The Airplane Engines that Drive Ships

Recently, I flew from Virginia to Houston and, one week later, to Charleston, SC, on a plane known as the Embraer 145. It's a thin tube that seats up to 47 that's good for short flights. These days, United Airlines fly them halfway across the country. My first flight had me in the back row, next to the jet engines and lavatory. I had time to observe and listen to the engines. I knew the next ship I would be boarding had engines like these. When I found out my next flight's seat assignment, I went for Economy Plus. As on a ship, those turbines are best enjoyed 75 feet from, and cumulative inches of aluminum or steel away.

Boarding my next ship was the reason I came to Charleston. When I landed at the bustling small airport on a Saturday, I noticed I was the only flyer in work attire instead of golfing clothes. I did get to see the sights, and got there by city bus. The stop was marked with an old concrete post in a gritty industrial district where the ship was docked. As the bus rolled towards downtown, old factories were used by artisans and mainstream producers. Many call the barebone bus systems of medium-sized cities "transportation of last resort", but its timeliness to the schedule was impressive and made it worth riding.

The ship I'm on, from a class known as the second generation of "AOEs", have hulls of the old liner ships that traversed the oceans in the days before jet planes. Built at the end of the Cold War, I am sure that some of the designers of the AOEs had experience in those majestic passenger ships built in the 1940's and 1950's.  Those passenger ships sailed with steam turbines, a technology that today is used by most conventional and nuclear power plants.

The jet age brought us aeroderivative gas turbines, in use by all fine navies and some high speed ocean ferries. After 1980, steam turbines gave way to diesel engines for most ships, and gas turbines on higher-speed ships such as Cunard's ocean liners. With the AOE's being constructed during the fall of the Soviet Union, the 1990's Navy soon bought a class of even larger logistics ships designed to be crewed by civilians, also propelled by gas turbines. Then computers got smarter; replacing a robust, but expensive part of steam- and gas- turbine ships known as the reduction gear. With power management software, multiple efficient diesel generators could provide electricity to turn a large electric motor attached to the ship's propeller. Enough kilowatts provided the energy needed to propel the ships at high speeds. The AOEs and their cousins known as the AKRs (which I sailed on at the USMMA) mark a certain time frame in history where speed was bought at the cost of fuel efficiency.

Vibrant City; Charity Care

The Vibrant City

Friday evening, inbound on the Lincoln Tunnel is jammed with people headed to Midtown and the theater district. I’m starting to see this in DC, whose waterfront and restaurants are alive until 11pm on weekday nights.  The city is coming of age for what used to be a “quaint southern city”.

Enough old architecture remains bearing the marks of gentrification, bricks cleaned and painted jolly colors, new window frames, grout renewed. DC also embarked on a subway maintenance blitz; New York City has done this before, although alternate routings and express tracks have mitigates the effects on commuters. DC could certainly do better with alternate bus service, but this is where private industry is stepping in. Uber and Lyft, once demonized by establishment politicians, earned their right to exist as subway service is ending earlier on weekends. Bridj is operating red-and-white private buses that take those “in-the-know” to work- those with smartphone and credit card required. I have not seen “Google”-style buses yet, but I am not ruling out the possibility as the city proper becomes a hipper place than ever.

Charity Care: Alternative to Medicaid Expansion?

In the 1970’s, each state was required to establish central planning of healthcare, including “certificate of need”, removing the essential services of healthcare from the free market and traditional notions of supply-and-demand. It was argued that the process stifled innovation and competition, and the law was repealed in 1986, and over time, 14 states have abolished the system, and others have reduced the scope of central planning. New York was the first, in 1964, as Ronald Reagan and the American Medical Association railed against socialized medicine and Nixon’s individual mandate proposal. Next year is Virginia’s turn. A result of short legislative sessions, a bill passed by the legislature related to the issue was held over for next year. This was a result of strong bipartisan effort in suburban parts of the state. Balancing free-market ideals with the practical reality of health care access for rural residents. Imaging services like MRI and CAT will likely be the first to be liberated. This would be a boon for health care investors, and the Democratic governor, always looking to turn a buck, has shown support. It would also benefit the urban and suburban poor, who would be able to receive charity care on new healthcare investments, more than ever decentralized from large, regional hospitals. The cost of increased healthcare access would be assumed by private investors, rather than taxpayers under Medicaid. Two questions remain: How will this charity care be coordinated? How will rural access to healthcare be protected?

A New Subway in Manhattan

This year a new subway station opened up on the Hudson River in a newly vibrant west of midtown, formerly home to warehouses and meatpacking outfits. The station was built in the bedrock, and escalators connected from the street to the vaulted station a hundred feet below. One short flight of stairs connected the escalator mezzanine to the platform, a Spartan finish for a city that’s still kind of utilitarian. Soon, as in next year, a new line will serve Second Avenue on the notorious Upper East Side, and the Hudson River station is the builder’s model for sleekness in a subway system known for its grit.  Distinctly to the east of Lexington and Fifth Avenues, and retaining a village-like feel, I knew friends-of-friends who were able to afford apartments in the walk-ups that line the side-streets of Second Avenue. In a place where convenience comes with a price, I’d like to see if Second Avenue can keep its quaint, off-the-path charm.  

Protectionism and HB-1 Visas

Donald Trump has rankled Silicon Valley talked about closing our borders to foreign talent. Does labor protectionism work?

It does for oceangoing ship's officers, job descriptions which requires  a license. The barriers to entry are set fairly high. Getting the basic license for oceangoing ships (Third Mate or Third Engineer) requires six years of work experience in entry level and semi-skilled shipboard jobs; four to six years in shipboard Navy service; an engineering degree; or four years of maritime college. Interestingly, I have not met an American engineer who has gotten a license from a non-maritime college.

In addition to the USMMA, six state maritime colleges make it their bread and butter to educate and train future ship's officers. To respond to changing times, these state colleges have expanded their scope of degrees to include related fields like marine biology and operations engineering. Each of these has a required regimental system, a requirement for federal funding. The rigidity of the regimental systems vary by college; for example, all require uniforms for class, but others add more intensity: The Maritime College of New York, for example, hired an administrator who had experience at both Guantanamo Bay and a federal prison in South Carolina. This lead to an online discussion on GCaptain about the reasons behind and merits of the regimental systems for students not in ROTC. Summed up as follows:

Why do they still have the regiment?
      Ship's officers need discipline when handling lives and millions of dollars of cargo.
The airline industry doesn't do it.
       You're at sea for weeks at a time.
Field engineers and wildcats don't do it either.
        OK....it helps weed people out and thus protects my income.

Officers of American ships, government or private, are required to be US citizens. With these requirements; and with demand created by the Jones Act, our maritime cabotage law similar to those for airlines and trucking; wages tend to be higher than on foreign ships. And American shipping companies were able to dominate the world market after World War Two... at least during the time they were able to acquire the best government surplus vessels. Today, American overseas commercial shipping is a shadow of its former self. Yet for decades, hardworking Americans have been able to benefit from "protectionist" policies.

Coming back to land, it has been argued that the HB-1 Visa program holds down wages of engineers and other technical staffers; who must go into management or entrepreneurship to get ahead. But alongside the well-educated worker-bees (In Korea, I met a man whose son was waiting for an HB-1 Visa) are the potential job creators of the future, who can't afford an EB-5 Investor's Visa. In shipping, the jobs protected are at the operational level. Strategy and ideas are implemented in the office and at the executive level. It would be difficult to work in the global economy while functioning in an isolationist vacuum, but as the experience in the American maritime industry shows, "protectionist" policies can protect middle-class jobs.  

Homeward Bound

When May rolled around, I had been on the ship for 8 months and there was a lot of inside knowledge to turn over to my replacement, and very little time. Like an essay, though, it was completed in time. On the top of my concerns was the weather. My ship was anchored an hour out of Chinhae, Korea, and on my last workday I had been delayed half a day while conducting ship's business ashore. As I was closing out affairs with the ship's master, I asked if I should leave before morning, forgoing a good night sleep, because of the waves. He assured me that the weather would be alright. Which it was.

I had a last hurrah on Texas Street in Pusan, and visited Haeundae Beach (seeing is believing). It was Cinco de Mayo, and my original itinerary would've landed me in Norfolk before closing time the same day, 37 hours after midnight in Korea, due to the international date line. Instead, I flew on May 6th, and my first flight sent me to Tokyo. I had enough time to clear customs and go to the town of Narita for lunch. The next flight was 11 hours to Detroit. Many people bemoan long flights, but I didn't mind having the time to myself, and only to myself. In the air, I watched several movies, including "Brooklyn", "The Finest Hours", and a documentary of gentrification in San Francisco. I was curious about this pulsing change that is radiating from San Francisco. It's tech, but it's more than just tech.

Although I flew out of the US to meet ships, once to Israel and twice to Korea, I also haven't entered the US by airplane since 2007. I wondered what the experience would be. Detroit airport, in flyover country, is now an international airline hub for Delta Airlines. I suppose that it was decided by big data. Was Customs and Border Protection on top of their game?  Four widebody flights had arrived in one hour, and contributed to some customs delays in the otherwise well-designed and partially automated international arrival area. 
Slipping easily across borders today, enabled in the name of free trade, reminded me of the time between the gilded age of railroads and the outbreak of World War One, those with means to travel in Europe did so easily and without passports.

My flight from Detroit to Norfolk was delayed for a technical issue. I was surprised, because I always had my engine plant ready ten minutes before departure. Never a minute late. Then again it was me and twenty others to assist in the engineering department, versus a cockpit crew of two. I slept little on the long flight, but wasn't in bad shape, though. I got home at 10pm local time, and woke up for lunch. No jet lag, really.

Back to the Cities?

Even though I’ve spent the past year outside of the US, I’d like to catch up on the latest trend: businesses, and people, are moving back to the cities? I’ve heard from urban pioneers of yesteryear, now middle-class homeowners in the swankiest neighborhoods, talk about how their neighborhood “changed for the better”. It’s not a new trend, but one that entered hyperdrive since 2010- or the official end of the last recession. Places like Detroit and Cleveland are on the upswing. Manhattan is back, more than ever. In Washington, DC, gentrification has been completed in the L’Enfant City of stately apartment buildings, Victorian townhomes, and sleek new construction. Prices continue to climb; so where should urban pioneers head next, if not Baltimore?

I’ll ask, why did people move to the cities?

Because of Television

Shows like Entourage and Mad Men glorify the after-work happy hour. Driving to, but mostly from, happy hour with pals from your asphalt-surrounded office park is not a feasible idea. Ditto a decent lunch break. Long waits to take a left turn into the strip mall make the brown bag an appealing option.

Because of the Internet

Facebook says, shouts, and screams that you have to be there in the middle of the action. If college today is about the amenities purchased with tax-advantaged student loans, yuppie life is about prolonging adolescence. Whether you’re a SINK or a DINK, you can’t be more than walking distance from the hot spots.

Why did businesses move to the cities?

Cities wised up about tax policy

Without big-box stores, Washington, DC lost $1 billion per year in tax revenue as residents shopped in neighboring suburbs. Since then, Target and Walmart have opened in the city. Also, state laws limit scope of local regulations: A business can open in inner-city Norfolk or Richmond  with little more red tape than in business-friendly suburbs.

Maximize workforce within commuting distance

Mature workers may be tied down to houses in different parts of the region. Locating in the heart of the city averages out commuting distances, and makes a shorter commute for those choosy, urban-dwelling Millennials. Also, with traffic so bad, mass transit reduces commute times, as long as offices and businesses are located near transportation hubs, often the center city.

Hip and Energetic

We’ve seen companies trying to be “with the times”, occasionally embarrassing themselves in the process. Downtown offices have the same hoped effect: to give a new, friendlier image to the same old corporation. Big Data says it’s the right move to take…what could go wrong?

So where should urban pioneers head next?

How about Crystal City, a stone’s throw from the Pentagon, once the workplace of legions of military personnel and their contractors, the epitome of square culture. Hard times hit the community of 1970’s office towers and large condos with the end of the Cold War, and the subsequent Defense Department’s BRAC initiative that picked up speed after homeland security concerns came to the forefront. (These buildings replaced the wartime “temporary buildings” placed on the National Mall) It was a paradox, because as the offices were emptying out in this “bland” area 10 minutes by car, subway, or commuter train from Downtown Washington, the “authentic” U Street corridor benefited from gentrification that began with the arrival of a new subway station.

What’s wrong with Crystal City? It just wasn’t hip; street life was non-existent as commuters, residents, and hotel guests arrived by car; or by the subway, through a maze of connected basements. Polyester-blend khaki uniforms don’t take sweat-stains well, and the tunnels were a brilliant idea to keep workers of the future away from Washington’s summer heat. Recent renovations have widened sidewalks and opened more ground-level retail. I’ve seen sidewalk cafes bustling at lunchtime as today’s workers ditch the brown bag.

Washington, DC had to develop a start-up culture. Although now home to a wide range of industries outside of government, including Fortune-listed companies offering technology applications, aerospace, and hospitality; even Volkswagen; these companies were transplants like many of the area’s residents. Notable exceptions are Marriott, AOL and Capital One. Young educated born-and-raised locals, a growing demographic, had to realize that government was not the only means to a successful career in Washington.  With the necessary entrepreneurial infrastructure in place, the start-up environment was hatched. 

Then you had to teach the real estate magnates about changing times. Kings of concrete, they were used to renting out entire floors to well-paying clients like the US Government, the US Air Force, and various contractors. Today, they are becoming more accepting of smaller square-foot leases and shorter terms, required by small, fledgling, and nimble companies.  They’ve even torn down some arsenals of cubicles in Crystal City.

Part of the attraction of cities is the cool buildings and a sense of place: I’ve been to Portland, Oregon. Old loft warehouses are inspiring, especially when relics of the past are still visible. Do 1970’s office buildings, such as those surrounding the Pentagon, have to be forever branded as sterile and impersonal? One building owner remodeled one floor in the image of Silicon Valley. For other offices, I envision posting images of the quantifiable work performed and vintage encounters: satellites, mustached military officers, and secretaries with typewriters. Heck, paint the elevators camouflage green.

Could Crystal City, and its sisters across America, be the next up-and coming neighborhoods?

War is Rice

The major narratives of the Pacific War are Navy gun battles and the heroism and ultimate sacrifice of Marines on countless islands. The big story I've started to learn about is the war in China, which set the stage for the bamboo curtain in the Cold War.

China had essentially been engaged in regional civil wars since the Boxer Rebellion and the reign of the last emperor. While the Republic of China was established in 1911 as Asia's oldest democracy (that being a loose term), the government's power wasn't consolidated until 1928. Ten years later, Japan invaded south of Manchuria, leading China into war again. The Chinese people endured great numbers of casualties, including the Rape of Nanking. This would lead China's generalissimo Chiang Kai-Shek to make the difficult decision to divert the Yellow River in 1938 to stop the advance of the Japanese into central China.

Had Chiang done nothing, the Japanese could've surrounded China's key military elements, forcing a surrender. The other option was to break the dykes of the Yellow River, flooding millions of acres of cropland and displacing over a million people. It was Chiang's last option, like sacrificing a queen on the chessboard. Detractors say that China's gain was minimal, and led to the rise of Communist activity  in the flooded areas. Others noted that the critical region was defended for six more years until Japan's final offensive. The peasants who died in the flooding were damned either way- death by the invader or death for a greater good. Belated appreciation for their sacrifice came at the end of the war.

The Yellow River was China's sorrow that kept giving, though: a 1942 famine in the Henan province- memorialized in a recent movie-  was partly attributed to the river's diversion. This famine was documented in Time Magazine, and the author remarked that he never had difficulty finding an open restaurant- highlighting an income inequality that Mao derided. Remembering what Joseph Needham, the "man who loved China", said about life in Nationalist versus Communist china, the photos- despite the desperation of the people- show a colorful China, where people retained their traditions and manner of dress, be it a large coat or an animal skin. The effects of a bad harvest were amplified by the war. Chiang's government was reluctant to reduce tax revenue in the form of rice; he had millions of troops to feed. Upon hearing that peasants were forced to sell tools and animals, the government ensured that they would take no more than the peasants had produced. Great relief.

China hobbled onwards to victory in 1945, assisted by Allies like an elderly man I met while attending Kings Point. During the War, he had been in the US Army Air Force in China. Japan's surrender should've held much promise for China; however, ceasefires between Mao's Communist troops and Chiang's Nationalists troops failed. Still at war, China suffered hyperinflation, squeezing the poor yet again. More troops defected to the Communists. Mao, after all, was an "agrarian reformer". The peasants didn't know that the Great Leap Forward would kill millions of their countrymen, nor the restrictions on civil liberties would inhibit social life.They just wanted to eat.

Sun Yat Sen's,  'Three Principles' carried by the Nationalist government, held little sway with the hungry masses. Over in India, Gandhi struck a chord with fellow subjects of colonial rule. He knew the poor could care less about abstract freedom, so he attacked the salt tax, an essential ingredient of life in India. 1947 and 1948 were the years that the world's two most populous countries were democracies. Had China followed Chiang Kai-Shek's course, I image that China would've resembled the diversity in wealth and culture that India offers.

 In January 1949, Mao took Peking, and by the end of the year, had conquered most of the mainland. He had to build up an amphibious force to take over the last two island provinces. Hainan fell, but, with the start of the Korean war, Taiwan's defenses were strengthened. For Chinag Kai-Shek, Taiwan was a manageable piece of China. With the help of international aid and American protection, the last holdout of Republican China became an economic miracle, where famine is a distant memory.

100 Nights...Again

    At the US Merchant Marine Academy at Kings Point, there's going to be a party to celebrate 100 nights to Graduation Day. It's going to be  a great time, and all senior midshipmen are encouraged to go. The morning afterwards, the revellers will think to themselves: "the party's over", which it is, because of this pesky but ultimately rewarding thing called "Licenses".

     Merchant Mariner Licenses, issued by the US Coast Guard and required for graduation from the USMMA, is the thing that figuratively sets up Kings Point different than the other service academies. 
  Second semester senior year at other Academies, I heard, is a relative coast towards graduation compared to the rigors of previous years. They have a ball, throw their hats in the air, and leave their well-manicured campuses with PCS (permanent change of station) orders in their hands. Still hard at work, we try to tune that out. For Kings Point seniors, things ramp up quickly in May.

     In contrast to self-regulating sectors of the economy like banking's FDIC, railroad's self-certification of train engineers, and technology's industry standards; the maritime industry lost the privilege of self-regulation over a hundred years ago, and with just cause: even Huckleberry Finn talks about the boiler explosion on an 1840's Mississippi River paddlewheel ship. What resulted is that licenses are required for lucrative commercial sailing jobs, and a big part of the licensing process is the licensing tests, as well as seagoing experience. So what's on the test? Knowledge of 1960's-era relay circuits and boiler technology? Modern stack gas analysis? It's in there for engineers. Celestial Navigation, which is returning to the Naval Academy after a 20-year hiatus? Prospective mates have never gotten a break from the topic.

     On the engineering side, licenses are designed to make sure that the ship's crew, with a minimum supply of spare parts, and no outside technical support, can keep a ship sailing. This is a total break from the modern world's just-in-time, outsourced economy; 490 questions in 7 tests in 4 days are used to determine this competency.  For mates, the goal is to not beach or reef the ship, and to avoid collisions through knowledge of "rules of the road"; and do so alone with little to no OJT (on-the-job training). While most tests require 70% to pass, some of the mate's tests require 80% or 90% proficiency.

     Why do I care about the King Point Class of 2016's celebration of 100 nights? I've "long passed" this hurdle. It's because I want everything to go right for my brother. Really, I shouldn't worry. He's doing well in class; and more importantly, performs well on the type of multiple-choice tests that make up licensing. But like a godfather, I want no May surprises; no drama. Planning my vacation around this event, I'd like my brother to have a Disney-perfect conclusion to his time at Kings Point. As a graduate, I want to confer that fabled "legacy alumni privilege" on him. Since my brother is a prospective mate, and I graduated as an engineer, I get to keep a proper distance, not becoming a long-distance tutor or micro-manager. I know my place.  

      The pieces fall into place for most graduating midshipmen, a process that requires concurrence by the Dean's office, the Navy Reserve, and the Coast Guard's verification of meeting all licensing requirements.  If these requirements are met, you get your diploma in the spotlight of the stage. If there is an outstanding item on graduation day, you'll get a photo opportunity with the administrative assistant later on. For those who've had graduation this way, it's a proud moment nonetheless, but without the pomp and circumstance. Completion of the licensing exams, just three weeks before graduation day, is typically the last piece of the graduation puzzle, so there is immense joy when successful results are posted.

      And speaking of pomp and circumstance, finishing licenses the first week- passing seven of seven tests- affords several awesome opportunities: ringing the bell, going out for what is billed as the "craziest night of their lives", and getting 10 days of pre-graduation leave. Job offers are made final upon receiving a license.
I've scheduled my vacation around the events of my brother's graduation. 

     What I'm harping here is vicarious living at its finest; nostalgia for a different time. I've been out of college for almost a year. Yes, there are times at work that I think: "it never gets easier". Nostalgia for the past? I'll move on after my brother's graduation, but for now, part of my heart is still at Kings Point. It's true, though, that as a midshipman I'd admire the young, happy graduates I'd see in Greenwich Village, New York on Saturday nights. This June, I'll be one of them as I anticipate my brother's graduation.

My last blog post was on Groundhog's day, and writing about 100 nights makes me feel as if I'm in the namesake movie. It's still winter in Korea.