Looking for the Exclamation Point

When I departed the sailing life in 2019, I did not feel complete. Life felt like a question mark: was there more to be accomplished on the oceans? Yes, I would say; there was within my organization much unfinished business, that eventually pulled me back to sea recently as a First Assistant Engineer. I knew that one of the major challenges onboard would be in regenerating the workforce that dissipated during the COVID-19 Pandemic. Filipino expatriates, with US Citizenship, had made up a significant portion of the Military Sealift Command’s West Coast Fleet, and a stable core of experience for individual vessels. COVID-19 quarantine restrictions made this travel from ship to San Diego, and San Diego to the Philippines, nearly impossible. They faced the choice: Live to work, or work to live. Naturally, many chose to retire, or pursue entrepreneurship opportunities. To meet military logistics requirements, naval supply and other support ships of the Military Sealift Command are christened in a stateside shipyard, then sent to spend the next decades travelling between ports and shipyards in the Far East. It would be the crewmembers flying out to join the ship for four-month tours. This is the model employed by commercial navigation companies, and of the contractors that operate some Military Sealift Command vessels. Under this model, highly skilled and adaptable mariners mesh upon arrival with daily duties and maintenance management plans. To ensure continuity of operations and preservation of institutional knowledge, the Captain and Chief Engineer usually complete multiple tours onboard the vessel. Group performance is based on a model of “Form, Storm, Norm, Perform”. When working with travelling teams of experts, the goal is to have the “form and storm” out of the way so that the team can get together onboard to get the job done. Creating shared, or at least compatible attitudes, is the intent of Maritime Administration organizational guidance that covers nautical instruction at the State Maritime Academies, and the International Maritime Organization’s Minimum Competencies at each rate. Among company and organizational leadership, there is no interest in removing drug testing as a job requirement in the offshore and deep-sea environments. In a previous era, the attraction of a “sea daddy” lifestyle, a carousel of drugs and nightclubs in foreign ports, caused personnel issues that had be dealt with a firm hand. Naturally, these “sea daddies” often showed little interest in developing their professional skills. While drug testing remains, we have by necessity returned to the era where anyone can come off the street and get an entry-level job on the ship. Having been hired on-the-spot, many newcomers have their perception of the Military Sealift Command formed by cruise ship advertisements. So, how do you instill professional attitudes required to succeed in the workplace; in addition to the on-the-job training required to make them skilled tradesmen? As I have written before, maritime academies and Navy skilled ratings schools had satisfied these needs for decades, absolving the Military Sealift Command of a major civil service concept: that someone could be increase their knowledge, skills, and abilities within their employment. While major restructurings of asset management within the Military Sealift Command have occurred as the organization assumed greater operational responsibilities, personnel management has not changed in forty years, despite generational differences: it is still considered a human resources function run by specialists in that field, in contrast to big-picture workforce development inspired by the experience of senior officers of the line. This is where I see the exclamation point, where I felt that unfinished business could be addressed. Two areas where younger, college-educated officers had pushed for were paternity leave: millennial men like to be around for childbirth, and obtaining resignations from AWOL employees who had taken jobs elsewhere. Narrow-visioned application of prevailing Marine Wage Practices had created some unintended effects: without locality pay, entry-level hires in San Diego, CA would earn less than state minimum wage; as such, all new hires are made in lower-cost Norfolk, VA. There were no time-in-grade pay increases (or “steps”), until a retention incentive was applied recently. There is a culture among mariners of avoiding, rather than engaging, decisionmakers on these issues. It was thought to be the purview of labor officials and workmens’ attorneys. Rightly or wrongly, I call this the “enlisted attitude”, where people want to do their job and get their pay, without input from higher-ups. Understanding is the impetus of change, and it must be fostered from within. Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to All!

Why I Recommend College Degrees for Mariners: the COVID-19 Pivot

From March 2020, and continuing for the next two years, mariners around the world have found their time ashore to be severely curtailed due to COVID-19 prevention policies. That these restrictions on lower-risk shipboard arrivals continue (small crews, sufficient quarantine time between ports at sea), even as higher-risk air tourism has opened up (despite large aircraft and no quarantine time) is a topic for another post. I was working in the Military Sealift Command headquarters during this time, and have only made aware of the full extent of shipboard restrictions fairly recently. Cancellation of shore leave posed an acute problem on the East Coast, where mariners expected to be in their “home port” at least two days per week. Being a homeported mariner for the Military Sealift Command meant a civil servant’s work for a civil servant’s pay. What constituted restriction of movement varied by Navy command. In accordance with Health Protection Condition (HPCON) Level C, active-duty servicemembers were limited to on-base shopping and personal appointments, but could also provide care for their children and sleep at home. Which combatant ships maintained a “Gangway Up” order for mission-readiness likely remains classified. Military Sealift Command’s Admiral believed that civilian mariners should be ready to “deploy” to a ship for 120 days, without requiring time ashore. Indeed, the blanket order against shore leave was loosened after 120 days. But for the civilian mariners, 30 days at sea, or restricted to the ship, was a long stretch already. The Admiral came up through Naval Aviation, and would be familiar with expeditionary contractors who support high-tech equipment onboard aircraft carriers and at remote air bases. Some contractors even flew cargo helicopters from the decks of Military Sealift Command’s vessels. Those contractors were handsomely compensated for their work; and expected to deploy no more than half the year. Civil service mariners expect a steady pace of work, to sustain the long haul of their careers. Hiring freezes at most companies slowed the inevitable “suitcase parade” of departing crewmembers. Restrictions on commercial ship mariners were even more onerous than those at the Military Sealift Command. Nevertheless, those who could took their retirements; and those mariners with side-businesses took the opportunity to make that their full-time job. Real estate was booming; at least a dozen with those skills or social capital made the leap into work as real estate agents or home rehabbers. Because in-person work is required in maritime shore-based support roles, there were enough openings to accommodate college-educated mariners who wanted to work ashore.

Train Our Own Mariners

Government shipping agencies; which include the Military Sealift Command, NOAA, and the US Army Corps of Engineers; have long benefitted from the skilled experience of military veterans and retirees. It is essentially a Service Life Extension, allowing these mariners to serve a second career at sea. In exchange for the US Navy's terms of enlistment (typically 4-6 years today), young adults finishing high school are offered a vocational training program with an in-service apprenticeship. Based on reports of those who attended both military and civilian training, these Navy "A" and "C" schools exceed the rigor of comparable private maritime training programs, whose students are often the paying customer. The US Navy is set up to be a training institution: even on highly-automated ships built from the 1990's onwards, crewing scales allow for extensive on-the-job training, or time served "under instruction". Chief Petty Officers are responisble for evaluating new recruits under Personal Qualification Standards (the PQS), and commissioned Training Officers ensure that these qualifications are completed in a timely fashion. Do we have anything comparable in the civilian world? The Military Sealift Command is giving it a try with civil service mariners. When I was first hired as an engineer in 2015, the youngest entry-level hire was 23 years of age; at the time, they could expect people to bring career skills- in warehousing, foodservice, or equipment maintenance- to the ship. In a different kind of employment market, the agency has been recruiting high school seniors with on-the-spot job offers for family-wage jobs. At least 300 offers have gone to young adults from the Hampton Roads region of Virginia in the past year as Steward Utilitymen, Wipers, and Ordinary Seamen. On paper, this is the right thing to do, in order to alleviate the skilled trades gap with homegrown talent. In reality, this new on-the-job training mission adds additional duties for those expected to provide the training: the officers and skilled ratings, who are often covering for a vacant billet themselves. To earn Merchant Mariner Credentialling as a skilled rating, new entrants must complete sea time, onboard skills assessments, and classroom training. The Wiper Advacement Program and Ordinary Seaman Advacement Program are now contractual commitments on the part of Military Sealift Command, to provider personnal training and two career promotions. Compared to intermittent training efforts made in previous years, the Military Sealift Command has assigned significant and continuing financial resources for vocational training at the private Mid Atlantic Maritime Academy. In my short time as a First Assistant Engineer, I have overseen three onboard promotions through this initiative. If there is a limitation, it is that the Military Sealift Command cannot guarantee prospective mariners a constant annual hiring quota. These on-the-job career advancement programs are a necessary solution for skills gap between young people and workforce demands. Once such a program is institutionalized and fully appreciated by an organization, it's unlikely to stop.

Book Review: The Greatest Beer Run Ever

I have read plenty of merchant mariners’ novels that collect dust on bookshelves at ship’s libraries and maritime museums. But there is one I read recently that has reached broad acclaim: The Greatest Beer Run Ever, written by John “Chick” Donohue. In the mid-1960’s, hundreds of American merchant ships were employed in the Vietnam war effort, to bring food, fuel, and ammunition from the United States to the front lines of conflict. Many of these ships were small-tonnage relics of the Second World War, and needed a large number of American mariners to crew them. In contrast, our war materiel buildup in the 2003 liberation of Iraq required a few dozen merchant vessels of large, modern tonnage. In the former era, carefree young men accepted the dangers of North Vietnamese enemy attack- which did happen too frequently, in exchange for twice the usual rate of pay. While Chickie’s true-blue membership in the National Maritime Union (NMU) facilitated this adventure to wartime Vietnam, the book is very approachable for landlubbers. We could say that our protagonist, Chickie, came from a different time when, in a transient and essential workforce, you could actually work a voyage onboard a freighter, without career consequences. Using the more-lenient rules of the pre-connectivity era, and his diplomatic tongue, he pulled a legendary shore leave feat to bring beer and morale to his fellow hometown soldiers in and around Saigon. While you’d likely be tossed by the union today for flagrantly violating shore leave policy, most mariners know a colleague who’s willing to venture beyond the pier, and official liberty restrictions, in Djibouti or Okinawa. Chickie’s spirit lives on.

Geographic Dispersal

Union Halls, Mariner Clinics, Regional Exam Centers, and Merchant Marine Academies: you either live by one, or you don’t. Decades ago, deep-sea mariners were geographically concentrated in port towns. It made sense: you got a job at the union hall, and then took a subway or taxi ride to the ship. Today, maritime unions guarantee airline travel from any location in the US, to a ship assignment, and back. States without the income tax, such as Florida, New Hampshire, Texas, and Nevada, are popular residences for mariners; even if they are far inland. As for the physical institutions of the maritime industry, there is stickiness to old maritime ports, even if the reasons for their presence are no longer needed locally. There are likely more deep-sea mariners living in arid Las Vegas, Nevada than in the San Francisco Bay Area. Yet, for the tradition of having maritime institutions near the water, I doubt that the US Coast Guard will relocate its Regional Exam Center, or the Marine Engineer Beneficial Association its medical clinic, to where the mariners live today. Baltimore, some 12 hours inland of Norfolk, has not been a primary port-of-call since Bethlehem Steel shut down decades ago. Yet the city retains its maritime union halls, a US Coast Guard testing center, and two maritime conference and training centers in the region. Norfolk has a small union hall shared by two of the three officers’ unions, but no Regional Exam Center: the closest one is a 5-hour northbound drive in Baltimore; or an 8-hour drive south to Charleston, SC. Prior to COVID-19, I inquired to the Mid Atlantic Maritime Academy, a private trade school, about bringing the USCG’s travelling exam team to Norfolk several times a years, as they do for Maine Maritime Academy in rural Castine; and on Massachusetts Maritime Academy on Cape Cod. The idea may be worth another go-around.

What Happens at the end of Work from Home?

If you’ve noticed the paucity of communication coming from me, it’s because I am cruising through the northern part of the Pacific Ocean with no satellite service. Providers train their satellites towards near-shore areas, where the bulk of their clientele work and play on drill rigs and yachts. Outside the primary deep-sea trade routes, the satellite providers cut their losses. If you’re wondering, the Search and Rescue satellite system (GMDSS) does ping six times per day as they pass through their respective orbits. This summer brought a number of large-scale return-to-office experiences, from Wall Street, to Main Street Richmond, Virginia. In this case, telework-capable state government employees were given two-months’ notice to return to the office four days per week, or to request additional WFH days from their agency leadership. Records show that 58% of employees accepted four or five days per week; and 93% of employees accepted at least three days per week. The State Highway Department did lose 10 or so engineers over this ask (and a few more who took retirement over this decision), but in the whole, attrition over the issue was less than 1%. Most requests were to preserve the enhanced telework arrangements certain white-collar employees had prior to the Pandemic. As a right-to-work state, government employment in Virginia is more similar to private employment than in other state governments. Thus, private employers can allay fears of workplace exodus, when they chose to return to an in-office schedule. The one caveat is that Richmond, Virginia is home to more traditional industries like medicine, tobacco, and public utilities, where in-person work is a given expectation.

Monkeypox?

The spread of Monkeypox has not reached epidemic proportions, and hopefully never will. But what came to my attention was how it spread: close quarters and skin-to-skin contact. Monkeypox has spread around hot-to-trot nightclubs in urban centers, but has stayed out of locker rooms and mainstream environments...so far. In college, I worked on the waterfront with the offshore sailing team. They would come back from overnight trips, where they slept arm to arm and had the same bilge-water sloshing around their feet. Close proximity, without intimateness. I trust that nautical leaders will implement recommendations for awareness and prevention, so we can nip this virus in the bud.

Work Hard, Play Hard, Retire Well: The Skilled Labor Shortage Explained

At the beginning of the 21st century, highly-skilled transportation professionals had in their hands a golden bargain that the Greatest Generation fought for and won. In exchange for long periods away from home- weeks or months- ship's officers could retire at the age of 50, with a fully-funded pension. Airline pilots had the same pension by the age 60. These comparatively short career durations, less than 30 years, predictably allowed younger professionals to move into frontline leadership roles, as First Officers and Captains during their family-building years. Ceremoniously, officers of the Marine Engineers' Beneficial Association would turn over their Merchant Mariner's License- their meal ticket- when applying for pension payments. There was no legal authority to take away the pensioner's license to work; only a moral one, in that one should not compete against family men and women for work, while collecting a pension. There was a surreptitious feeling among retirees who requested replacement credentials from the US Coast Guard for various retirement pursuits, such as operating their own tour boats. Over two decades, the mandatory retirement age for airline pilots increased to 65; and the American Maritime Officers' (AMO) pension fund was frozen, in exchange for a 401(k) plan. Notably, the AMO continued to allow recipients of pension buyouts to continue bidding on jobs. In comparison to blue-collar work, sitting in the pilot's seat or at the shipboard watch desk was not physically arduous, although work physicals were required. But early retirement was something for family members of airline pilots and ship's officers to look forward to, after decades of missed family celebrations and shift-work schedules: "I know I'm missing Christmas again, but it's only 3 more years to go". These unique jobs were nevertheless wrapped into the greater cultural zeitgeist of "never retiring" among senior workers, and the careerism of middle-class millenials. Retirement-eligible ship's officers continued to hold jobs at the top of each career ladder into their sixties. These jobs remained economically lucrative, even as payscales for new entrants stagnated: "Suck it up, young buttercup, just wait your turn for the big bucks". The COVID-19 pandemic shook up the zeitgeist. Perhaps retirement wasn't so bad, after all. Some of the job perks in the air or at sea, like going ashore in foreign countries, vanished. The ship master's reponsibility for controlling the spread infectious disease, thought to be a vestigial relic of the smallpox and polio era, came to the forefront. Who will fill these senior-level jobs that have suddenly come open? Having gone years with limited prospect of upward mobility, younger officers with transferrable knowledge and skills may have become disenchanted with employment in global transportation, and moved into other careers. What is the price for bringing back the workforce? At the Military Sealift Command, a 50% salary incentive is bending the curve in recruiting Chief Mates back from their shoreside employment. Flagship airlines are coming to accept this price as well, signing collective bargaining agreements that offer double-time pay for weekend work.

Systems Engineering by Bus

You may remember the park-and-ride blog post I wrote several years ago. I have to admit, I like to draft bus maps and schedules, and have done so well before pursing my master’s degree in systems engineering. In my coursework, I got credit for doing what I love: making bus schedules. In the era of work-from-home, it seems a bit untimely to be thinking about the topic. But COVID-19 had pummeled transit agencies and private bus companies to the ground, so the only trendline is upward. Tools used: -Google Maps, whose driving times between destinations are overly optimistic -Local transit schedules for major cities, which have included traffic conditions that vary on time-of-day -Driving the route itself. - Transit maps from the early 1970s, as these maps show the dense neighborhoods where transit was economically viable prior to federal subsidies. -Excel Spreadsheets, Got to have them. Throw in real-world constraints: -People don’t like to sit on buses that take them on a circuitous ride. Put straight lines on the map, preferably on freeways with exclusive transit lanes, and try to get people to work in 30 minutes or less. -Choice riders (aka, the middle class) will not tolerate unreliable or infrequent service. Buffer time must be included to improve schedule adherence. -The most efficient use of buses is to serve a prosperous central business district with high parking costs. Focus on routes to big cities. -Subsidy of commuter passes, as required for employers in Los Angeles and Washington, DC; are effective at increasing ridership. Focus on routes to big, environmentally progressive cities. - Equipment Cost of Ownership, Fuel, Union-Level Wages. Cost Per Operating Hour, or about $110 per hour for private operators, is a good metric. Consult the experts: -Randall O’Toole of the libertarian Cato Institute had put public transit in his crosshairs. But to know his enemy, he did extensive research on alternatives, such as Uber and immigrant-run jitney services in New York. -Studies performed by the US Department of Transportation, and states such as New Jersey and Virginia, during the transition to industry deregulation in the 1980s. Titles include “Private Sector Options for Commuter Transportation, 1984” and “Financing Public Transportation in Virginia, 1979”. Put it all together, and you get short and sweet routes through dense, but low-traffic neighborhoods. A real-world example of this model is the eponymous Short Line in New York; or DeCamp in New Jersey. Both pea-shoot passengers through the Hudson River’s Lincoln Tunnel, use exclusive transit lanes, and quickly arrive in walkable suburban neighborhoods.

Busan Update

 I’ve taken a new assignment as a First Assistant Engineer onboard a supply ship working in the Far East. Coincidently, my brother just finished several weeks of vessel inspections in Korea, and we met for dinner in Busan. 

This Korean city has long been connected to maritime trade. Military cargo for peacekeeping efforts began in the 1950s, but now, the commercial seaport and nearby shipyards stand out for their volume of work. 

Busan Train Station, and so-called Texas Street, served as the cultural nexus and service providers for international ferry travelers and global mariners. Due to COVID-19 restrictions, passenger traffic has declined. Most mariners are still confined to their ships, even as general international tourism has recently reopened in Korea. But, this has not proved fatal to the majority of Texas Street businesses- the ethnic restaurants, live music venues, and currency exchange parlors. In this older part of Busan, there is little pressure for landlords search for new tenants. Texas Street remains well positioned for the next generation of mariners on shore business and liberty.

Paper Record

 About a year ago, I decried the fully-digital office. Well, necessity is the mother of invention. As I enter the second decade of my career, carrying paper copies of every certificate and record has become a physical burden. I used to keep everything in a binder, roughly separated by category: Navy Reserve, maritime licensing papers, employer-specific files.  

That binder became two binders, and categorization between topics was lost in the shuffle. So, I finally took the time to start removing the certificates that were simply irrelevant to my career: the expired papers, a pool operator's certificate, ABC Alcohol Server training. 

What remained were licenses that hang on the walls of a learned professional's office: the Professional Engineer and Merchant Mariner's Licenses; sea service letters documenting the various ships I've worked aboard; certificates I will need to present to the ship's purser; annual Navy Reserve evaluations; copies of title to my home, my car, and gold coins. This winnowing of paperwork was healthy in the way that it increased my focus on what was important for the present and the future. I could let go of the trivial, and focus on key strengths and abilities.

A Century of the Park and Ride.

 

The concept began in early upper middle class suburbs, likely the 1920s in places like F Scott Fitzgerald’s Great Neck, NY, some 20 miles from Manhattan. Urban-working Professionals would “motor” to the train station and commute to downtown on the railroad.

In World War Two, fuel rationing combined with the construction of military facilities and factories on the fringe of cities, such as Farmingdale NY, required the use of carpooling by war workers.

Even in the automobile friendly 1950s, city planners recognized that freeways and road widening could not solve the urban traffic problem - even the infamous General Motors admitted so in their half hour documentary “Let’s Go to Town”. Fringe parking outside of downtown were put into service, saving motorists downtown parking fees and the aggravation of stop and go driving.

 Later, approaching and during the 1970s fuel crises, these park and rides were placed closer to residential areas, and dedicated bus lanes, such as those between DC and Alexandria VA, and on NYC’s Lincoln Tunnel Approach, were put into service.

A decline in carpooling came with the rise in dual-income households: husbands now took responsibility for a “honey do list”, domestic responsibilities such as grocery shopping and dry-cleaning pickup on the way home from work. This often required bringing one owns car to the office, instead of sharing the ride with a co-worker.

Revitalization and construction of new downtown sports stadiums in the 1990s required proactive traffic management. The lots and light rails that served office commuters by day could serve tourists in the evening.

Greyhound, the intercity bus company, realized that most riders had at least occasional access to a car for local trips. Bus stations moved out of downtowns to highway-adjacent park and rides. In states that have taken an interest in preserving regional bus access such as Colorado and Virginia, park and rides serve as the gateway to other regions of their respective states.

In addition to its service in preserving the walkability of downtown areas, the park-and-ride has also impacted the human experience at seaports, piers, and shipyards. In the United States, Boston Ship Repair in Boston, MA; and Deyten's in North Charleston, SC, deserve applause for avoiding the trend of turning port areas into vast asphalt parking lots. At these shipyards, mariners and shipfitters can easily walk to lunch outside the company gates. Reducing the need for a personal automobile increases quality of life. Long live the park and ride!

The Great Shakedown

 Workers in the maritime industry were greatly affected by COVID-19, from restricted port visits to delayed crew changes and cruise-ship levels of virus transmission. As wages and pensions were generous compared to other industries, retirement and career realignment were viable options for a large part of the American seafaring workforce. What does the employment field look like today?

 

Deck Officers

Compared to the number of jobs available at the time, there was an oversupply of deck officers in Western countries this past decade. The issue was more acute at the third mate level, who are typically recent graduates. While maritime academies graduate fewer mates than engineers, deck officers have higher retention in the afloat maritime industry than engineers. The wave of COVID-era retirements unstuck the promotion pipeline in the deck department, and allows newer officers to take positions at their highest qualification.

 

Engineering Officers

In 2014, international regulatory changes came into effect, requiring newly-minted ship’s officers to hold at least a community college level of education. The maritime industry had an unusually linear path for promotion, from entry level to department head. Now, the employment pool of ship’s officers has been detached from the skilled labor pool, which used to send its members into the officer ranks with regularity.

On the demand side, more maritime-trained engineers are working ashore are than staying aboard ship. Industrial and facilities engineering disciplines had become neglected areas of concentration at most flagship universities. These hands-on programs were generally forgotten as engineering programs became more scientifically-oriented towards high-tech research and development. Someone needs to fill these jobs, and the career-oriented nature of maritime academies became the first stop for power plant, sophisticated equipment technician, and prototype employers.

 

Skilled Level

The most perplexing labor shortage at sea is the mid-level positions, the able seamen and enginemen. Perhaps the average age for this cohort had increased to 55; younger people were doing short stints at the entry level, or going for a college degree and an officer’s berth. The top unions for these workers did not suffer a pension collapse, as the American Maritime Officers’ union did in 2009, so these mid-levels were able to retire on schedule.  

The Navy and Coast Guard had been steady suppliers of skilled mariners, but shipping companies must compete with other veteran-friendly employers such as defense contractors and large-capital corporations.

It seems that these positions would be great targets for re-skilling workers displaced by deindustrialization. Someone has to pay for the training, though, whether it is state employment agencies, the GI Bill, employers, or largely out-of-pocket. Entry-level personnel will not commit to the expense until they are sure that the maritime field is right for them.

Employers expected recent maritime academy graduates to backfill these positions. During lean times, as recently as 2020, graduates of limited economic means went “before the mast” to begin earning family-sized paychecks, instead of waiting for an officer’s assignment. But when officer positions are readily available, it takes a lot of gaslighting (“you’re not ready…”, etc.) to get new graduates to take unlicensed positions- not an efficient or ethical strategy.     

 

Entry Level

Traditionally, the gatekeepers of entry-level, deep-sea maritime positions, such as union training schools and federal government agencies with ships, could offer entry-level positions to those with previous work experience. These prospective mariners would be expected to bring something to the table, professionally. Preferably, they had work experience on inland and fishing boats. If not, they could be a great cook, or have nighttime watch standing experience from the Army. But at this moment, the gatekeepers are recruiting at high school job fairs. Salaried employment, or fixed contracts, in the maritime industry, certainly beats the variable pay and unpredictable schedules of other employers, such as foodservice. The potential for upward mobility at sea is unparallel as well.

Mariners Don't Work from Home

 

I am employed in the civil service, with two days of work-from-home per week. This is unusual in the maritime industry overall, where our contractors can be found at their offices, or in the field, any working day of the week.

The maritime industry; like investment banking, medicine, and top law; is not just a job, but a lifestyle. Due to the intense hours and high skills necessary, these occupations traditionally pay a single-breadwinner wage that supports a professional lifestyle. It is implied that there is someone at home, either a spouse or an au-pair, who takes care of the little things at home, to set up the high-earning professional for success. In the return-to-office debate, it was often revealed by anecdote that the “back to work” types had a system for domestic support. In the maritime industry, this is not just weekday help on the homefront, but one that can go for weeks or months, in the case of deep-sea voyages.

In contrast to acute events such as hurricanes and terrorist attacks, the cyclical nature of COVID-19 has blurred the distinction between a contingency mode of work (OK for employees to use work time to take care of life necessities, including childcare) to standard operations (Employer gets full attention during the work day). Switching to a lower tempo is somewhat disadvantageous in a high-performance industry, where the workforce is acculturated to giving all to their profession.

One of the more significant issues surrounding work-from-home is the security of clients’ information, whether it is the proprietary trade information of a private business, or classified information for military vessels. For the private sector, profit comes from incremental improvement and advantage in an otherwise commoditized market. We wouldn’t take annual training on countermeasures if espionage didn’t happen.

Shoresiders are seen as sissies, already. At sea, a lot happens between 5pm on Friday and 8am on Monday. The shoreside 5-day-per-week work schedule contrasts to the 7-day-a-week lifestyle of a sailing mariner. Depending on the time zone difference between the ship and the office, it could be a 72-hour delay in communication because of the weekend. Already, ship’s officers have epithets for shore-side office people over this perceived lack of support; the relationship would be more strained in a permanent work-from-home environment, where impromptu meetings are more difficult to arrange. Ships are tangible items. During COVID-19 lockdowns, crewmembers had their workload increase when shore-siders were unable to visit ships in-person. Photographs and summary reports now had to be undertaken by the crew in order to support shore-siders’ work-from-home plans.

In the work-from-home model, new maritime employees recruited from non-traditional sources (such as polytechnic colleges and shoreside industry) will lose the opportunity to develop social skills relevant to the maritime industry- the unwritten rules of work. Granted, some of these old-fashioned norms needed to disappear, as witnessed by the #womenbelongatsea movement.

Could it Work? Profit Share on Vessels

Two hundred years ago, it was common for mariners to be paid not in salary, but in share of revenue from the ship’s voyage. Depending on the trade, a captain might collect a long draw of 1/8^th, and an ordinary seaman perhaps 1/200^th of the ship’s earnings on a voyage.

Looking back to the 1920’s, this practice had become obsolete for the most part. In the whaling trade, this practice continued. Many vessels used in the whaling trade were purchased secondhand. Most trade routes had shifted from sail to steam between 1890 and 1910, leaving many sailing vessels available for reuse in longer-haul trades. Thus, the cost of labor was significant compared to the cost of capital equipment, such as the vessel, sails, and whaling gear. The mariners were an integral part of the value chain, as they sailed the ship and refined whale oil onboard, during their long voyage. In contrast to the cargo trade, where sailing routes were fixed, and cargos assigned by agents ashore; the nature of whaling incentivized captains to engage in the profit-seeking motive of finding the whales, even if it took them far from homeport.

It is still common in the fishing industry to practice profit-sharing, whether it is the San Diego fishing fleet or the Alaskan trade. A small crew works long hours to produce seafood.  

Today, crew costs for a large cargo vessel represents perhaps just 10 percent of vessel operating costs. On foreign vessels, labor accounts for perhaps $1 million for $10 million in costs, not including mortgage payments on the vessel.  Yet labor cost is the realm in which international shipowners try to pare down costs. Fuel costs, on the other hand, can represent 50% of a vessel’s operating expense, and is highly variable. It therefore is impractical to assign the profitability “risk” to crewmembers, when other factors affecting vessel profitability are much more variable than a fixed salary.  

How else can mariners profit from voyages beyond their salary? In sailing ship days, ship’s masters often owned their own vessels; and this owner-operator culture still exists on rivers and bays. Many deep-sea ships are incorporated as their own Limited Liability Company under a shipping firm’s umbrella. Bondholders and bank lenders on ship’s equipment will prefer a fixed return, but preferred shares of stocks in a particular vessel, with dividends paid on voyage earnings, could offer a more entrepreneurial investment for knowledgeable mariners. Currently, this format is not practiced for large ships, although inland boats may be paid for through this “crowdfunded” method.  

Going Rogue? Unlikely

 Someone posed the question online, as to the likelihood of a Navy ship’s captain going rogue. I speculated that it is an unlikely scenario, for the following reasons:

My experience is onboard civilian-operated supply ships for the US Navy. The Captain and other department heads have spent years fully indoctrinated in the Navy way of thinking. From the moment they are hired as Third Officers, they are given extensive training on various tactical and leadership topics. (In contrast, many engineering officers pay for 100% of their own training). Small amounts of responsibility, such as handling small arms or being the Flight Deck Officer, are given early, but can be revoked. That would be a red flag. The Admiral must personally approve promotions of civilian Captains. The more unconventional officers (pacificists, conspiracy theorists) are not placed on critical ships, such as the ammo carriers. And yes, Special Forces practice on how to get from the helicopter deck to the ship’s bridge.

On a combatant ship, as OP notes, all of these precautions, and more, would be utilized very rigorously in the selection of COs and XOs.

Has it happened in recent times? Yes. The privately-managed SS Columbia Eagle was taken over by entry-level crewmembers in a 1970 munity, as protest against the war in Vietnam. As far as government vessels go, the aforementioned measures are an insurance policy against barratry (by a ship's captain) and mutiny (by the crew). 

Wither the Radio Officer?

 

The Radio Officer is one of the shipboard positions no longer found anymore. The responsibilities for that position were shifted to the Deck Officer, and in a bygone era, the Deck Officers would split the Radio Officer’s pay. The Radio Officer was a member of the Deck department, but on government ships that still retain the position, they usually report to the engineering department. 

The Radio Officer was most famous for being an operator of the radiotelegraph, and later, the teletype. But their weight in gold was their ability to tune and maintain equipment.

Most maritime regulation is made on the basis of safety, not convenience of crewmembers. By 1979, satellite-based GMDSS (Global Maritime Distress Signaling System) replaced morse code as the primary method of distress communications on the high seas.

Crucially, modular components- with spare parts carried onboard, and shore-based servicing available in every port, meant that ship’s officers no longer had the maintainer role, just the operator role. By this point, radio officers were helping the Captain with various paperwork responsibilities: there wasn’t much for “Sparky” to do with reliable, self-adjusting equipment.

The US Coast Guard still offers Radio Officer licensure. A closer look at the requirements, such as telegraphy, reveals that this licensure is designed for legacy ships, including some on the Great Lakes, and the WWII-era museum ships. More relevant are the modern-day endorsements for licensed Deck officers, including GMDSS training, a two-week course.

Real World Constraints versus the Ivy Swimming Pool

 A certain college swimmer has been in the news for bending the rules, so it’s said. Not naming names, because anyone could have been the test case, switching from the Men’s to Women’s team without a significant interlude. Unnatural advantages are nothing new: earlier this century, the famous biker Lance Armstrong muddied the waters with his steroid use- apparently taking more than required for his medical condition. But what stands out, if I may say, is the swimmer’s sense of “due”. Sociologist Annette Lareau uses the term "entitlement" as a professional-class sense of belonging in a place, a term which I think has taken a negative connotation recently.

 In the Real World (that is, outside the literal Ivory Tower), prioritization and the acceptance of constraints is a fact of life. Two good things can be mutually exclusive: being a nationally-ranked Men’s Team Swimmer, regardless of gender identity, as this individual was; or receiving treatment for gender dysphoria. In mutual exclusivity, you do one thing first, then the other. The re-established three-year waiting period to switch teams, in the case of transgender players, may hobble a student-athlete’s athletic career, but delaying medical treatment for career or other ambitions is not out of the ordinary in the Real World.  

 For some mariners, including those on the high seas, it is impossible to complete a series of orthodontic treatment, while earning a paycheck: the location and time of shore leave is unpredictable, and not conducive to monthly appointments. For women mariners, the same constraints apply to fertility treatment; and if successful, non-seagoing work would have to be found for the duration of pregnancy. In my case, it took a year to find time to see a nasal specialist: when I was on a high-tempo ship, I relied on walk-in clinics, who could not give specialists’ referrals.  

Forgoing treatment, extending treatment (in the case of government mariners who work year-round), or skipping medication commonly seen as disqualifying for a safety-sensitive position, are all common in the shipping industry. We have come a long way, in some respects. It is no longer expected to work through an injury, or accept chronic pain “like a man”- an irony, as women have higher pain tolerance. Seeking mental health care is no longer a disqualifier for security work. Yet, for quality-of-life care, there remains a question of access, even if these people at sea and in other remote environments can afford it. This is what the Real World sees in the Ivy League swimmer’s case.   

PE Exam: Game Day

 

Most successful exam takers recommend doing nothing but relaxing the day before taking the 8-hour Professional Engineering exam. I ignored their advice. I had finished a practice exam the previous Saturday, but it was only on the day before test-day that I had time to rework missed problems.

Even on test day, between breakfast at the Holiday Inn Express and the test center opening, I ran through my flashcards with important formulae- rules of thumb- not included in the test handbook.  

I prepared snacks and lunch in portioned bags, placing them in my test candidate’s locker. Save brainpower for the test, instead of thinking about what to eat. In previous times, PE exam candidates, like lawyers aiming for the State Bar, would convene at certain convention-like centers around the state on a given day. Now, nearly all tests are offered at Pearson’s Professional Testing Centers, which serve members of various trades and professions, including nurses, EMTs, and dentists.

At least at the center I tested at, order of seating is given on a first-come, first-serve basis, so anxious individuals with a 2-hour exam could be seated ahead of full-day examinees. But there was a silver lining in the wait, as I decided to take my morning break early. If was fortuitous that I could plug-and-chug until lunchtime.

It had been several years since I sat for a major exam, so, like plunging into the cold water of the hotel pool, I remembered to mind my breathing and heart rate (My grad school program in Systems Engineering had no timed tests, just projects and reports).

Unlike most every other academic exam, the NCEES’ PE exam is a test that is about endurance, strategy, and time management. It is a test where perfection is erroneous, and where you are expected to skip questions to better manage time- an average of 6 minutes per question. Indeed, PhD’s are often permitted to skip this exam on the road to state licensure- their work is quite different from the constraints faced by ordinary practitioners of the engineering profession.

 I took the Mechanical- HVAC version, which errs towards the blue-collar side of the PE exams that NCEES offers. In this test, the writers want to ensure that someone long out of college, but dedicated to the industry, can pass the exam. I reviewed refrigeration questions from the US Coast Guard’s Marine Engineering test series, which is heavily focused on practical applications; several questions were direct hits.  

Each half of the test is about the same length in questions. But there is no cutoff clock for the first half, so you could pace 4 hours and 4 hours, or 3 hours and 5 hours between the halves. To reduce stress, I was not going to allot extra time to the first half of the exam, since the second half is traditionally the harder- and time-consuming half.

In the first half, I recall that I spent too much time on one question, then had to shoot-from-the hip on one I could have calculated. It resembled a practice problem, so I chose the answer from memory. It turned out the second half of the exam was the easier one, this cycle. (Four versions of the test are issued each year, and April 1 was the first day of a new test version). I definitely was dragging by question 75, out of 80, yet I had time to rework uncertain problems, and leave the test center 20 minutes ahead of time.

At the end of the exam, I had a high level of confidence, which waned with second-guessing myself the next day. A missed fundamental concept, such as confusing latent heat with sensible heat, could cost 7 questions, and the test-writers know which wrong answers to give as choices. One missed fundamental leaves little room for other errors, for the average-performing test taker. And of the fill-in-the-blank questions, what was the leeway given for rounding errors? The never specified the number of decimal points to give.

 With the computer-based test, I completed the exam on Friday, April 1, and received results on the following Wednesday. I couldn’t bear to see what I might see, but I saw the green bar of success! As I have completed all of the other state prerequisites for licensure (education, references, and an ethics exam), I am just waiting on the official letter to come from Richmond, VA.

As I sat on the tailgate of my car, having completed the test, I wondered at the feeling of having completed “the last test of your life”. For many of my undergraduate classmates at the US Merchant Marine Academy, comprehensive tests for the US Coast Guard Merchant Mariner License were the end of their academic careers. We had a profession for life, if sailing as a mariner is what we wanted.

Middle Managers That Weren't

 The 1940’s to the 1990’s were the golden age of middle management. World War Two was foisted upon a United States that still had a large agricultural population. To ensure quick learning for workers transitioning from farm to industry, it was necessary to break work into small tasks, with rigid supervision of personnel and production of reports. This method won the war.

The high overhead of this kind of supervision meant many jobs for middle managers, who often were picked from liberal arts colleges rather than the assembly line. As foreign countries built their industries along different management systems (such as Japanese quality control or German quality design), high overhead costs and large internal bureaucracy strangulated profits and ingenuity. 

To rework these byzantine processes and procedures, “re-engineering the corporation” meant re-evaluating the hierarchical organizational charts. Work once performed in narrow silos, (for example- clerks who processed one or two lines on a form) now became assigned to functional groups centered on a tangible result (customer satisfaction or widget-making machines repaired). Prospective management, which prevents employees from inducing errors; was replaced with less-costly retrospective management, which trusts the auditing process to find errors.

Middle management stood outside of the “value chain”, as found in Six Sigma theory; or the rolls of “essential workers” in the COVID-19 Pandemic. While the implementation of re-engineering created efficiency and return to profitability; the 1993 namesake book’s author, Michael Hammer, did not discuss what to do about displaced middle managers; or how the nascent internet would many first post-college jobs obsolete. Nor what to do about the continued rate of business and liberal arts majors graduating college each year; as college counsellors were late to the news.

Broken expectations are topics for a different day. Even if these graduates never reach the upper-middle class lifestyle, there is still a baseline consumption of goods and services; think food shelter, and medicine; which must be provided by essential workers. Those large student loans are a millstone on disposable income, whether it is to start a family or small business, or buy a home.

Many essential workers in the oft-forgotten “value chain” proclaim themselves “open to work”. They are commonly credentialed in multiple trades and professions; yet if they’re shipping war matériel to Europe, they aren’t available for offshore oil drilling. If they’re building houses, they aren’t available for over-the-road trucking. They are in-demand, and many are paid handsomely up-front; in contrast to the long-term payout envisioned by future middle managers. For whatever the reasons, vocational-focused colleges tend to be magnitudes more affordable than liberal arts colleges. 

How do you retool those middle-managers to become more essential, and to become part of the value chain? Some might cite the use of vocational aptitude tests, to determine that many people are not suited for manual labor, technical, or field work. But the experience of the military, through its promotion rates of Corporals and Petty Officers, shows that at least half of the population is suited for both labor and supervision; blue-collar and white-collar work (not just in today’s highly-selective military; but in Cold War times, when most volunteers were accepted for service). Occupational elitism is another concern: Would degreed construction managers lend a hand on the worksite?  

When colleges and non-essential businesses were closed during the heart of the Pandemic, I could see with my own eyes that many young adults rolled up their sleeves, and went to work on construction sites, as independent-contract delivery drivers, and as trade apprentices. If it was not just the ennui of boredom, the Invisible Hand of Economics finally did its work. Those college graduates will have some concrete skills to put on their resumes.

A Maritime Strategy for Ukraine

 Russian President Vladimir Putin did the unthinkable: There’s a shooting war in Europe. Fear of isolation from the “international community”, whatever that means to liberal democracies, the Geneva Convention, lessons from the Nuremburg Trials, and economic sanctions, failed to stop total war in Ukraine. NATO and the US was afraid of “poking the bear”, but Putin escalated his war nevertheless.

The news has covered the stories of Ukrainian-American expatriates and mercenaries fighting in the ground war; and I have had peers ask “how do I join the fight?”. To those with maritime experience, I advise staying at sea, with a focus on delivering food and supplies. Odessa, accessed through Istanbul’s Bosporus Strait and through the Black Sea, offers the most daring route. Russian harassment and occasional attacks on vessels today harken back to World War Two’s Murmansk Run. A successful convoy of merchant ships can deliver more goods than airplanes and trucks, the current vehicles of logistics. The merchant marine is a business, however, and in wartime conditions, governments must provide assurance to vessels flying their flag. In the United States, various tools can be activated by the Maritime Administration, under the DOT. These include activation of Second Seaman’s War Risk Insurance, to guarantee life insurance benefits for mariners, and vessel insurance for shipowners. Declaring a Sealift Emergency would allow retired and former mariners to crew ships, with the ability to return to their shore-based jobs after completing a voyage (similar to the USERRA benefit provided to military reservists and draftees).          

Dependency on Oil and Gas is the Achille’s heel of the West. During the first week of Putin’s war in Ukraine, which began on February 22^nd, countries such as Germany and the United Kingdom had no plans to curtail fuel purchases from Russia’s war machine. Given that fuel prices at the gas pump had already increased, I was afraid that the politicians in Washington, DC would be afraid of acting decisively. Initially, I felt that some form of rationing or subsidy (such as government-issued fuel cards to consumers) would be required to ease off Russian fuel imports. This would go hand-in-hand with fuel conservation posters asking motorists “if this trip is necessary”. Citizens would be asked to turn down the thermostat in cold-weather environments, and raise it in warm-weather environments, to save fuel.

The transition was easier than expected. Existing domestic production, the price/demand curve for fuel consumption, and cooperation from other OPEC nations allowed the US to adapt to the cut in Russian fuel imports. Idle offshore oil rigs were already being restored to service, as the price of oil had increased over the key threshold of $80 per barrel. In oil rig layup, the drilling rig roughnecks and brown-water mariners bear the brunt of fluctuations: working on a drillship or supply vessel is high-paying work when it is available.  

In World War Two, construction of the Big Inch Pipeline from Texas to New Jersey was prioritized in order to free oil tankers from the dangerous duty of navigating the Atlantic Coast, infested with Nazi U-Boats. Energy security today demands construction of the Keystone XL Pipeline, while respecting the rights of the Lakota People. This pipeline alone is reported to have the carrying capacity equivalent to fuel imports from Russia. While the conflict in Ukraine will hopefully be resolved before completion of the pipeline, its existence should change Russia’s geopolitical calculations in the longer term. On the greener side, conservatives and war hawks will find clean energy investments, such as solar and wind farms, to be part of a national security strategy.

President Eisenhower correctly assessed the importance of logistics in wartime. This is evident in reports of frontline Russian soldiers begging for MREs, or pre-packaged meals.  Food, Supplies, and Fuel- both how we use them at home, and how we deliver them to Ukraine, are essential parts for victory.

Mama Lenders and Mortgage Lenders

 As it is today, the housing sector is a provider of equal opportunity. People in their respective economic milieus live in somewhat-integrated neighborhoods. Taking Fairfax County, Virginia as an example, Working-Class Whites and Latinos may share one neighborhood; and Upper-Middle Class Whites and Asians may share another neighborhood.

There is one group that is left behind, studies show: middle-class African-Americans, who miss out on the opportunity to purchase in the same neighborhoods that White Americans of similar economic status do. Merely calling it “systemic racism” won’t solve the discrepancy; but dissecting it will.  

Qualification for a traditional mortgage is based on the ability to repay; in addition to making a down payment. Many prospective homebuyers must budget carefully to build the down payment, by cutting out some discretionary spending.  African-American purchasing habits are similar to other Americans, although the community spends slightly more on haircare and barbeque supplies, slightly less on home appliances. Contrary to pervasive stereotypes, spending on discretionary goods (such as shoes and handbags) does not differ from other groups.

How “consumer debt” is handled, does differ culturally. In the African-American community, it is common for family members in middle-class jobs to gift, or loan on flexible terms, significant sums of money to less-fortunate relatives. This could be cash for a nephew to buy a used car for his new job, medical expenses for a parent, or college textbooks for a cousin.

In previous decades, this arrangement was highly beneficial, and even necessary to ensure a family’s security in light of the peonage, or debt-bondage, system common in the Jim Crow South. In the Agricultural South and Industrial North, young and middle-aged men had a short period of time in their prime-earning years. This relative excess would be used to support family members in more vulnerable financial situations, such as grandparents. Today, this informal system of family assurance is much better for the recipient economically than a payday loan, and better than a high-interest credit card. It, however, does not enhance the donor’s credit score; nor is the possibility of receiving mutual assurance counted towards “ability to pay” a mortgage.  

Asian-American families often have a similar practice of family assurance, but with one notable difference among the American-born: bank checks are passed instead of large bills. When financial transfers within a family are significant, traceability makes a large impact on perceived creditworthiness. When cash “disappears” from a bank account, it is assumed by mortgage lenders to have been spent. A check, written out to a relative, carries intrinsic proof as an intra-family gift.

Indeed, many members of the Black Middle Class may fall through the cracks of mortgage lenders; resulting in smaller loan approvals and higher interest rates; and consequently, less choice of neighborhood. What mortgage originators need to do, then, is to recognize this form of family assurance as a legitimate form of insurance and financial security. Community leaders should encourage the use of traceable instruments, such as bank checks or mobile apps, to ‘mainstream’ this mutually-beneficial practice in the eyes of institutional lenders.  

Gen X Still Remembers the Great Recession: A Virginia Chronicle

 

Having spent their lives fending for themselves, the theory goes, Generation X is naturally conservative. In the New York Times, Ross Douthat further speculates that this generation came of age in the 1980s and 1990s, a time of broad-based conservative and neo-liberal reforms that delivered public order and individual prosperity.

But exit polls in Terry McAuliffe’s two runs for Virginia Governor tell a different story locally. In his 2013 run, the 30-40 demographic voted strongest for the Democrat, while the under-30’s went for his unsuccessful Tea Party Republican opponent, Ken Cuccinelli. In his 2021 campaign, McAuliffe overperformed with the 40-50 demographic (who were 30-somethings in 2013); and underperformed with the 30-40 group, ultimately losing the race. This inversion of national trends perplexed me: why were our Gen X-ers more liberal than their national peers, while our millennials tilted to the right?

Did liberal GenX-ers move to Virginia when then-Governor Tim Kaine declared in 2008 that “Old Virginny is Dead”? Aside from the Democrats who held statewide elected office, Virginia for the next decade would still retain a distinctively conservative political culture. No, it was not Mr. Kaine’s come-on, but one facilitated by the Great Recession. I have said before that 1987 was the worst year to be born in post-WWII America; indeed, in the face of mass layoffs and unemployment, there were few jobs for recent college graduates in 2009-2010. Washington, DC, however, stood out from the rest. The Federal Government was hiring, and the Obama Administration was in-sourcing some analyst and policy roles that had previously been outsourced to contractors. Like California in the 1930’s, Washington, DC drew newcomers from across the country to these government positions.

Where would these newcomers live? Washington, DC’s outer suburbs, whose housing bubble had burst. Newly-built homes in cul-de-sac subdivisions were available to rent at affordable prices. Virginia’s conservative policies meant that the building boom was concentrated here, rather than in the equidistant Maryland suburbs. A general rebound in home prices benefitted homeowners in Manassas and Dumfries greatly. But that was a curse if they were renters.

Virginia Democrats in elected office tend to be either fiscally or socially conservative. In recent years, however, these suburbs are the home of the most vocal progressives in the Virginia Legislature. There was Democratic-Socialist Lee Carter, the liberal enforcer Haya Ayala, and transgender Delegate Danica Roem. Carter and Ayala are no longer in elected office; their fast ambition for statewide office ended in loss.

To explain away natural conservativism of Virginia millennials, there is a practical matter that won’t repeat in future elections, hopefully. Older millennials, especially mothers displaced from the workforce by lack of childcare options, are the largest beneficiaries of Governor Glenn Youngkin’s promise of “no more school lockdowns” for COVID-19. Tellingly, he won the “parent vote” by 12 points.   

In 2013, I thought it was the military vote that pushed the youth vote to the right. Virginia always had a base of young conservatives: military members from deep-Southern states: they preferred Bob Dole over Bill Clinton; John McCain over Barack Obama. After the War on Terror began, it became commonplace for servicemembers to keep their hometown residency, instead of switching it to their Virginia duty station. Thus, Virginia Republicans lost room for electoral error.

The parents of Northern Virginia millennials purchased homes long ago at affordable prices in now highly-desirable inner-suburban neighborhoods. In the 1990’s, they might have bought into a state college tuition prepayment plan for their children; an investment with an incredible effective rate-of-return. At that time, Governor George Allen successfully pivoted employment in the Cold War-Era Defense Sector towards the nascent I.T. Industry, avoiding the job losses and stagnation that hobbled Southern California for years. His fondness for market-based solutions finally modernized Virginia’s segregation-era economic system; a regulatory paradigm that kept people down, rather than help them grow.  Virginia’s youngsters were on trajectory for the professional-class: those with liberal, creative interests moved to the power cities of their respective careers. Virginia retained capital and infrastructure-heavy firms that thrive in a loose regulatory environment, such as banking and weapons manufacturing; the quants grew up and stayed at home, at least until financially stable. There is nothing like a libertarian living in their parents’ basement: childhood bedrooms offered short commutes and free rent.      

For aspiring young professionals, living in the City of Washington’s older housing allows for affordable options such as a shared bedroom. For those who work nights in the service sector, the minimum wage is progressive. Across the Potomac River in Virginia, the newer apartment stock of the Clarendon-centered “polo shirt corridor” tends to rent itself to young adults in higher-paying jobs such as finance and consulting. While the corridor votes solidly Democratic, Progressivism has no home here. This may change with the establishment of Amazon’s HQ2. Right-to-Work brought Amazon to Virginia; but ironically, all those Amazon tech workers might, through elections in representative democracy, spell the end of Right-to-Work in Virginia.  

Thus comes my political theory: While Gen X-ers came to Virginia in need; Millennials stayed in Virginia, in a position of relative strength and privilege.  

Will the Law Prevail? AGs as Celebrities and Public Servants

 

Ken Cuccinelli, who served as deputy secretary of the US Department of Homeland Security after his term as Virginia’s Attorney General (2010-2014), was perhaps a prototypical Tea Party Republican politician; but his term in office did not rock the status quo. A practicing patent attorney, he came from a golden age of law practice, when the American Bar Association was supreme. Opinions differed between liberals and conservatives, but the predominant trend was to empower the people through choice and autonomy; even if it varied from scientific research and planning favored in the immediate postwar era.

In the role of Attorney General, Cuccinelli’s work was informed by strict textualism as a servant of the state, rather than a judicial philosophy informed by groups such as the Federalist Society. As Attorney General, Ken Cuccinelli deferred to the legislature to repeal the one-handgun-a-month limit. This was a bipartisan effort: federal background checks instituted in the late 1990’s had reduced the importance of this purchase limit.

The status quo had definitely changed when Cuccinelli’s successor, Mark Herring (D) refused to defend Virginias’s traditional marriage law in the lead-up to Obergefell vs Hodges (2015); this deference to the federal courts was viewed as unprecedented in Virginia’s history. In retrospect, Herring’s choice has been seen as a decisive, if polarizing moment. At the time, defense of state laws and practices in the Federal Courts was widely seen as key function of the Attorney General’s office: “my Virginia, right or wrong”. Last year, former Governor Ralph Northam (D) never clarified why he endorsed incumbent Attorney General Mark Herring’s Democratic Primary opponent, leaving Virginians to guess the reason why: was it his judicial activism? Was he not progressive enough?

As former Attorney General Mark Herring was on his way out, he left his successor Jason Miyares (R) a suit against the Town of Windsor for racially-discriminatory policing practices. This again was a first; as in the past a gentlemen’s agreement would have been achieved between local government and the state, well before the courts would become involved. 

Bipartisan consensus is harder to achieve today, and the much-feared swing-state pendulum of diametrically opposite policies had arrived in Virginia. For a short time in 2020 after universal background checks for gun purchases became law again in Virginia (under pain of felony offense), I considered opening an online clearinghouse to handle these transfers; I’m glad I didn’t, since I would’ve gone out of business. Citing their own interpretations of the Second Amendment, the vast majority of rural and suburban Commonwealths’ Attorneys (county DA’s) decided not to prosecute private transactions done in accordance with prior law.

Newly-inaugurated Attorney General Jason Miyares promised to take politics out of the office. Even if he avoids going on stage in the national Republican Party spotlight, his judicial upbringing will guide his work. Born in 1976, the Federalist Society was active on Virginia law school campuses when he arrived at the College of William and Mary. This organization is now seen as an alternative to the American Bar Association, which critics claim to have become too liberal (i.e. defense-friendly) on criminal justice issues.

As the alt-right has taken to embrace chaotic, disorderly forms of personal liberty; he stuck his stake in the position of law-and-order. To him, freedom and support of law enforcement are complementary, not contrary. During his campaign, Miyares spoke from the steps of specific courthouses where criminal assailants were given light sentences. Son of a Cuban immigrant, he contrasted the terror of Cuba’s secret police knocking at the door, with America’s love of neighborhood spirit.  

He wants to be your local prosecutor, too; and has asked the legislature for joint jurisdiction with locally-elected Commonwealths’ Attorneys. If they won’t prosecute, Jason Miyares will. The changes could take effect as soon as July. In Fairfax County, the most populous jurisdiction in Virginia, and located just outside of DC, Steve Descano was elected as a progressive Commonwealth’s Attorney in the anti-Trump wave of 2019.  His predecessor left the Democratic Party in protest. Descano has proven himself to be a hothead with a temper, easy enough to be triggered.  While there are other “woke” prosecutors in the inner suburbs, the joint jurisdiction bill was about Descano, who seems easy enough to topple in what will be a raucous Fairfax County 2023 Democratic Primary.

How does the Attorney General put politics and individual philosophy back into the box it came from? Especially when popular elections are involved, these elements become deeply engrained in the interpretation and enforcement of laws. Two suggestions emerge from my experience with the engineering profession: Reinstate the fraternity-sorority of state bar membership by emphasizing core principles of “equality and justice for all”. Matters affecting governance within a state must be handled by local stakeholders; they cannot be outsourced overseas or to BigLaw; to do otherwise is to lose nuance, continuity, and collaboration. In this way, duty to the profession of law would supersede the temporal incentives of playing politics from the Attorney General’s office.

Math to Prose and Back Again

 

I just got tired of studying; the material in Lindeburg’s guide just wasn’t interesting anymore. While I could cruise through many topics not relevant to the mechanical exam I will be taking, I was now in the heart of Thermodynamics, a subject I needed to understand closely.

I had a long-neglected writing project that bubbled up to the top of my head. I guess the idea had been simmering subconsciously, because the words flowed easily once I started typing. I had drafts written on loose-leaf paper, yet I didn’t need to reference them to get my point across.  The topic? Maritime tips for a friend’s career guide that he is writing. In two leisurely nights, the task was done. When I finished, I even had the motivation to hit the engineering books again.

Glad I wasn't a Freeway Icicle

 

It happened in my backyard- a 24-hour backup in fairly mid-weathered Virginia. Interstate 95 between Washington, DC and Richmond, VA is fragile at the best of times. It serves as a long-distance route connecting the Northeast to Florida, a commuter route to Washington DC and the inner suburbs, and local traffic within the suburbs of Prince William and Stafford counties.  Add some weather, and it becomes a parking lot. Despite ample public warnings and morning snow, the road was carrying near normal weekday afternoon traffic load. The snow came fast in the afternoon, slushing the highway, stalling cars and jack-knifed trucks. Once the lanes were blocked, cars stopped and were frozen in like ice cubes.

Why was everyone out of the road? First, there were lots of trucks delivering cargo. They just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. Other essential workers were on the road, including nurses and firefighters headed to their shifts. Many others were told by their employer to be at work- not considering stay-at-home warnings. I guess these were not the same employers who offered special time off during the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays. There were those who were making a quick grocery run that turned into a brutal night; and there were travelers conquering distance, or so they hoped. GPS blindness put those cars on the road– many long-distance drivers paid excessive attention to their electronic navigation aids and the often-optimistic Estimated Times of Arrival (ETA). Those ETAs are estimates, and drivers, like air pilots and mariners, need to look outside the window for a reality check.    

What were the human factors? Why ignore the warnings? Some never received them. While tornadoes and hurricanes call for Emergency Alerts broadcasted to every cellphone, mass notification about this storm did not reach atomized groups. Complacency in one’s rolling fortress: exhibiting style over substance, not all large vehicles today are designed for heavy weather driving.

And, for the past two years, propensity to ignore public health and safety warnings. I guess that once you decide that legitimate coronavirus information is “fake news”, blizzards are the next threat to ignore.