Navy Sealift Command (MSC) supported a Nationwide Maritime Day 2022 celebration in Norfolk, Virginia, Could 19. The occasion, sponsored by the Propeller Membership of Norfolk and Maersk Line, Restricted, included featured remarks by Capt. Janis C. Smith, Chief of Employees, Navy Sealift Command.
“In 1933, the U.S. Congress declared Nationwide Maritime Day to commemorate the 1819 voyage of the American steamship Savannah from the USA to England,” in accordance with Smith. “Since that point Nationwide Maritime Day has advanced to turn into a lot extra as we acknowledge the significance of your complete maritime business to our nation’s financial power.”
“A strong maritime business is completely important for our nationwide safety,” stated Smith. “The Division of Protection is dependent upon the Service provider Marine for over 95 p.c of our sealift wants in occasions of conflict or nationwide emergency.”
This occasion included a ‘Laying of the Wreath’ ceremony to honor mariners all through historical past who misplaced their lives at sea.
MSC additionally supported this 12 months’s Nationwide Maritime Day at a ceremony hosted by the U.S. Division of Transportation (DOT) and U.S. Maritime Administration in Washington D.C., Could 24. Rear Adm. Michael Wettlaufer, Commander, Navy Sealift Command, spoke on the celebration.
“American Mariners stay important to our economic system and protection,” Wettlaufer stated. “The shut collaboration between, and integration throughout our industrial and labor companions, the U.S. Coast Guard, the Maritime Administration, the shipbuilding and restore business, the DoD and the U.S. Service provider Mariner enable our nation to retain a significant strategic benefit – a bonus that permits the joint power to maneuver throughout the globe on the time and to the place of our selecting in peacetime and battle.”
MSC’s fleet of over 130 U.S. Naval Vessels and U.S. Navy combatant ships are crewed by roughly 7,000 Civil Service Mariners and contracted Mariners.
“We should help at this time’s Mariners and develop the Service provider Mariner group,” said Wettlaufer. “The competitors for expertise (within the workforce) is fierce. As we glance to encourage and recruit the subsequent era, the maritime business have to be a pretty profession selection in opposition to a backdrop of many selections.”
“It’s no shock that aggressive pay, development and predictable work-life stability are keys to recruiting a succesful and numerous workforce,” he added. “However, related and accessible coaching, constructive and secure working environments and new expertise functions will assist us retain and develop the perfect expertise.”
Throughout his handle, Wettlaufer referenced the Congressional Gold Medal Ceremony Honoring World Battle II Service provider Mariners, which came about on the U.S. Capital in Washington D.C., Could 18.
“These Mariners and their shipmates of the Navy Armed Guard sailed the Atlantic, Pacific, Indian Ocean and throughout the Arctic Circle to hyperlink home manufacturing and the combating forces abroad as they achieved the best logistics victory in historical past,” Wettlaufer said.
Throughout World Battle II, greater than 250,000 members of the American Service provider Marine served their nation, with greater than 9,000 mariners killed at sea and 12,000 wounded.
“So, as we rejoice the heritage of the U.S. Maritime business and all who help it, let’s acknowledge we’ve got noble work to do, to stay as much as all who made this historical past,” Wettlaufer concluded.
