⚓️ 🇺🇸 🚢 Time to Bring Back the U.S. Maritime Service to Support
America’s Maritime Revival
and a Wartime Economy

👤 Hollins Randolph, Peter Lynch, and Brent D. Sadler

Achieving an American maritime revival not only
requires building more ships, but training more
dedicated Merchant Mariners—the men and
women who crew American civilian ships and support
military operations. Currently, five government agen-
cies rely on America’s Merchant Marine (and more
would benefit from having Merchant Mariners on their
staffs, such as the Defense Logistics Agency): the U.S.
Navy’s Military Sealift Command (MSC), the Maritime
Administration (MARAD), the National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration, the U.S. Committee on
the Maritime Transportation System, and, indirectly,
the Federal Maritime Commission. Combined, these
five agencies number 2,460 civilian employees on shore,
and yet America’s mariners are still too few.

📝 Sal Mercogliano:
"Great piece by Brent D. Sadler on the need to Revitalize the US Merchant Service - originally created under Article XIII of the Merchant Marine Act of 1936, amended in 1938.

Some of the points to emphasize:

1️⃣ Mariners in the MSCSealift are denied the ability to readily transfer to shore side in government service. It also means that non-mariners are continually im charge of an organization made up of mariners.

2️⃣ The lack of a commercial Merchant Marine will be an issue in any future conflict.

3️⃣ The US Navy lacks the requisite replenishment fleet to sustain itself, demonstrated by the grounding of the oiler USNS Big Horn in 2024.

4️⃣ Our reserve sealift fleet is aged, under resourced, and not properly maintained or crewed.

5️⃣ The history of American sealift during conflicts has always been a success story, because the US could build upon an existing merchant marine and an industrial base that could be mobilized to meet the demand. The issue today is that both of these do not exist."

📎 The Heritage Foundation

From Otto Skorzeny, the most daring commando of WW2 & the quintessential SS hero, on the European mission of the SS and who was its true leader (it wasn't Himmler)