Three SIU-crewed vessels last month loaded U.S. Army cargo in Savannah, Ga. for transport to Iraq.
The American Tern (operated by Osprey Ship Management) and the USNS Watson and USNS Charlton (both operated by Maersk Line, Limited) took on materiel from April 3 through April 13. The cargo belongs to the Third Infantry Division’s Second Brigade Combat Team and Combat Aviation Brigade of Ft. Stewart/Hunter Army Airfield, Ga., which will deploy to Iraq later this year.
Altogether, the Seafarers-crewed vessels loaded approximately 3,500 pieces of cargo. The containership American Tern, a privately-owned ship under long-term charter to MSC, utilized three shipboard cranes to load 550 items consisting mostly of 20-foot containers. The large, medium-speed, roll-on/roll-off ships USNS Watson and USNS Charlton loaded helicopters, Humvees, tanks, trucks and more. According to MSC, the ships are moving enough equipment to fill nine football fields.
“We are able to load these LMSRs so quickly because we have a precisely coordinated plan for maneuvering tanks, trucks and other rolling stock through the system of internal ramps linking the ships’ seven wide-open cargo decks,” said Tom D’Agostino, the MSC representative who oversees such operations at three major ports on the East Coast.
Since Sept. 11, 2001, MSC has transported 95 million square feet of dry cargo and 10 billion gallons of fuel—more than 90 percent of all military cargo deployed in support of the global war on terrorism, according to the agency. Much of that materiel has been delivered by Seafarers-crewed ships.
Numerous military officers have commended the U.S. Merchant Marine’s role in Operations Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedom. Among the most recent such comments were remarks by Gen. Norton Schwartz, commander, U.S. Transportation Command, and Lt. Gen. Robert Dail, head of the Defense Logistics Agency.
Addressing the AFL-CIO Maritime Trades Department executive board meetings in March, Schwartz said that troop support is “all about chartering the direct course to deliver military power in the quickest, most efficient, most businesslike manner wherever and whenever the nation calls on us to serve. I’m taking no chances at all by telling you that we’re going to continue to depend on you—all of you—to make that projection of American power possible. The vast majority of how we get things done is through sealift.”
Dail said he has seen firsthand the materiel delivered to U.S. troops overseas that moved by ship, and those sights helped reinforce his belief that America’s maritime capabilities “are critical to our national defense and security. I have seen the trust and confidence that is built between our nation and our troops, knowing that wherever they are, we will deliver the goods to them and we will get them there and bring them home.”
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