are plastering the airwaves during sporting events? They are paying $22 an hour to start to hold a broom! If you want to learn a trade, they will teach you!
The Hampton Roads area of Virginia, home to Huntington Ingalls (builders of subs and carriers), and countless shipyards and repair companies CANNOT GET THE LABOR WE NEED.
I partially blame the Navy for this. Their haphazard way of planning maintenance is one of the lead problems with keeping trained talent in your workforce. Right now, one of the shipyards is in the process of laying off hundreds of workers since they did not win the latest LHD contract. The shipyard just down the road, who won the contract, is hiring. How is that for stability of home/work life? Having to find a new job every two years?
And this is just the maintenance side. Can you imagine if they did stop making the ships for a "strategic pause" and the effects on the skilled workforces those building yards employ?
LSD's are a victim of deferred maintenance. They were rode hard and put away wet so many times they are literally rotting from the inside out. My friend who is a Project Manager in one of the shipyard was surveying ballast tanks on one. He started down the ladder and could not find the next step. The ladder had rotted off 5 feet down from the hatch. He was able to walk on top of one tank and punch holes in the metal with a sharpened broom stick. He ended up replacing over 1500 sqft of metal in that tank. And that is ONE tank. There are literally hundreds of tanks on a typical amphib.
The XO on the USS Kearsarge was the CO of the USS Tortuga. She took command of the ship while in the shipyard, and turned over command....while still in the shipyard 2 years later.
Problem is the situation with these ships is not getting better...in any class of amphib.
I have been working on an alt on the Kearsarge for two years...supposed to be completed in Nov. Just talking with my project lead today, if everything lined up our way, he is thinking 4-6 months before we are completed. That will be close to 3 years.
HQMC needs to stand up new SPMAGTF-CR. I believe such a force should come out of the Darwin Rotational Force. It could be used to reinforce the 31st MEU. China will take advantage of our lack of US Naval ships in the area. We need to do this yesterday. While this is a manning problem, former CMC is still to blame for the lack of L-class ships, since he lowered the number of ships required.
The WestPac Express, the HSV that served III MEF for years, was the product of a CWO5 Embarkation Officer in East Timor noticing that the Australian military was using a similar ferry to move their troops. It took a lot but soon III MEF had a commercial HSV on lease. I (not the CWO5 that "discovered" this asset) was able to load an entire reinforced rifle battalion on board this vessel and have them in Korea in 24 hours. We loaded CH-46's, Cobras, Hueys, artillery, 7tons, HMMWV's on board this vessel. The only thing we could not load was tracked vehicles (the treads tore up the aluminum).
This vessel had the capability of loading over 900 personnel, in airline type seating and feed all, and all their toys in a single load. We used it to move to Thailand, Korea, Philippines, even Tinian once. Typical Korea exercise was 3 HSV loads: 2 from Okinawa and one for Iwakuni assets.
As a side note: Why hasn't anyone in Congress told the Marine Corps they want to see one of the full up round Marine Littoral Regiments with all its missiles and toys? Wouldn't that open some eyes to see that it is all smoke and mirrors at this point? That there are no missiles? That there are no "teeth" to these MLR's?
The MSC manning shortage could be fixed by recruiting mariners from NATO countries such as Italy, France, UK, Spain, etc. These countries have produced seafarers for centuries! If there are legal restrictions to this option then change/amend the law.
Doug, your last line: "It has become a culture tolerant of repeated failure spawned by incompetence, apathy, ignorance, corruption and denial." is a superb summation of so much in our military today. I believe there does exist an active duty cadre that eschews what is going on; however, their voices are muted against the existing leadership that proffers the destructive policies currently in vogue. I cannot comprehend how our Corps' culture and ethos could have been so negatively twisted by individuals who have borne the uniform. As you have said, there is still time to turn this ship around from its current errant course; however, the window of opportunity is closing.
Superb insights. The vast array of ships available for purchase globally reveals innumerable craft available for a wide range of USMC/USN missions. We could buy everything we need while our own military ship building capacity sorts itself out. Why is that not done? Well, it is complicated…..if you don’t want to solve the problem.
The second portion of the problem is manning the ships. The first priority of the Navy should be manning its ships. The tooth to tail ratio is badly broken. Yet, on the other end of the spectrum the Navy can’t even purchase enough trousers for the Navy.
Imagine a college football coach who briefs the University President and reveals that he has the full complement of coaches, assistant coaches, trainers, conditioning coaches, administrative staff, public affairs people, academic tutors, a day care center, guidance counselors, community outreach team, DEI evaluators and 60 scholarship players but will not be able to field 11 offensive and 11 defensive players. Not only can’t he field a whole team, but those he can field may not have trousers.
The upper echelons of the civilian and uniformed leadership seem to be perfectly comfortable revealing their impotence and incompetence without regret or shame. It has become a culture tolerant of repeated failure spawned by incompetence, apathy, ignorance, corruption and denial.
Doug, your last line: "It has become a culture tolerant of repeated failure spawned by incompetence, apathy, ignorance, corruption and denial." is a superb summation of so much in our military today. I believe there does exist an active duty cadre that eschews what is going on; however, their voices are muted against the existing leadership that proffers the destructive policies currently in vogue. I cannot comprehend how our Corps' culture and ethos could have been so negatively twisted by individuals who have borne the uniform. As you have said, there is still time to turn this ship around from its current errant course; however, the window of opportunity is closing.
Doug, I love the analogy of the woke football team!
"If the Marine Corps is not able to make use of the EPFs and ESBs, it makes it even more imperative for the Marine Corps and the Navy to work together to find new ways to accelerate amphibious ship maintenance and construction. Every possible amphibious ship alternative and every possible shipyard must be pressed into service now."
The issue is not lack of facilities. The issue with ship maintenance is the continued deferment of maintenance and the lack of skilled tradesmen to effect these repairs. I have been shouting from the rooftops about the lack of available skilled tradesmen and women to work in the shipyards.
Who has not seen the "We build giants" commercials that are plastering the airwaves during sporting events? They are paying $22 an hour to start to hold a broom! If you want to learn a trade, they will teach you!
The Hampton Roads area of Virginia, home to Huntington Ingalls (builders of subs and carriers), and countless shipyards and repair companies CANNOT GET THE LABOR WE NEED.
I partially blame the Navy for this. Their haphazard way of planning maintenance is one of the lead problems with keeping trained talent in your workforce. Right now, one of the shipyards is in the process of laying off hundreds of workers since they did not win the latest LHD contract. The shipyard just down the road, who won the contract, is hiring. How is that for stability of home/work life? Having to find a new job every two years?
And this is just the maintenance side. Can you imagine if they did stop making the ships for a "strategic pause" and the effects on the skilled workforces those building yards employ?
Don’t forget, this article is about how they screwed up the manning. Of the civilian mariners. Same problem, bad government, source Navy.
...and the LSDs are being retired early! Is this the SECNAV's version of defund the police...Oops! I mean "911 force" vs police ???
LSD's are a victim of deferred maintenance. They were rode hard and put away wet so many times they are literally rotting from the inside out. My friend who is a Project Manager in one of the shipyard was surveying ballast tanks on one. He started down the ladder and could not find the next step. The ladder had rotted off 5 feet down from the hatch. He was able to walk on top of one tank and punch holes in the metal with a sharpened broom stick. He ended up replacing over 1500 sqft of metal in that tank. And that is ONE tank. There are literally hundreds of tanks on a typical amphib.
Thanks Joe. I knew it was bad but not that bad.
The XO on the USS Kearsarge was the CO of the USS Tortuga. She took command of the ship while in the shipyard, and turned over command....while still in the shipyard 2 years later.
Problem is the situation with these ships is not getting better...in any class of amphib.
I have been working on an alt on the Kearsarge for two years...supposed to be completed in Nov. Just talking with my project lead today, if everything lined up our way, he is thinking 4-6 months before we are completed. That will be close to 3 years.
It is ship repair, it is not rocket science.
HQMC needs to stand up new SPMAGTF-CR. I believe such a force should come out of the Darwin Rotational Force. It could be used to reinforce the 31st MEU. China will take advantage of our lack of US Naval ships in the area. We need to do this yesterday. While this is a manning problem, former CMC is still to blame for the lack of L-class ships, since he lowered the number of ships required.
Quick correction. EPF can host a detachment of 104 for 2 weeks "or" 312 with the airline seating and hot rack the 104 berths for 4 days.
The WestPac Express, the HSV that served III MEF for years, was the product of a CWO5 Embarkation Officer in East Timor noticing that the Australian military was using a similar ferry to move their troops. It took a lot but soon III MEF had a commercial HSV on lease. I (not the CWO5 that "discovered" this asset) was able to load an entire reinforced rifle battalion on board this vessel and have them in Korea in 24 hours. We loaded CH-46's, Cobras, Hueys, artillery, 7tons, HMMWV's on board this vessel. The only thing we could not load was tracked vehicles (the treads tore up the aluminum).
This vessel had the capability of loading over 900 personnel, in airline type seating and feed all, and all their toys in a single load. We used it to move to Thailand, Korea, Philippines, even Tinian once. Typical Korea exercise was 3 HSV loads: 2 from Okinawa and one for Iwakuni assets.
As a side note: Why hasn't anyone in Congress told the Marine Corps they want to see one of the full up round Marine Littoral Regiments with all its missiles and toys? Wouldn't that open some eyes to see that it is all smoke and mirrors at this point? That there are no missiles? That there are no "teeth" to these MLR's?
The MSC manning shortage could be fixed by recruiting mariners from NATO countries such as Italy, France, UK, Spain, etc. These countries have produced seafarers for centuries! If there are legal restrictions to this option then change/amend the law.
Even if we use allies it invites in a fifth column should the balloon go up.
Doug, your last line: "It has become a culture tolerant of repeated failure spawned by incompetence, apathy, ignorance, corruption and denial." is a superb summation of so much in our military today. I believe there does exist an active duty cadre that eschews what is going on; however, their voices are muted against the existing leadership that proffers the destructive policies currently in vogue. I cannot comprehend how our Corps' culture and ethos could have been so negatively twisted by individuals who have borne the uniform. As you have said, there is still time to turn this ship around from its current errant course; however, the window of opportunity is closing.