Isaias' Weekend

While I was safely moored in Port Fourchon, Louisiana, Hurricane Isaias absorbed the summer heat of the southern Gulf, including of the particularly dry August, and turned it into a fast-growing storm that, after hitting the Gulf Coast near Pensacola, Florida, is sending rain into the Tennessee Valley. Reporters described the lightning as vicious and continuous, and the air blowing with tropical heat. What rain was owed to me on the moored oil tanker in August came all at one, as an October hurricane. Another fury is stirring in the news. I find it significant that Vice President J.D. Vance has stated he would not view the upcoming execution of the Fort Hood shooter, Nidal Hasan. As bizarre as the “livestream” method of witnessing is; it is not clear if the proceedings will be limited to Department of Defense circuits, or if the Secretary intends to make it available to the general public, a move highly criticized by many political and moral leaders. Mr. Vance’s demurral made me think about how he is well-regarded by the ordinary Marine and military member, and on the historic disconnect between leadership and the rank-and-file about the efficacy of public military executions. The famous case of Eddie Slovik comes to mind. Major General Cota stated about Slovik’s execution for desertion by the US Army: “If I hadn't approved it—if I had let Slovik accomplish his purpose—I don't know how I could have gone up to the line and looked a good soldier in the face”. Somewhat earlier, the United Kingdom’s public execution of deserters during World War One did not foster espirit de corps, but resentment and disillusionment; PTSD or “shell-shock” in that conflict too often resulted in a death sentence. A firing squad execution by the US Army is novel enough in the present day to demonstrate the severity of Nidal Hasan’s crimes. A voyeuristic media spectacle adds nothing of value.

Clouds Move, But Not All Ships Do

In August, when I was working in the Gulf off the coast of Texas, we had no days of rain. I was familiar with the tropical-like afternoon storms, but the first drizzle I received in August to cool the hot steel deck was a drizzle from Tropical Storm Edouard. But the dense clouds were a pleasant sight, providing for the first sub-90 degree day in weeks. And like that at home in Norfolk begins fall. Clouds overhead and weather within seasonable range (that is, below 80 degrees in mid September). The bonus summer weekends after Labor Day were beneficial for our beachfront commerce. I had spent a mere month on the ship off of Texas, and I anticipate going back again for a third stint. I guess Im a regular part of the crew now.

Arthur Miller's Life and Times

In reading “Death of a Salesman”, I became intrigued about the 20th century travelling salesman. I was moderately aware that hotels of the prewar era featured suites that doubled as showrooms, but had the feeling that the travelling salesman faded into obscurity. In the play, Willy Loman was at the peak of his career at the dawn of World War One (when he named the infant Howard, who would become his future boss). I found statistical evidence that there was a decrease in the number of salesmen over the 1920s. There was the use of telephone in business (as the 84-year old Singleton did in the play), which allowed making many virtual sales calls per day. There was also the centralization of business, where buying decisions were no longer made by individual store managers, but within the offices of a conglomerate. On the selling side, there was a flight to high performers; quality and performance over quantity of sales personnel. Who can forget Ben Loman’s cryptic proclamation that “When I was seventeen I walked into the jungle, and when I was twenty-one I walked out. And by God I was rich”. It’s not really clear if Ben, at the turn of the 20th century, had ventured to the Yukon Territory or colonial Africa. But to a contemporary student, this is an appealing prospect of winning the American dream. There are still many salesmen working on commission today. They don’t lug around heavy valises, but will ring you up to sell software or other services.

Third Battle of Bull Run

You need to pay attention when progressive environmentalists and Civil War enthusiasts are working hand-in-hand. Such is the case of a planned data center complex that would’ve been visible from Manassas National Battlefield. This hallowed ground- and its lack of suburban development- is cut solely by Lee Highway and Interstate 66, and is a stark contrast to the dense, freeway-based sprawl on both sides of this historical area. The battlefield gained local relevance when it became the adoptive home of adjacent Fairfax City’s Confederate War Memorial, commemorating the first soldier killed in action during the Civil War. Nor was this the first threat to Manassas National Battlefield: short-lived plans in the 1990’s called for construction of a new Walt Disney World complex in this area. In recent months, the Virginia Supreme Court nixed the data center proposal. In this circumstance, the data center was really a bad idea, especially when other parts of the City of Manassas and Prince William County are already equipped for new facilities. But it was a watershed moment, as cultural momentum nationwide quickly turned against the energy-gobbling, water table consuming facilities. Which I believe is an unfortunate reaction. In the past and to this day, conventional and nuclear power plants provided many shoreside second careers for marine engineers; and data centers were growing to provide the same roles. As someone described the qualifications of a marine engineer to operating a data center: “when you’re on a ship, you generate power and, using only the tools you have onboard. Compare that to a data center getting electricity from the public utility, and calling in reinforcements if a job gets difficult”. On another note: Leon Weckstein, an American soldier, had the Leaning Tower of Pisa in his crosshairs while liberating the Italian city from the Nazis in 1944. The famous tower may well have collapsed before the turn of the 21st century, as happened to the medieval Civic Tower in Pavia, in 1989. However, engineers were able to make the first effective fix to the tower’s dangerous lean. (lower the high side foundation of the tower, instead of trying to raise the low side).

Christened on the Fourth of July

I had been researching nostalgia for London’s pea-soup fogs of the 1950s and earlier, when I had the opportunity to experience one myself in Virginia. This was the acrid haze from Canadian wildfires, which have blanketed much of the eastern United States this week. While disconcerting to many residents, it reminded me of being in Bahrain and Dubai, where the sand mingles with the warm air. Leaving the United Kingdom behind, “America 250” would feel shallow if it was a veneer over crumbling foundations. Shortly before July 4th, the US Supreme Court affirmed the concept of birthright citizenship. This is the predominant practice in the Western Hemisphere, where one is automatically a citizen in the land of their birth. Citizenship by blood, as traditionally practiced in Asia and continental Europe, led to the problem of stateless residents when totalitarian governments stripped citizenship from undesired groups of people. I only recently learned that Britain practiced birthright citizenship until the end of its era of empire. So this principle of Americanism solidified, the celebration felt appropriate. With the plethora of available patriotic activities in June and July, one needed to chart their own course. Just one day, one week, or all month? There were naval and sailboat flotillas, the Great American state fair, vibe attire in red white and blue, firework shows small and great, and cancelled parades (it was a scorching week on the East Coast). I even came across Oliver Stone’s movie starring Tom Cruise, Born on the Fourth of July, watching it for the first time this year. To an extent, this annual celebration is a soft litmus test. Do you embrace the idea of the Fourth of July wholeheartedly, observe it dispassionately as a cultural phenomenon, or protest it? Overall, in communities across the nation, there is great staying power in the values of Mom and Apple Pie.

The Nuptial Detail

Over the weekend, I did a thing. I was a groomsman at a wedding for the first time. I didn't realize at the onstart that performing such a role is a series of intensive maneuvers. I had made other plans on both Saturday and Sunday morning, but decided to go with the flow. For those coming in from elsewhere, the travel is harder, but its easier to be "present". On being present, its often hard to do when you're at sea over half the year. Certainly, I've bought more wedding registry gifts for couples than Ive been to weddings. The come-to-Jesus moment for every mariner is the half-rhetorical question: "do you want to sail for the rest of your life and lose all your friends?" On the other hand, if one can set their work-life balance, as I did from the most recent hitch at sea, one can be more present. What is three days off to a mariner, when most workers have to carefully ration weekdays away from the job? Yesterday, I spent the day breaking down the wedding apparel: we handled swords in dress white uniforms. I'm glad I participated in this important event. Congratulations to Larry and Jen.

When Does Vacation Begin?

I "signed off" a ship last week (6/5). It was one week earlier than I had planned (6/11), and a date I chose for safety margin. I will be a groomsman at a friend's wedding on June 26th, but did not want the tempest of the seas delaying my launch boat, nor a weak-willed relief crew deciding to quit at an inopportune moment. While I do appreciate the time off, and the opportunity to catch up on a whirlwind of tasks that accumulated over two months away, I just wasn't ready yet mentally for a long vacation. This is a benefit of seafaring, but one that I hadn't indulged in. While sailing for the Military Sealift Command, I averaged 6 weeks off the clock per year. The average American deep sea mariner will put in 20 weeks of vacation. After careful consideration (does one week really mean one week?), I decided to take a one-week offer. After this, I'll be ready for vacation.

On Craftsmanship

Craftsmanship: trendsetting hipsters appreciated it, and taught others to love it too. Once one began to think about the item (the craftsmanship), one might begin to think about the maker (craftsman). How did craftsmanship fall to the wayside? Compensation is often based on deliverables. Engineers can take a results-oriented methodology and simply “swap the module” with a new part. Others will troubleshoot the problem and break out the soldering iron. (On consideration, an engine room Lots of spare parts lying around is likely able to afford paying its crew well). The craftsman, versus the parts-swapper, goes unappreciated until the troubleshooting skill becomes unique. The unicorn who is the “one guy” who can repair that license printer at the Coast Guard unit in Martinsburg WV, or “Gandolf”, the last person who knows the intern workings of the machinery control system. Then, the craftsman becomes invaluable.

Spirit Grounded: The Balancing Act in a Fuel-Dependent Industry

As a champion of privately owned transportation systems, from rideshare and commuter vanpools to Brightline trains and the airline industry, the loss of Spirit Airlines brings me a tinge of sadness. I never flew the yellow jets. The consensus I’ve heard is that Spirit had great staff on the airplane, but poor business strategy and non-existent operational redundancy kept away those who could afford better. Interest rates are a killer. Two years ago, I was looking at making a van purchase. It would have been the same price to purchase a ten-year-old vehicle at a higher interest rate, as a new vehicle would have cost at a lower interest rate. Reviewing the history of the 34-year-old airline, Spirit sought to standardize its fleet, in the model of other low-cost carriers. Unfortunately, engine recall issues grounded a significant portion of the airline’s fleet, and left the airline paying leases and mortgages for aircraft that couldn’t fly for revenue hours. Unhedged fuel prices finished off the airline. At the beginning of the recent conflict with Iran, I personally set aside a tankful of gasoline in case of fuel shortages or price spikes. That is a two-week supply for me. Many airlines, and other fuel-dependent transportation companies, hedge fuel prices to prevent pricing shocks. Other airlines, like Spirit, took the gamble that they can pass on price increases to the customer. Which leads to the K-shaped economic recovery: United Airlines noted that the average airline passenger today is demanding a premium experience, and is willing to pay the cost. Spirit provided mobility for young adults and the working class. Prior to the Pandemic, a more robust intercity bus network served as a Plan B, as did one-way car rentals. Now that one-way car rentals are difficult to obtain, and bus routes have been slashed to one trip per day on many key routes, the most reliable backup plan was to book a ticket on a “legacy” air carrier instead. Despite the meddling of an anti-trust judge in 2024, who blocked a merger between Spirit and Jet Blue, no Federal rescue plan was forthcoming. In the present case, it required cooperation with private bond issuers. The idea of a Trump Shuttle 2.0 was fleeting indeed. I turn to the New Jersey model of what could have been done to rescue Spirit Airlines. In that case, the state’s transportation department leased motorcoaches to established bus operators, at the rate of one dollar per year, on the condition that they run commuter service at regulated rates. Free of equipment amortization and interest costs, transportation companies suddenly have a lot more economic headroom to operate. However, since other low-cost carriers sought the same aid proffered to Spirit, it was too late to do anything quick enough to save the airline. (Did I eulogize Skybus back in ’08? I probably did).

The Streetcar that Could / Gallipoli that Couldn't

March 31, 2026 marked the second time that Washington, DC rid itself of streetcars. Before the present day, many wondered why the Nation's Capitol scrapped electrified rail transit in 1962. On the last day of streetcar service, we were reminded why: a streetcar cannot merge out of the way of a double-parker, a delivery driver, or a disabled vehicle. The lowly bus could; and that bus could travel into neighborhoods further than the end of the streetcar line. This streetcar was one of several Obama-era streetcar line launches across the nation, which seemed to be designed for gentrification of neighborhoods, rather than providing rail rapid transit. (Portland, Oregon has another such system in its Pearl District neighborhood). This streetcar building program did meet a couple goals: providing employment in the construction industry during the depths of the Great Recession, and fostering neighborhood redevelopment. It was a missed opportunity, however, to ignore traffic engineering principles that could have made the streetcar line into a fast and efficient trip. -- I realized that my last post concerend action in the Hormuz Strait, and refrained from headlining this post with the same topic. However, I have been watching movies and reading books about British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, who served in that role during the Second World War. As a Minister of Parliament, he had in the 1930s been written off as a nostalgic warmongerer, in large part to his role in planning the ill-fated Gallipoli campaign of the First World War. Fast forward twenty years, and the bloody lessons learned became helpful resolve when facing total war on and adjacent to the home front. In the current Iran conflict, I feel as if the lessons have been learned, as to what the future of warfare will hold. How much has changed since Operation Iraqi Freedom 20 years ago, when we could be self-assured in our top-of-the line equipment. Expensive units today may not be the "best" in a given conflict. There is now plenty of hard-won knowledge that American military strategists can apply to slide decks, flashcards, and tabletop excercises. Here is a news article that name-drops Gallipoli: https://www.msn.com/en-in/news/world/kharg-and-ghost-of-gallipoli-why-trump-risks-walking-into-iran-s-trap/ar-AA1ZwjrT

Aircraft Carrier: Gone the Way of Battleships?

I spent the weekend trying to learn about the current conflict in the Strait of Hormuz. Drone technology is limiting the battle supremacy of the aircraft carrier. Conventional mine sweeping techniques require air threats to be controlled. I came across maritime articles written 5 years ago on autonomous barges and unmanned ships being tested. Overall, I have never worked on the R&D side, only in implementation. But as the supercarrier USS Gerald Ford sits in the Mediterranean for extensive repairs, its time to think about the future of warfare.

Is this a War, or Not?

1942 was a terrible year for the US Navy. The nation had just begun its endeavor in the Second World War, and Imperial Japan was going head-to-head with the American Pacific Fleet. The merchant fleet fared even worse. U-boats menaced shipping and cut off the northeastern states from Texas and California fuel supplies. Cargo runs to Europe, especiallly the run to Murmansk, USSR, were exceptionally perilous. Lend-lease and war preparations such as the 1940 Selective Service Act should have prepared the nation for combat. It took battle testing to turn military theories into successful strategies. We face the same predicament in the Persian Gulf at this moment. We have spent years talking of the Contested Maritime Environment, and of near - peer adversaries. We know how to sweep a minefield, and we know how to engage aerial threats. But putting both threats together? “It’s too dangerous right now”, reports the Secretary of Defense. “Later this month”. Having seen the damage wrought on world-class cities like Dubai, and the port facilities of friendly nations, there is no exit strategy but victory. Restoring our allies will not be complete with an apology and reconstruction loans; it requires achieving a peace that is superior to the previous status quo of a menacing but stalemated Iran. While the presence of a prepositioned logistics fleet, established after the First Gulf War, reduces the merchant shipping crunch at the onset of conflict, we need to replenish the warfighter with “beans, bullets, and bunker fuel”. Concerningly, there has not been a call by shipowners and unions to “man the fleet”, brining mariners working ashore back into shipboard roles. What happens if we must stop the fight, not out of a peace deal, but for lack of manpower and material? That would present a tragedy of American lives lost without reason or closure. Optimistically, it would prove to be an expensive test, in economic and human costs, of near-peer warfare. “Run as to win the race”.

When it becomes your work duty to write a technical paper, it becomes harder to keep writing outside of work. Fortune has it, though, that I had been working on a Vibe Coding project this week, and had some fresh insight to share from the maritime world. I have never "html"ed, or hand-coded a website, but I've used various web building systems. I even remember when we had free, quality options like matmice and webs.com. Today, the ability to build apps and websites through AI has been a game changer. Instead of clunky click-and-drags of the mouse, I can narrate what I want to see on the page. Some readers may find this to be filler material, but I tell them: the blog must go on! The content below was written by me, not AI. Now that you know which courses to take and what wickets to accomplish to get your maritime license, you may be wondering, how do I pay for it upfront? Course Fee Funding Mechanisms Current Maritime Employees: Training Courses or Fee Reimbursement may be provided by Employer or Maritime Union. Veterans with GI Bill: Courses may be covered at approved training centers, such as the Maritime Institute in Norfolk, VA. As a bonus, the GI Bill may also offer a housing allowance payment during your training period. Active Duty: The Navy’s Tuition Assistance Program can assist active duty enlisted members with course fees. Other popular strategies include bootstrapping the course fees with cash, use of a rewards-based or lower-interest credit card, or a gift or loan from family. License Fee Funding Mechanisms Veterans with GI Bill: The VA will reimburse testing and evaluation fees. Note that you may be personally responsible for license issuance fees, as these are not authorized for GI Bill reimbursement. Active Duty and Recently Separated: USCG offers waiver of fees during and within 180 days of service. Be prepared to provide your endorsed orders. Strategic Sealift Officers have benefitted greatly from this program, but be mindful of the 180 day threshold from your last Active Duty for Training period. Active Duty: In addition to the USCG’s statutory fee waiver program, active-duty Navy personnel may participate in the Navy COOL program. Note that this program should only be used if fee waiver is not applicable to your particular situation. Victims of Natural Disaster or Maritime Casualty: Credential mariners may be able to replace lost credential documents at no cost. Be prepared to provide a notarized statement as to the nature of the loss. Compared to the cost of maritime training, licensing fees are more approachable. While the rewards of earning your maritime credential are significant, we advise against taking high-interest loans to do so.

And the Payphone Still Stood

For a couple months, I had thought of disconnecting my public payphone. Yes, the payphone that recently earned a small grant - through Virginia's Small Business Investment Grant program. Already displaced from its once-popular location at a strip mall, it has seen little use at its new location at a highway offramp. I was shaken back to my senses when the prolonged Verizon cellular outage occured. Every other use case seemed to render the payphone obsolete- confidentality (apps like Signal and the "burner phone" phenomenon), affordability (see the Obamaphone program), and access (99% national coverage by cell towers). But one use case remained: redundancy. I think in terms of redundancy. It is what makes commercial aircraft and oceangoing ships fit for their voyage. Lose an engine, and you can still limp home. The payphone, ironically supported by Verizon copper lines, still worked. But is there still a payphone network? In Portsmouth, Virginia, where my payphone is now located, there is a barebone network encompassing downtown. While the City sponsors phones at the phone exchange building and city hall, the system could be better maintained. This state of affairs is among the best in the state. These days, we all ride the one-trick pony called the cell phone.

Greenland: Scratch the Idea

Being able to respond quickly, anywhere and anytime, has been a hallmark of the US military since the Cold War. While we have long lasting military partnerships with many countries around the globe, certain military capabilities, such as strategic nuclear armament, is a diplomatic risk that host nations do not want to bear. Hence, there is a strong incentive to maintain small territories overseas. We can look to Guam, a Pacific territory of the United States; and Diego Garcia, in the British Indian Ocean Territory, as examples of forward-located military strongholds. Europe (also known as the 6th fleet and the European Command) is an exception. We have ships and Army units stationed in most NATO nations, France being a notable exception. What the United States doesn’t have is European territory of its own. Perhaps NATO members and other European allies prefer having a check on American military power. For the Navy, autonomous capabilities in Europe include the command ship USS Mount Whitney, 55 years of age; and the two fast combat support ships USNS Supply and USNS Arctic, both 30 years of age. None of these ships launches or lands jets, nor do they tender submarines. If a naval operation cannot be operated from these platforms, allied nations become essential to military success. Denmark recognizes what Greenland means to their own sovereignty, and Europe’s continued relevance in world affairs, more generally. The chunk of ice is too valuable for Denmark to sell or forfeit.

Finish the Year Strong...

There’s five minutes left in the soccer match. You already lost half of the fourth quarter to an injury. Will you fold, or will you continue the endeavor? As a maritime professional working in government spheres, I had lost 43 days, or just about half of 4th quarter 2025, to the government shutdown. Deadlines and guarantees were delayed indefinitely; Plan A was not an option. Plan B, involving last-mile logistics between grocery stores and SNAP recipients, was also embattled. I took Kellogg CEO Gary Pilnick’s controversial recommendation to heart, and had bananas and cereal for dinner on several occasions. After all, I was spending a lot of time in grocery stores, dreaming of a brighter future, where my hard-earned degrees and marine engineering skills could be put to use. As I was about to write off the second half of 2025 as an annus horribilis, a bad experience, I got a call. I was the one person with the experience and capabilities to solve a problem of confounding variables, at sea. Don’t count yourself out.

Vessel Boarding and Seizure: a relic of the past?

Is it always wrong to sink a drug boat? Many, even on Capitol Hill, are concerned by the seemingly gung-ho attitude of military strikes on small boats. As the last of the Thanksgiving turkey is finished, I will ponder some thoughts. It is wrong to allow dangerous drugs into the United States? If we look to Asia and the Middle East, drug trafficking is considered a crime against the people and the state. The United States has not maintained that type of collective-minded culture: despite being on the books since the 1990’s, no one has faced the death sentence for large-scale drug trafficking in the United States. Drugs were something that happened in the inner-city, among the ‘other’ The opioid epidemic and fentanyl crisis have shown how pervasive the drug problem really is. Sinking drug boats in international water: isn’t that an act of war? If we limited drug boat interception to territorial waters and the contiguous zone, a total distance of 24 nautical miles offshore, beachgoers would be witnesses to drug boat interception. On the other hand, the Exclusive Economic Zone for activities such as fishing and offshore drilling extends to 200 miles. I will leave the implications of international law enforcement on the high seas to the lawyers. It’s cruel to shipwreck a sailor! Indeed, assistance should be rendered to any sailor whose fighting capacity has been eliminated, regardless of nationality or group affiliation. Let me offer a personal perspective. Over the past several decades, American sailors, particularly the US Coast Guard and Special Forces personnel, have taken high level of risks in apprehending suspicious vessels on the high seas. Some may attribute this to milquetoast leadership, but I attribute the soft-touch approach of Vessel Boarding and Seizure to the realpolitik of host nation sensitivities. Two names come to mind: the USS Monsoon (PC 4) and USS Lewis Puller (ESB 3), both ships I have embarked. It is notable that both ships were homeported in the Kingdom of Bahrain. Both ships, albeit decades apart, had seen the loss of sailors’ lives when attempting to board hostile vessels. Shifting tactics, to apprehension from a distance, can save sailors’ lives. Wanton destruction for the sake of shock and awe, particularly if loss of life results after threat is neutralized, may hurt sailors’ psyche and morale.

10%: The Tough Call that's a No-Brainer

The Federal Aviation Administration's Air Traffic Controllers are overworked, and at the moment, unpaid. They are the imporant eyes in the sky in the control towers of commercial airports around the United States. Recognizing flagging morale and increased absenteeism, Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy announced a temporary 4% cut in flight slots, with the prospect of 10% or 20% cuts in the future. While many people of all stripes reluctantly accepted the Secretary's decision, some felt that the flight cuts were political blackmail. Vested interests in the aviation field wanted proof that "10%" was the correct number. There seemed to be a handful of limousine types who wouldn't accept human constraints: that working air traffic controllers too hard or too long could have negative consequences. In terms of the federal government shutdown, aviation again is the straw that breaks the impasse. Politicians are betting that the All-American Thanksgiving Traveler probably won't understand why their flight was cancelled, either. I applaud the Secretary of Transportation for his understanding of the nuts and bolts of the transportation industry- that is, the people and the equipment. In a given situation, you have to work within the constraints. A 10% cut is not unprecedented in aviation: Fred Smith of the then-new Federal Express company, recalled fighting for fuel allotments during the 1973 energy crisis. Looking to marine transportation, the Military Sealift Command last year made the quite shocking decision to lay up 17 ships, or about 25% of its civil service crewed vessels, to alleviate a crewing shortage. In addition to being a prudent steward of aviation safety -or hardball negotiator- Mr. Duffy has his sentimental side as well: his admiration for the Lifeboat Jesus painting at the US Merchant Marine Academy made national news- on the FOX network, at least.

Does Anyone Remember the Military of 1990?

A grainy video revved up the projector screen. The setting was a party, 1990 on an American base in Germany. A gaggle of women surrounded a spry middle-age man. They could’ve been Fawn Hill or any of a million secretaries or female courtesans the Army men had back then. They were pinning paper tails on the “donkey” as he danced. Which was ironic; the man was the opposite of an “ass”. The music played: “Love shack, baby love shack Everybody's movin' around and around and around Everybody's movin', everybody's groovin' baby” The movie cut from the Colonel playing hard, to him working hard. He earned his stripes as a young man in the Vietnam War. Now, he was starting to fight another war, not against the Soviets next door, but against Saddam Hussein in the Middle East. There was no computer at his desk, just stacks of important papers. I thought: “This was a man who wasn’t afraid of going into the office on a Saturday”. After he fought the First Gulf War, he became a dedicated family man, shortly thereafter retiring from the Army- and its culture of solo deployments and family separation. This video was presented at a wake for the Colonel. We literally buried the military of 1990. I got to work with military veterans of that era. In the 1980’s, American industry had experienced serious downsizing, leading to an economic depression in the Rust Belt of America. Strong unions may have done their best to stave off layoffs and hour cuts of senior workers, but young people had no future in the factories. For those of intellectual capability, the college wage premium offered an opportunity to move upward. For the others, the military had a seemingly endless source of young men in the 1980s. Even as it increased in manpower, it was able to maintain recruiting standards, implement random drug testing, and ban beards. The military of 1990 did its grunt work in house. Not only was it necessary to wipe the bilges or peel potatoes, senior enlisted leaders of the time thought it built character. Roughhousing junior soldiers and sailors, and keeping an adversarial attitude, instead one of mentorship, seemed in their minds to build character too. This “busting nuts” attitude was becoming increasingly unacceptable in the private sector, but nobody told the military of 1990. Enlistments do come to an end, and veterans of that era did not receive the open-armed welcome to civilian employment that they often receive today. The “politically correct” military of today offers soft skills of leadership that transfer to the private sector. Senior enlisted leaders no longer view scheduled attrition as a personal failure of the soldier or sailor to commit to military life, but as an inherent part of the pyramid rank structure. For hard skills, the military now pays its departing soldiers and sailors to apprentice and earn credentials in private sector trades, before leaving the service. Once they hand in their uniforms, post-9/11 Education Benefits are generally superior to Cold War- era veterans’ programs. Sometimes I do wonder if the checks-and-balances of today’s military hamper its ability to move fast and break things: what militaries are meant to do. When anything happens quickly, such as this summer’s Operation Midnight Hammer, you can be assured that rules were broken. These could be in procurement, maintenance, personnel, or another of a dozen wickets. Being a rule follower means very little gets done in the military. Hopefully, this is the kind of political correctness our Secretary of Defense is out to fight.

Remembering SS El Faro, 10 Years Later

This week marks the 10th anniversary of the sinking of the SS El Faro, on October 1st, 2015. I was sailing as a Third Assistant Engineer for the Military Sealift Command; asides from environmentally- conscious petroleum tankers plying protected trade routes, government vessels (crewed by contractors or civil servants) were the most well-kept ships. Other vessels of the US merchant marine had to compete. When labor costs couldn’t be cut, on account of union contracts or the unwillingness of mariners to accept less than a sole breadwinner’s wage, it was maintenance and capital investment that had to be cut. Many of my fellow classmates had to compete in union halls for their first jobs. As our graduation ceremony was at the start summer, union-hall job seekers were encouraged to hit the halls when more-experienced mariners stayed at home with their kids on summer break. Having risen to the top of the pecking order at the Academy, they were reminded that their new position would be at the bottom of a new totem pole, although financial compensation could be decent in this career. You didn’t turn down a job offer, even on the most decrepit ship, as one could find themselves unemployed for a spell. When the SS El Faro sunk, it was a reminder that rustbucket ships were dangerous. I have to be careful with that term, as the longtime engineers onboard that vessel were proud of keeping the ship sailing with the limited material resources given to them by the company. Today, the picture has changed. There is a shortage of mariners, rather than a shortage of jobs. Inspections and the change configuration process is more rigorous. No captain can make fateful decisions in a vacuum, certainly not in the Starlink satellite internet era. Merchant marine officers were required to go through a three-week course of continuing education, in how to use technology, and in leadership and teamwork. At that precipice in 2017, many chose to take their retirement, instead of going back to the classroom. It was the end of an era in merchant shipping; those departing mariners had entered the industry at a time when women and college degrees were rare onboard ships, and when alcohol and smoking were fixtures at sea. They were world travelers at a time where that privilege was reserved for the rich. In other news, I am disappointed that our government has gone into reduced operating status. While the effects on civil servants will be cushioned for two weeks, on account of recently-added backpay protection, there is a risk of harm when the paycheck does not arrive on time. The impact is being felt immediately by those outside of government employment, as licensing bureaus such as the US Coast Guard are not processing applications. This means people are missing out on promotion and new career opportunities, as they must wait for government to reopen in order to obtain their new credentials. On the flip side, I believe there needs to be little debate to extend healthcare subsidies. In many states, the medley of health insurance programs allow for near-universal coverage. This is a stark contrast from the single-payer dreams of Democratic Socialists, or the creeping socialism, found in the UK or Canadian health systems, that President Eisenhower warned us about.