By Salvatore R. Mercogliano, Ph.D. – On January 22, 2020, the Inspector General (IG) for the Department of Defense released a declassified and redacted report, entitled, Audit of Surge Sealift Readiness Reporting. The surge sealift fleet, those 15 vessels held by the Navy’s Military Sealift Command...
Recently, I organized a letter from former Maritime Administration (MarAd) political appointees to House and Senate appropriators asking them to recapitalize the nation’s sealift fleet—the ships designated to support the rapid worldwide deployment of soldiers and Marines. The rust-bucket Cold War-era...
Bold Ocean strongly supports the Energizing American Shipbuilding Act (H.R.3829). This is a bipartisan bill which will reinvigorate U.S. domestic shipbuilding, add desperately needed jobs for U.S. trained and licensed mariners, and provide strategically important export cargo for U.S. built, flagged...
CNO Naval History Essay Contest Second Prize, Professional Historian Category Sponsored by General Dynamics Without the ships and mariners of the U.S. merchant marine, the nation could find itself with military forces deployed overseas with no means to feed, arm, or sustain them. In July 2002,...
With pride, Americans point to the U.S. Navy as the mightiest in the world, now or ever. But China is in the midst of a campaign to try to surpass us. The People’s Liberation Army Navy has developed an aggressive strategy to try to outstrip the U.S. Navy by outnumbering us eventually and outpowering...
Tensions with Russia are increasing with no end in sight. Over the course of the last year, the House discussed at length Russia’s successful attempts to meddle in our election — affecting what Americans hold most dear: our democracy. But now, Russia — through intensified submarine activity — is threatening...
