The SIU and its affiliated Paul Hall Center for Maritime Training and Education (PHC) recently hosted a regularly scheduled meeting of a high-level committee that is crucial for the U.S. maritime industry.
SIU Executive Vice President Augie Tellez is the labor representative on the U.S. Transportation Command’s (USTRANSCOM) Sealift Executive Working Group, typically referred to as the EWG. The group met Aug. 30 in Piney Point, Maryland.
Established many years ago, the committee “is chartered to examine how the Joint Deployment and Distribution Enterprise can improve its global transportation capabilities, specifically the operational effectiveness, speed, survivability and resilience of maritime logistics,” according to USTRANSCOM.
The agency further reported, “Defense leaders met with maritime industry partners … to enhance cooperation on key sealift issues. The working group brought more than 75 government and maritime industry executives together to discuss sealift readiness in competition, crisis and conflict. The Administrator of Maritime Administration (MARAD) Ann C. Phillips joined the EWG co-chairs, U.S. Transportation Command (USTRANSCOM) Deputy Commander Lt. Gen. John Sullivan, and MARAD Associate Administrator Kevin Tokarski, in sharing areas of progress and concern with industry and labor executives to strengthen relationships in support of national security objectives.”
“Sealift will only grow more important as we face increasingly challenging and complex operating environments over greater distances,” Sullivan said. “It is critical that we focus our efforts on improving our ability to rapidly assess and tap into all available capacity to succeed in contested environments.”
During the working session, Sullivan used the current efforts in support of U.S. European Command (USEUCOM) and Ukraine as an opportunity to thank the sealift industry and the merchant mariner community for their vital contributions. “To date, commercial vessels have executed approximately 80% of sealift missions, delivering lethal aid and supplies to EUCOM and our allies and partners,” USTRANSCOM noted.
The meeting also focused on the availability of U.S. mariners.
“Having a sufficient pool of trained merchant mariners is central to our nation’s ability to surge power projection in crisis or conflict,” Sullivan said. “The training and certification programs occurring at Piney Point and similar campuses across the country remain vital to maintaining this needed capability.”
He added that the ongoing collaboration between the military, government, business and maritime labor is a “cornerstone” for sustaining strategic sealift capability.
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