Adjacent Possibilities

Onboard a ship in the Far East, I found a sort of Edwardian fatalism that prescribed "stuckness" to one's career as a civilian mariner with the Military Sealift Command. I immediately attributed this mentality to the hardships of the COVID-19 era: restriction to the ship, delayed reliefs, no hazard pay. A large percentage of the workforce took retirement or other employment. Some, including myself, took the opportunity to promote into the power vacuum. Others will retire in the next several years, so they endured the transitory inconvenience. But there were others who were institutionalized into the Western Pacific carousel of port visits and girlfriends, before and after COVID-19. They offered advice contrary to my bookshelf of career guidance material: "What are you saving your money for?" "You're too young to have that position, why don't you ask for a demotion and take it easy?" While gray hair might help in establishing gravitas on personnel problems, I held a Master's Degree and Professional Engineer's license that attested to my experience in handling technical and planning issues. A crew swap brought me back to the East Coast this month. While I anticipated the same issues related to personnel readiness and attitude, I was surprised to find the "Old MSC" of competent and hopeful mariners onboard. In a way, this makes sense: While the COVID-19 era hardship conditions lasted 30 months in the Far East, normalcy was restored within 3 months onboard Norfolk, based ships. The attitudes of "Stuckness" were positive in nature, and related to building and supporting one's family in Virginia or a nearby state. Long-timers could see the up-or-out dynamics in the officer's mess: recent college graduates often wear the shirts of their family's contracting business. Implicit was the idea that MSC was a good place to start a career, but that the future was open-ended. The visibility of shore staff, and small repair firms on a daily basis emphasied that work could be found in adjacent fields. The employment relationship, then, was more of a two-way partnership, than a dependency on the employer's paternalistic support.

Naval Base Shuttle is no Squeaky Wheel

I’ve used up several blog posts to discuss buses, bus networks, bus system funding; and thankfully, this effort has paid off at Naval Station Norfolk. The crux of the transportation issue was severe gate traffic, as 50,000 daily commuters in mostly single-occupancy vehicles needed to pass through a limited number of Entry Control Points. In addition, 12,000 junior enlisted sailors live onboard ship or in barracks onboard the Naval Station. The local transit provider, Hampton Roads Transit, had until 2017 served the Naval Base at the end of several regular routes. Because gate traffic, and gate closures, were so unpredictable, Hampton Roads Transit ended on-base service as part of a “Service Reliability Plan”. Some rush-hour commuter routes continued until COVID-era restrictions in 2020. Without reliable transit service, the junior enlisted sailor heads to a car dealership on Little Creek Road to sign an expensive lease, or make a purchase at a high interest rate. While there was no base-wide transit coordination, some ships and shore commands did take their own initiative to furnish vans for the convenience of their sailors. These were often funded by profits from onboard ship’s stores. I performed research into furnishing similar service to the predominately-civilian Military Sealift Command. It all came down to funding: due to “prevailing maritime practice”, beer, cigars and other “vice” items could only be sold at a 10% markup; in contrast to the market price allowed for warships. Another option was the commuter benefit program, but that would require close cooperation of shipboard supervisors, who are preoccupied with other ship’s business. Nevertheless, I had a plan on paper. While on-base transit service is usually paid for from facility operating funds, Naval Station Norfolk restored on-base shuttle service with a three-year grant from the Commonwealth of Virginia’s Department of Rail and Passenger Transportation. With 50,000 commuters, the lack of on-base transit was of statewide significance. Ironically, the service was contracted to James River Transportation, the same firm I had identified in my own transit plans. Hopefully, a permanent funding mechanism will be identified before the grant money ceases. Our sailors deserve it.