Breaking the ice on icebreakers
May 3rd, 2010 | Coast Guard Sea Air Space | Posted by Phil Ewing
For years, Coast Guard Commandant Adm. Thad Allen has been making the case for improved ships and equipment to enable the lifesaving service to better operate in the thawing Arctic. Now that he is only weeks away from retirement, he hinted Monday in a panel discussion at Sea Air Space that the Coast Guard, the Congress and other officials haven’t even begun to seriously tackle these questions.
“We need to have a serious, national discussion about icebreakers,” Allen said. “It has not concluded — it has not even begun yet. You may see me be a little more vocal about this on the 26th of May because my change of command is the 25th. Thank you very much.”
Marine Commandant Gen. James Conway gave remarks after Allen at the panel discussion, and apparently had no hard feelings that Allen had called him “Mike” during a discussion about how closely the sea service chiefs worked together. Conway asked Allen to stand and be recognized, and said:
“When I was a young officer aboard ship the rule was, leave your spaces better than you found them, and I think we can say that about Adm. Thad Allen, United States Coast Guard.”
The crowd gave Allen a standing ovation.
Trouble at Kings Point
May 3rd, 2010 | Sea Air Space | Posted by Phil Ewing
Three of America’s four-star service chiefs — the chief of naval operations and the commandants of the Marine Corps and Coast Guard — said Monday they have trouble getting regular Americans to recognize and understand what their services do and why they’re important. Their civilian counterpart, deputy administrator of the U.S. Maritime Administration, David Matsuda, said he has it even worse:
“General, if you think you have it tough explaining to people about the Marines, imagine trying to explain the merchant marines, and getting the next generation of merchant mariners,” Matsuda said to Marine Corps Commandant Gen. James Conway.
That lack of general awareness could be one reason why the Merchant Marine Academy in Kings Point, N.Y., is in such bad shape. Matsuda said the physical plant at Kings Point has been neglected for many years, and that a recent investigation found “facilities that were deteriorated and outdated and in poor condition.”
MarAd’s budget request this year would double the capital fund for the Merchant Marine Academy, Matsuda said, and his goal is for it to become the equal of the other U.S. service academies that belong to the departments of Defense and Homeland Security.
Soggy start for the big show
May 3rd, 2010 | Sea Air Space Shore duty | Posted by Phil Ewing
Naval Support Activity Mid-South in Millington, Tenn., was hit hard by flooding over the weekend. // Mark Wilson / Navy
The Navy League’s annual Sea Air Space defense trade show is getting underway today in a gilded hotel south of Washington, and, just like last year, it’s a miserable, rainy morning outside. But it could be worse — take a look at the picture of Naval Support Activity Mid-South in Millington, Tenn., which was hammered by the weekend flooding. Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Gary Roughead plans to visit Millington tomorrow to take a look at the damage, and we’ll be asking him for the latest news at a scheduled panel appearance in about half an hour.
We’ll also be bringing you the headlines, back-story, sights and sounds of this trade show, an annual fixture for the blue-green-pinstripe team here in Washington. Even though it’s a familiar event, attendees are still a little thrown off by the cavernous Gaylord National Hotel, which dulls your senses and erases your perception of time with its soothing-tope walls and its inch-thick carpets. Sea Air Space’s former home was in Washington’s elegant Woodley Park neighborhood, right across Connecticut Avenue from several excellent Indian restaurants, but the show has committed to the Gaylord for the next several years, so we all have to get used to it.
Are you in town for Sea Air Space? Do you have questions for newsmakers on the agenda you’d like us to go after? What do you think about the pressing issues confronting the maritime services today? Let us know.