Merchant Marine Midshipmen Ponder A Bleak Future At Sea
(Robert J. Rosenthal in The New York Times, 20 February 1972)
Graduates of the U. S. Merchant Marine Academy[*] at Kings Point, New York, are, according to their professors, among the best educated, most highly specialized merchant marine officers in the world. But many are finding it difficult to get jobs at sea.
The 1,000 midshipmen at the Academy are faced with the drastic decline of the U. S. merchant marine.
Unhappiness arising from the bleak position of the merchant marine has led many midshipmen to question the purpose of their being at Kings Point and the relevance of the regimented military system at a school whose graduates serve a civilian industry. Such pessimism is an unhappy addition to an Academy that has graduated 14,000 men in its 28 years of existence.
Rear Admiral Arthur B. Engel, U. S. Coast Guard (Retired), superintendent of the Academy, agreed that the health of the merchant marine and the maritime industry was not as vigorous as it should be, but he added that other factors should be considered. “The Academy is a national asset,” Admiral Engel said. “The men who graduate from here are highly trained and can be absorbed into related industries where they are highly valuable.”
However, many midshipmen do not want jobs in related industries; they want to sail.
The related industries that Admiral Engel mentioned seek out Kings Point graduates. Three months after graduation, 93% of the members of the Class of 1971 were either working or in graduate school. But of the 211 in the class, only 55, or 28% were in jobs at sea, the jobs for which they had been prepared.
Commander Charles M. Renick, head of the placement office at the Academy, said that “jobs can be filled, but the problem is finding jobs at sea.” By this Commander Renick means that midshipmen, who upon graduation are certified as either deck or engineering officers, can find jobs in some phase of the maritime industry, but mainly ashore.
Since 30 June 1967, which was at the height of the sea-lift of cargo to Vietnam, the U. S. merchant fleet has dropped 48% from the 1,083 active ships to the present total of 563.
This year, Commander Renick’s job may be made even more difficult by the fact that the two unions which midshipmen qualify to join upon graduation are not accepting new members. The two unions—the Masters, Mates, and Pilots for deck officers and the Marine Beneficial Association for ship’s engineers—have closed their books to all new applicants because of the lack of jobs. This does not mean that all jobs on seagoing vessels are closed. Specialized companies and ships, such as cable layers, offshore drilling outfits, and tug and salvage operations are not always unionized, and thus are places where a midshipman can find civilian employment at sea.
Another option available to the midshipman is employment in merchant ships of foreign flag companies. The pay and working conditions on these ships, however, are such that, up to now, few midshipmen have sought employment on them.
A situation unusual to Kings Point is that among the five Federal academies—the others are the Army, Navy, Air Force, and Coast Guard Academies—it is the only one where its cadets go through a regimental type of organization to be employed by civilians, not the government. Many midshipmen raise this question: Are the lack of liberty and the regimental military life necessary at Kings Point?
The regimentation includes reveille at 6:10 a.m. and lights-out at 10 p.m. The 15 hours and 50 minutes between reveille and lights-out are strictly regulated, with just two hours and 25 minutes—from 4 to 6:25 p.m.—regarded as free time. Midshipmen may leave the campus from midday Saturday until Sunday evening.
First classman John Telesca, the regimental executive officer and thus the second highest ranking midshipman at the Academy, said that he believed that the military environment was essential. “Being in command of a ship is a position that demands a special mental and physical toughness which only military training and conditioning can instill,” said Telesca.
Admiral Engel said that a ship’s ensign could not be properly trained and educated “in a civilian-run institution.”
First classman P. Sheey, who had not seen the ocean before he came to Long Island, said, “A shortcoming of the regimental system is the fact that the plebe does not really know what he is in for when he arrives at Kings Point.” Above all, Sheey said that he believed real effort should be made to inform incoming plebes of the realities of the system at the Academy.
David Burmeister, a 19-year-old plebe from New Orleans, comes from a family of seafaring men. Wanting to go to the Academy, Burmeister believed that he would be ready for the military life. He said he felt that he was ready, but added, “People don’t know how difficult the transition is; if you get one idea across it should be that this school is not easy.”
Captain Edward Knutsen, a 1960 graduate of Kings Point, who is now commandant of midshipmen, recalled that he often had misgivings about the regimental system while he was a midshipman. Today, he says that the Academy and the regimental system are “. . . not going to change very much, and its objective remains the same, to produce a professional. The position of the underclassman is tough. “Rank has privileges, plebes have nothing.”
Remaining strongly optimistic about a future of the U. S. merchant marine, Midshipman Telesca said, “Anybody at Kings Point can get a sea job if he really wants it. The opportunities are there, and it is up to each individual to take advantage of them.”
Academically, few schools in the country can match the workload demanded at the Academy. The 11-month academic year is divided into quarters and an average workload for a midshipman per quarter is 20 credits. The dropout rate is very high, as it is at all of the Federal academies. Of the 340 men who entered in the class of 1972, 208 are scheduled to graduate this June. To graduate, a midshipman must pass licensing tests given by the Coast Guard.
There are eight applications for each of the 340 openings in each class. Applicants must be recommended by their Representative or Senator.
Academy graduates are automatically commissioned as ensigns in the U. S. Naval Reserve, and the midshipman is committed to 30 days of active duty each year for three years. If the midshipman is working full time on a merchant vessel his obligation to the Navy is lifted.
One problem of which many midshipmen are acutely aware of is the drop in popularity of the military. One midshipman said, “This is the wrong time to be in a school like this. The Academy is caught in a period of change.”
Zumwalt Sees Navy In New Role As Protector Of Oil Carriers
(Michael Getler in The Washington Post, 23 February 1972)
America’s increasing dependence on foreign oil supplies and the prospect that the Navy may someday have to protect hundreds of U. S.-bound oil tankers from Soviet warships is creating a “new” and “emerging” role for the U. S. Fleet, according to Admiral Elmo R. Zumwalt, U. S. Navy, Chief of Naval Operations.
Zumwalt laid heavy emphasis on this new mission, in addition to the Navy’s traditional assignments, during an appearance before the Senate Armed Services Committee. He said:
During the past year, it has become increasingly clear that, by 1985 or so, we will have to import perhaps a half of the petroleum we need. The quantities imported by sea will be vast—on the order of 12 million barrels a day. This will require from several hundred to over 1,000 tankers, each of 70,000 tons, fully committed to deliveries of oil to the U. S. The potential for coercion of the U. S., with or without allies, inherent in this situation is ominous . . . when one considers the measures the Soviets are taking to improve their Navy.
Protecting the movement of petroleum through the sea lanes appears to be gaining a lot more weight in recent months as one justification for expansion of U. S. seapower in peacetime.
Aside from Zumwalt’s remarks, U. S. officials also explained the need for an increased U. S. naval presence in the Indian Ocean partly in terms of protecting the flow of oil from the Persian Gulf to Japan and other U. S. allies in Asia.
Zumwalt’s figures on the steadily increasing U. S. need to import oil are borne out by statistics from the National Petroleum Council (NPC), a government advisory group to the Interior Department. However, about two-thirds of U. S. oil imports are presently from the Western Hemisphere—primarily Canada via pipeline and Venezuela via ship—which present much less of a naval protection problem.
But the oil experts say that demand in the United States is increasing more rapidly than the expansion of Western Hemisphere exploration and production, so that the increased future needs will be filled for the most part from the Middle East.
On the other hand, a spokesman for the American Petroleum Institute said that if the battle now going on in this country over developing a national energy policy results in more domestic oil production, then the import figures for 1985 may be smaller.
The United States now imports 25% of its domestic petroleum needs, according to NPC statistics, with two-thirds from the Western Hemisphere. By 1985, the NPC estimate climbs to 57%. “Most of this increased level of imports,” says an American Petroleum Institute fact sheet, “would have to come from the Eastern Hemisphere. The Western Hemisphere has a very limited capacity for expanding its petroleum exports.”
Among the new vessels that Zumwalt links, at least in part, to keeping future sea lanes open, is a new class of patrol frigates (See Progress photo this page) designed to be cheaper, simpler, yet more effective, than their destroyer escort predecessors. The Navy wants 50 of these new vessels, with the first ship included in the current budget.
The Service also wants eight new “sea control ships[†]” mini-aircraft carriers—carrying about 17 planes and helicopters—designed for escort duty. The new budget allows a start on ship design.
Zumwalt has also explained the need for a fourth nuclear aircraft carrier, partly in terms of protecting the movement of economic resources. The new billion-dollar carrier, he said, is “. . . the item of highest priority in the budget.”
Zumwalt also said the Navy wants to move ahead on an experimental 2,200-ton surface effect ship that moves along the water on a cushion of air at speeds above 80 knots, and on building two speedy, new hydrofoil patrol boats, armed with anti-shipping missiles.
New Ship Class -- The patrol frigtate (PF), a new class of ship, will have both AAW and ASW capabilities, for use as an ocean escort. Presently in the Ship System Design Phase, contract award for the lead ship is expected in April 1973. The 420-foot, 3,400-ton ships will have a single shaft, controllable-reversible pitch propeller, powered by two 20,000-s.h.p. gas turbine engines. Each PF will have a hull-mounted sonar, over-the-side torpedoes, LAMPS helicopters with torpedo-delivery capability, standard suface-to-air and surface-to-surface missiles, and a point defense gun. About 50 ships may be built with deliveries epected between 1977 and 1982.
Military Outlines Plans To Clean Up After Itself
(Richard C. Kienitz in The Journal, Milwaukee, 14 March 1972)
A U. S. Defense Department official attending the 36th annual National Wildlife Federation Convention, Mexico City, Mexico, discussed plans for a defense antipollution effort[‡] involving 900 projects for air and 1,100 for water.
John A. Busterud, deputy assistant secretary in charge of environmental quality, said construction projects for pollution control expanded from $18.8 million in 1969 to $131 million in 1972 and a budgeted $171 million for 1973.
Defense Secretary Melvin Laird has directed the Services to provide five-year plans for this activity to upgrade facilities for water treatment, heating plants, and incinerators, Busterud said.
At Great Lakes, Illinois, the Navy plans to spend $11 million to connect the Navy training facilities with the North Shore Sanitary District.
The Defense Department also is getting into pollution control research to the tune of $23.4 million in 1973—about twice as much as this year, Busterud said.
Part of this research led to a sewage treatment unit being installed in a naval vessel last September. Four more contracts have been awarded for even more up-to-date shipboard plants capable of handling wastes for a crew of 1,200.
The Navy also is installing holding tanks on some vessels and 1973 plans include putting pumpout units on Navy piers to service these vessels.
In its environmental quality program at Pearl Harbor, the Navy reported it was cleaning up all the shoreline it controls, including sunken hulls from the 1941 attack and abandoned structures.
U. S. Navy’s New Fleet Fuel Meets Operational Demands
(NavNews, 24 March 1972)
The increased operational demands placed upon the Navy’s fuel system, especially in Southeast Asia, coupled with sharply escalating costs, caused the Navy in 1967 to re-evaluate its entire fuel program. Two U. S. Seventh Fleet aircraft carriers are now completing the final phase of that re-evaluation in the South China Sea.
The USS Constellation (CVA-64) and the USS Coral Sea (CVA-43) are the largest Navy ships to convert to Navy Distillate, a new fuel that has many ecological improvements. The two aircraft carriers continue to supply new facts and procedures for use of Navy Distillate and its use becomes more widespread.
Presently, the Navy has a four-fuel system: NSFO, Diesel Fuel, JP-5, and Navy Distillate. The system complicates fueling and supply operations. In the future, the number may be reduced to two fuels—Navy Distillate and JP-5.
The highly favorable reaction of ships’ engineering officers and boiler technicians to Navy Distillate has encouraged the Navy to continue to convert other conventionally-powered ships to the new fuel.
Laird Says Navy And Air Force May Share Carriers And Duties
(Michael Getler in The Washington Post, 24 February 1972)
Defense Secretary Melvin R. Laird has raised the prospect that squadrons of Air force jets may some day operate from the decks of Navy aircraft carriers.
Laird told a Pentagon news conference that this is “. . . not beyond the realm of possibility . . . .” and would be in keeping with his idea of trying to shake up conventional military thinking and to develop a “total force” concept in which the men and equipment of each Service are used most effectively.
Laird called attention to that concept in his annual defense report to Congress, but he mentioned only the possible use of large landbased planes such as the B-52 heavy bomber to help the Navy control the sea lanes. The B-52s could be used for mine-laying, ocean surveillance, or for dropping small listening devices to detect submarines. The huge B-52s, would always operate from shore bases.
The suggestion of eventually moving some Air Force jets to carriers, Laird indicated, came from the Chief of Naval Operations, Admiral Elmo R. Zumwalt, U. S. Navy, as something to be looked at far “down the road.”
In his defense report, Laird said “. . . we must shed old parochial concepts of national security planning to meet global defense requirements for future years.” He added that all four military Services “. . . are all working together . . . and they’re all talking together for the first time in many years.”
The Pentagon also released testimony of Navy Secretary John H. Chafee before the Senate Armed Services Committee, which revealed a significant strengthening of the U. S. Sixth Fleet in the Mediterranean.
In addition to previously publicized movement of a helicopter carrier and two gunboats to the area, Chafee said the United States is increasing the number of nuclear-attack submarines on duty there “for covert surveillance and antisubmarine warfare.” In addition, three destroyer escorts specially equipped to operate a new antisubmarine surveillance system have been sent.
Chafee also acknowledged the possibility of growing problems with two major new Navy ship projects, both of which are under contract to Litton Industries at the company’s Pascagoula, Mississippi, shipyards.
Chafee forecast still higher costs to settle a dispute on the LHA amphibious ships, which are already behind schedule, and he indicated that this slippage may well spill over into a huge program to produce the new DD-963 class destroyers.
First Metric System Charts Of British Isles Published
(Ministry of Defence News Release, London, 28 February 1972)
The first Admiralty charts of the coasts of the British Isles showing depths in meters have been published by the Hydrographer of the Navy and are now available from Admiralty chart agents. The coasts of Devon and Cornwall are the first areas to be covered. Further metric charts will be published in roughly geographical sequences along the coasts of the English Channel and Bristol Channel, and it is expected that all of the charts in British waters will be metric by the end of the 1970s.
The adoption of meters for depths and heights is not the only feature of the new charts. Their new format gives a clearer appearance, attributable to a more rigorous policy of selection of detail, to the adoption of new styles of type, and, most noticeably, to the use of color for land, intertidal, and shallow-water areas. The charts have been recompiled throughout and include the latest available information; and the opportunity has been taken to redesign the sheets at scales and with limits which best meet the requirements of today’s diverse range of users, from small craft to supertanker.
A Notice to Mariners has been issued advising users to replace their fathoms charts, which must be considered obsolete in other respects than units alone. For those not yet equipped to work in metric units and who may not yet “think metric,” however, the new sheets display conversion scales and continue to include linear scales of feet.
German Hospital Ship Returns From Duty Off South Vietnam
(The Washington Post, 8 March 1972)
After more than five years off South Vietnam, the West German hospital ship Helgoland returned to her homeport in Germany.
The ship left DaNang on 18 January. More than 168,000 civilian war victims received treatment from a staff of eight doctors and 22 nurses on the 180-bed hospital ship.
To take up the work of the Helgoland, West Germany erected a $7 million, 200-bed hospital at DaNang, which is run by the German Knights of Malta.
Pass-Down-The-Line Notes
Information, reference selections, photographs, and mementos are requested by the Officer Indoctrination School of Naval Officer Training Center, Newport, Rhode Island, which is compiling a History of U. S. Navy Surface Warrant Officers. Address Director, Officer Indoctrination School, Building 117, Naval Base, Newport, Rhode Island 02840.
A new veterans’ organization MANAC (Marines, Army, Navy, Air Force, Coast Guard) has been formed on the campus of Phillips University, Enid, Oklahoma, which is made up of veterans, active duty personnel, members of Reserve units, and members of officer programs, who are attending Phillips University. The purpose of MANAC is “. . . patriotic, educational, fraternal, and historical; to maintain and aid members in the furtherance of their education . . . and to preserve public spirit.” For more information or suggestions contact: Gary J. Chester, Earl Butts Dormitory, Box 218, Enid, Oklahoma 73701 or call 1-405-237-4432.
The Third International Pyrotechnics Seminar will be held at the Antlers Plaza Hotel, Colorado Springs, Colorado, from 21 to 25 August 1972. It is expected that representatives from many foreign countries will attend to discuss progress in research in this field. A registration fee of $65.00 will also entitle participants to a copy of the Proceedings of the seminar. Address inquiries to: R. M. Blunt, General Chairman, Denver Research Institute, University Park, Denver, Colorado 80210.
The U. S. Coast Guard will sponsor a four-day Search and Rescue Seminar, encompassing problems of both aircraft and vessel distresses in the regions of the Pacific Ocean, to be held 4 through 7 December 1972, in San Francisco. The Seminar will encourage discussions at the executive level among representatives of national and international rescue agencies and those individuals directly involved with the operations, research, and development of air and sea safety measures. Interested parties are urged to submit topics they would be equipped to discuss or desire to have considered. Technical papers are especially welcome, and workshop discussions will include both air and sea matters. Address suggestions to: Executive Secretary, PacSAR ’72, U. S. Coast Guard, 630 Sansome Street, San Francisco, California 94126.
[*] See W. B. Hayler, “Our Imperiled State Maritime Academies,” U. S. Naval Institute Proceedings, this issue, pp. 50-57.
[†] See D. V. Cox, “The Sea Control Ship System,[”] U. S. Naval Institute Proceedings, April 1972, pp. 113-115.
[‡] See R. Leider, “Nothing But Blue Skies,” U. S. Naval Institute Proceedings, this issue, pp. 27-34.