Since my first days as a Second Lieutenant the instant death sentence read something akin to: “ prohibited by an order, regulation or law.” Well, change the darn order, regulation or law…. This is where the leadership showed a remarkable paralysis, apathy or indifference. It was as if the burning bush had spoken and they were absolved of all responsibility. Should not the SecNav and SecDef be beating down doors to repeal the Jones Act?
Yes, too many clueless young people get their college loan to major in French Medieval Poetry only to later wait tables and feel like their talent has not been rewarded. This where the needs of the nation and immigration reform intersect. A smarter nation would establish immigration categories where we would attract welders, metal workers and other skills to work and after a number of years become eligible for citizenship. Instead we attract the aspiring rock star, fashion designer and frustrated poet who comes to kick back on the dole. Not to mention criminals.
“Over the bleached and jumbled bones of every failed civilization are written the pathetic words: too late, too late.” We are in exactly that trajectory. The sense of urgency to get women in the infantry seemed to resonate. The energy and urgency to build or buy, man and exercise ships and planes just seemed too mundane for legions of Flag Officers, Secretaries of the Navy and Defense. Hire some firebreathers, dump the deadwood and set it on fire. Get some damn results.
-"They don't even paint anymore!" - coats of grey were the always the running joke. I remember the sailors on the 'DaPuke laughing when I asked about the 40mm AA mounts ('92). "We don't shoot 'em, we just paint 'em". (They admitted they occasionally shot the guns, but it was a very low priority). Sobering point...not painting is worse than not using; indifference is the highest form of hatred.
-To Coffeejoe's point: This issue exposes a gross cultural problem in senior levels and in the entry population, both civilian and Navy. If no-one is prioritizing the details that lead to greater self sufficiency at the tip of the spear underway, much less competency in port, then who is going to see to those details? Further, have we truly jumped the shark with respect to our tradesman in the shipyards. Coffeejoe thinks so, and I wonder, what now? This is a bigger issue if we can't get warm hands and fertile minds to pick up the tools.
BZ Coffee Joe and Mr Whittemore. Now we get to the guts of the issue. Fix legislation to fit our current situation and have trade training back in HS to get kids into the trades.
May 22 was National Maritime Day, a good day to reflect on the unprecedented level of attention that U.S. maritime policy has been getting lately.
The SHIPS Act—officially named the Shipbuilding and Harbor Infrastructure for Prosperity and Security for America Act of 2025—was reintroduced in both the Senate and House in late April. It’s a bipartisan bill aimed at revitalizing the U.S. Merchant Marine and shipbuilding industry. The bill awaits committee action and debate.
It’s a time of intense activity for all interests concerned with America’s maritime industry. Many of the SHIPS Act’s provisions (but not all) have also been incorporated into a recent executive order from President Donald Trump. The upcoming Inland Marine Expo will have a panel devoted to these moves.”!
Superbly written!We must continue to bombard Our Elected and Appointed Public Servants of these facts and get Our Marine Corps and Navy the ships we need now!
It starts with the SECNAV and he just relentlessly giving the SECDEF an earful and remind POTUS when he calls the SECNAV at 0130 asking where his ships are, “well Mr. President we could have Ice Breakers being built in the ship yards in Helsinki and so on and so forth. But, we have this Damn Jones Act.” Then the blob in the Senate Armed services Committee and especially the sub committee on Sea Power can get off their high horses long enough to address the problem. Agreed equally, if the High Schools won’t herald the trades, then bring in the trades from away. We hear about the programers and code writers and AI needs, but no one talks about welders and electricians that can rewind a rotor and rebalance it with the stator and have a rebuilt motor. This writer worked with a merchant marine engineer from the Harris Islands in Scotland, as a 16 year old, he was aboard a ship that lost power in a storm in the North Atlantic. They managed to get the power plant operational and it was a Hell of a story. It is hard to imagine an American teenager being interested, but they are, and these are the same youngsters our Corps needs as well. The world is not waiting. It wont wait for FD to fizzle out and won’t wait for a rust bucket Navy and its SECNAV to get its act together. Men and ships go to rot in port. Interesting that a bunch of Marines are thinking on all this…what was that island chain defense thingy some dude was talking about??
I admire Joe Java's concerns and perspective. But the real problem may not be the Jones Act.
First of all a little funding won't help. It will take a whole lot of funding. The stingy politicians have to break off some and actually refund the Navy and naval shipbuilding. If Huntington Ingalls is failing down on the job then control of this work should be handed back to someone who cares, the Navy or a public agency synced with the Navy, something like NASA used to be for rocketry.
If there are too few skilled workers it is not because there are not hungry and capable people in the population. There are plenty who live on the edge who would leap at the chance if given the chance, which often means a much more solid high school education. Of course the Navy if properly funded and manned could recruit and prepare people for such work and return them to the society to do it.
Also, if you want people to do this kind of demanding work you can't just give them skinflint internships. Give them real jobs with real pay and train them on the job. This is expensive and the logic of it benefits the workers, so of course Huntington Ingalls would not do it!
An intervention in public education might also be needed here. Some healthy nationalism, devotion to the common defense, must be reintroduced into the school system and young people taught to be excited about association with it, and excited about their own prospects for a prosperous personal life through service to it. No element in our current political climate stands for this even though it is now crucial for our upcoming existential confrontations with China!
Then there is the larger problem. The country needs to reindustrialize to have any kind of viable navy in the Pacific. This means massive organizational transformation in strategic industries, basically all large scale industries, and massive savings and investment intelligently deployed! That is the way Japan and now China do it so at this point we have no choice but to also do it, or else live forever under China's heel.
The country needs to re-maritime-ize. (Apologies. Couldn't think of a word.) We need to rebuild our civil shipbuilding to where it is on a scale where it matches China's instead of being a small fraction of South Korea's. This will not happen unless we do what Japan did in the 1950s and South Korea did in the 1960s, massively intervene. Moreover our maritime commerce, or at least half of it, must all be put back in American made ships under American ownership and control, which means new laws and enforcing them. We need large numbers of Americans serving as trained merchant marine staff and officers so they can be mobilized if need be, for military strategies or even industrial ones.
Are all these questions legitimate and pressing concerns for our Navy and Marine Corps? I believe they are. These huge problems are not ordinarily the Marine Corp's brief, but these are not ordinary times.
Since my first days as a Second Lieutenant the instant death sentence read something akin to: “ prohibited by an order, regulation or law.” Well, change the darn order, regulation or law…. This is where the leadership showed a remarkable paralysis, apathy or indifference. It was as if the burning bush had spoken and they were absolved of all responsibility. Should not the SecNav and SecDef be beating down doors to repeal the Jones Act?
Yes, too many clueless young people get their college loan to major in French Medieval Poetry only to later wait tables and feel like their talent has not been rewarded. This where the needs of the nation and immigration reform intersect. A smarter nation would establish immigration categories where we would attract welders, metal workers and other skills to work and after a number of years become eligible for citizenship. Instead we attract the aspiring rock star, fashion designer and frustrated poet who comes to kick back on the dole. Not to mention criminals.
“Over the bleached and jumbled bones of every failed civilization are written the pathetic words: too late, too late.” We are in exactly that trajectory. The sense of urgency to get women in the infantry seemed to resonate. The energy and urgency to build or buy, man and exercise ships and planes just seemed too mundane for legions of Flag Officers, Secretaries of the Navy and Defense. Hire some firebreathers, dump the deadwood and set it on fire. Get some damn results.
-"They don't even paint anymore!" - coats of grey were the always the running joke. I remember the sailors on the 'DaPuke laughing when I asked about the 40mm AA mounts ('92). "We don't shoot 'em, we just paint 'em". (They admitted they occasionally shot the guns, but it was a very low priority). Sobering point...not painting is worse than not using; indifference is the highest form of hatred.
-To Coffeejoe's point: This issue exposes a gross cultural problem in senior levels and in the entry population, both civilian and Navy. If no-one is prioritizing the details that lead to greater self sufficiency at the tip of the spear underway, much less competency in port, then who is going to see to those details? Further, have we truly jumped the shark with respect to our tradesman in the shipyards. Coffeejoe thinks so, and I wonder, what now? This is a bigger issue if we can't get warm hands and fertile minds to pick up the tools.
BZ Coffee Joe and Mr Whittemore. Now we get to the guts of the issue. Fix legislation to fit our current situation and have trade training back in HS to get kids into the trades.
“Maritime Revival Is All About The People
MAY 23, 2025 BY WATERWAYS JOURNAL
May 22 was National Maritime Day, a good day to reflect on the unprecedented level of attention that U.S. maritime policy has been getting lately.
The SHIPS Act—officially named the Shipbuilding and Harbor Infrastructure for Prosperity and Security for America Act of 2025—was reintroduced in both the Senate and House in late April. It’s a bipartisan bill aimed at revitalizing the U.S. Merchant Marine and shipbuilding industry. The bill awaits committee action and debate.
It’s a time of intense activity for all interests concerned with America’s maritime industry. Many of the SHIPS Act’s provisions (but not all) have also been incorporated into a recent executive order from President Donald Trump. The upcoming Inland Marine Expo will have a panel devoted to these moves.”!
Superbly written!We must continue to bombard Our Elected and Appointed Public Servants of these facts and get Our Marine Corps and Navy the ships we need now!
It starts with the SECNAV and he just relentlessly giving the SECDEF an earful and remind POTUS when he calls the SECNAV at 0130 asking where his ships are, “well Mr. President we could have Ice Breakers being built in the ship yards in Helsinki and so on and so forth. But, we have this Damn Jones Act.” Then the blob in the Senate Armed services Committee and especially the sub committee on Sea Power can get off their high horses long enough to address the problem. Agreed equally, if the High Schools won’t herald the trades, then bring in the trades from away. We hear about the programers and code writers and AI needs, but no one talks about welders and electricians that can rewind a rotor and rebalance it with the stator and have a rebuilt motor. This writer worked with a merchant marine engineer from the Harris Islands in Scotland, as a 16 year old, he was aboard a ship that lost power in a storm in the North Atlantic. They managed to get the power plant operational and it was a Hell of a story. It is hard to imagine an American teenager being interested, but they are, and these are the same youngsters our Corps needs as well. The world is not waiting. It wont wait for FD to fizzle out and won’t wait for a rust bucket Navy and its SECNAV to get its act together. Men and ships go to rot in port. Interesting that a bunch of Marines are thinking on all this…what was that island chain defense thingy some dude was talking about??
Time is not on our side!
I admire Joe Java's concerns and perspective. But the real problem may not be the Jones Act.
First of all a little funding won't help. It will take a whole lot of funding. The stingy politicians have to break off some and actually refund the Navy and naval shipbuilding. If Huntington Ingalls is failing down on the job then control of this work should be handed back to someone who cares, the Navy or a public agency synced with the Navy, something like NASA used to be for rocketry.
If there are too few skilled workers it is not because there are not hungry and capable people in the population. There are plenty who live on the edge who would leap at the chance if given the chance, which often means a much more solid high school education. Of course the Navy if properly funded and manned could recruit and prepare people for such work and return them to the society to do it.
Also, if you want people to do this kind of demanding work you can't just give them skinflint internships. Give them real jobs with real pay and train them on the job. This is expensive and the logic of it benefits the workers, so of course Huntington Ingalls would not do it!
An intervention in public education might also be needed here. Some healthy nationalism, devotion to the common defense, must be reintroduced into the school system and young people taught to be excited about association with it, and excited about their own prospects for a prosperous personal life through service to it. No element in our current political climate stands for this even though it is now crucial for our upcoming existential confrontations with China!
Then there is the larger problem. The country needs to reindustrialize to have any kind of viable navy in the Pacific. This means massive organizational transformation in strategic industries, basically all large scale industries, and massive savings and investment intelligently deployed! That is the way Japan and now China do it so at this point we have no choice but to also do it, or else live forever under China's heel.
The country needs to re-maritime-ize. (Apologies. Couldn't think of a word.) We need to rebuild our civil shipbuilding to where it is on a scale where it matches China's instead of being a small fraction of South Korea's. This will not happen unless we do what Japan did in the 1950s and South Korea did in the 1960s, massively intervene. Moreover our maritime commerce, or at least half of it, must all be put back in American made ships under American ownership and control, which means new laws and enforcing them. We need large numbers of Americans serving as trained merchant marine staff and officers so they can be mobilized if need be, for military strategies or even industrial ones.
Are all these questions legitimate and pressing concerns for our Navy and Marine Corps? I believe they are. These huge problems are not ordinarily the Marine Corp's brief, but these are not ordinary times.