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Military Sealift Command 2000 in Review |
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Following World War II, all U.S. ocean transportation related to national defense was placed under the U.S. Navy, centralizing a mission that was formerly divided among various military services and civilian agencies. Military Sea Transportation Service was established in 1949 and was responsible for ocean transportation for the Department of Defense. In 1970 MSTS was renamed Military Sealift Command. In September 1986, the Goldwater-Nichols Department of Defense Reorganization Act established the U.S. Transportation Command as the joint command reporting to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and responsible for all defense transportation during war or contingency. MSC joined the Air Force Air Mobility Command and the Army Military Traffic Management Command as one of three component commands reporting to the Commander in Chief, U.S. Transportation Command. In 1992, the U.S. Transportation Command mission expanded to include responsibility for defense transportation during both peace and war or contingency. MSC is the Navy component of the U.S. Transportation Command for ocean transportation.
MSC reports to the Chief of Naval Operations for Navy-unique matters, functioning much like a logistics type commander for the Navy's fleet commanders. MSC ships are fully integrated into the operational structure of the Navy's major fleets and their subordinate numbered fleets worldwide. As the Head of Contracting Activity, MSC reports to the Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Research, Development and Acquisition on contracting procurement matters. ASN(RD&A) establishes procurement policy and exercises oversight on MSC contracting practices. MSC Programs and Directorates MSC operates on the basis of five programs or business lines.
Each program is headed by a manager and a tailored staff, ensuring operational efficiency and cost-effectiveness. Program managers are fully accountable and offer one-stop service for MSC customers. In addition to the program management staffs, MSC is organized into functional directorates that provide specialized support services to the five business programs and to the commander.
Command Master Chief The Command Master Chief, or CMC, advises the commander on all U.S. Navy enlisted issues and provides advice, counsel and information to MSC enlisted members worldwide. The CMC aids in Navy enlisted policy implementation and, as a member of the Chief of Naval Operations/Master Chief Petty Officer of the Navy Advisory Panel, helps formulate and change enlisted personnel policy.
MSC Area Commands MSC has five area commands, each headed by a U.S. Navy captain, covering Atlantic, Pacific, Europe, Middle East and Far East areas of responsibilities.MSC's five area commanders are the focal points for MSC customers in their respective areas. As personal representatives of Commander, Military Sealift Command, they are the "face of MSC" for the command's customers. The area commands also are the direct links to MSC ships, providing maintenance, logistics and other needed services MSC Atlantic
MSC Atlantic is headquartered in Norfolk, Va., on the Norfolk Naval Station. The command supports the MSC mission throughout its area of responsibility which is all eastern coastlines of Canada, the United States and Mexico; all of Central and South America, Greenland, Iceland and the islands of the Caribbean; the waters roughly defined as those in the Norwegian, Greenland, Labrador and Caribbean Seas and the Atlantic Ocean. The South Atlantic is divided between MSC Atlantic and MSC Europe at 30 degrees west longitude.
Within this vast area, MSC Atlantic acts as Naval Fleet Auxiliary Force East Project Officer, managing the NFAF ships assigned as well as supporting ships from MSC's Special Mission, Prepositioning and Sealift Programs. Support services include fleet liaison and logistic support, operational control of ships, emergency coordination, command and control, operation/exercise participation, port mobilization and force protection. To provide these services, MSC Atlantic has offices in eight U.S. East Coast and Gulf Coast ports as well as Puerto Rico. An MSC Atlantic presence can be found in Norfolk, Va.; Sunny Point, N.C.; Charleston, S.C.; Jacksonville and Port Canaveral, Fla.; New Orleans, La.; Beaumont and Houston, Texas; and San Juan, Puerto Rico. MSC Atlantic also has seven U.S. Naval Reserve units assigned that augment operations during mobilizations and for selected exercises and training. In FY 2000, the reserve units provided more than 2,500 work-days of peacetime contributory support.
Fiscal year 2000 also saw MSC Atlantic ships involved in various community and international events on the East Coast. In early April, USNS Concord participated in Patriot's Day events for Concord, Mass., offering ship tours for local schools and providing a marching unit from Concord's military detachment for the parade. USNS Fisher, a large, medium-speed, roll-on/roll-off ship in MSC's surge sealift fleet, provided tours for NATO ministers off the Virginia coast in June. Fleet ocean-going tug USNS Apache hosted almost 3,000 guests for ship tours during the Tugboat Festival at Kingston, N.Y., in July.
MSC Pacific MSC Pacific is headquartered in San Diego, Calif., on the Point Loma Submarine Base and is co-located with Naval Fleet Auxiliary Force West. The combined staff of 220 military and civilian employees supports MSC ships and crews conducting combat support, sealift and special mission operations at sea. The commander MSC Pacific also is the Naval Fleet Auxiliary Force West Project Officer. Duties include management of the NFAF ships assigned as well as administrative support to other MSC programs and activities. The primary operational area of responsibility is the Eastern Pacific, coinciding with that of the Navy's Third Fleet. MSC Pacific also provides engineering and personnel support to the forward-deployed NFAF ships operating with the Fifth and Seventh Fleets in the Western Pacific, Indian Ocean and Persian Gulf. The San Diego complex not only includes the normal departments associated with a major command (i.e., operations, logistics, engineering, comptroller, administration, personnel, etc.), but also a modern training site and a firefighting school. MSC Pacific also maintains a Military Sealift Command office in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii; Military Sealift Command representatives in San Francisco, Calif., and Seattle, Wash.; and a Military Sealift Command detachment in Anchorage, Alaska. These remote offices provide husbanding services for MSC ships and serve as MSC liaison to the various military commands in their respective areas. Six U.S. Naval Reserve units are assigned to MSC Pacific. These units are frequently called upon to support operations throughout the MSC Pacific area of responsibility. Fiscal year 2000 was a busy time for MSC Pacific ships, crews, reservists and staff. More than 1,100 underway replenishments, 270 vertical replenishments and 152 in-port replenishments were completed during the year. MSC Pacific ships also participated in the Alaska Airlines Flight 261 crash recovery off the California coast, numerous drug interdiction operations and the making of the hit movie "Men of Honor," which was filmed in part aboard MSC Pacific ocean-going tug USNS Navajo. MSC Europe Headquartered in Naples, Italy, MSC Europe has a staff of about 60 personnel and maintains an office in Rotterdam, The Netherlands, and a liaison officer to the Commander, U.S. Naval Forces Europe in London, England. MSC Europe provides operational control of all of MSC's government-owned and commercial contract ships within the MSC Europe area of responsibility in support of U.S. European Command and other U.S. government agencies. MSC Europe also oversees Mediterranean-based Maritime Prepositioning Ship Squadron One, whose ships preposition U.S. Marine Corps heavy combat equipment at sea, available for any contingency. MSC Europe's area of responsibility coincides with that of U.S. European Command and includes Europe, most of Africa, parts of the Middle East and the South Atlantic Ocean east of 30 degrees west longitude. The area contains some 13 million square miles, 89 countries and territories, 35 percent of the world's population and 40 percent of the world's commerce. Five U.S. Naval Reserve units support the area command, providing port operations management personnel for contingencies and exercises. During FY 2000, MSC Europe supported U.S. Army equipment rotations at Rijeka, Croatia, and Thessaloniki, Greece, for U.S. peacekeeping forces stationed in Bosnia, Herzegovina and Kosovo. MSC Europe also hosted the U.S. Ambassador to Belgium aboard Prepositioning Program ship USNS Dahl during an on-load at Antwerp, Belgium. In April, USNS Henson was the site of a U.S. Embassy-hosted reception in port at Gabon, Africa. Special mission ships frequently earn the interest of citizens of other countries and offer MSC the opportunity to show the U.S. flag in far-flung corners of the world. MSC Central Established in 1999, MSC Central is the newest of MSC's five area commands. The mission of the command is to support United Nations Forces operating in the Republic of Korea and United States forces operating in the Western Pacific through efficient strategic sealift and combat ready logistics forces. Under Logistics Force Fifth Fleet, MSC Central exercises operational control of assigned sealift forces including Naval Fleet Auxiliary Force, special mission, prepositioning and sealift ships in Southwest Asia. MSC Southwest Asia, the original MSC presence in the area, continues to operate as an MSC office under MSC Central. Located at the Naval Support Activity, Bahrain, MSC Central operated in FY 2000 with a combined military/civilian staff of 14. Three additional personnel will join the staff in FY 2001. The MSC Central area of responsibility includes the water areas, associated islands and seaports of the Suez Canal, Red Sea, Persian Gulf, Arabian Sea north of five degrees south latitude and west of 68 degrees east longitude, including Seychelles, Somalia, Kenya and Pakistan, but excluding India. Although relatively new, MSC Central has four assigned U.S. Naval Reserve units that augment the command during war or other contingencies and selected exercises. During FY 2000, Catawba also was the on-scene command platform for search and recovery efforts involving the Gulf Air crash and provided direct support to CTF-50 in enforcing United Nations sanctions against Iraq. Special mission ship USNS John McDonnell assisted with locating the remains of a downed F/A-18 Hornet from the carrier USS Abraham Lincoln in the Persian Gulf. MSC Far East
MSC Far East represents the command in the Western Pacific and Indian Oceans. Headquartered in Yokohama, Japan, MSC Far East provides combat ready logistics force, prepositioning and special mission ships to support unified and fleet commanders. MSC Far East's area of responsibility matches that of the U.S Seventh Fleet. It begins where East meets West at the international dateline and comprises the Western Pacific Ocean, Bering Sea, Sea of Japan, Yellow Sea, East China Sea, Philippine Sea, South China Sea and across the Indian Ocean to the East Coast of Africa. This vast expanse contains some of the largest island nations and island chains in the world. MSC Far East has five supporting elements -- officially called offices, but known as out-ports -- on the islands of Guam, Okinawa, Singapore and Diego Garcia and in Pusan, Korea. The MSC Far East staff consists of a diverse mixture of active duty Navy, Department of the Navy civilians and local nationals. Six U.S. Naval Reserve units supplement MSC Far East in the event of mobilization, the largest group of reservists assigned to any of MSC's five area commands. In FY 2000, MSC Naval Fleet Auxiliary Force ships in the MSC Far East area supplied the Seventh Fleet with cargo valued at $3.32 billion, including 31,800 tons of food and spare parts, 34,710 tons of ammunition and 13 million barrels of fuel. During FY 2000, MSC Far East initiated new training for six mobilizing reserve units by deploying a fully equipped Mobile Sealift Operations Center van to the United States for use by each of the reserve units on a rotating basis. Reserve Programs The Military Sealift Command U.S. Naval Reserve organization includes more than 50 units and 1,800 reservists, including 1,015 supporting MSC headquarters and area commands, 413 supporting Naval Coordination and Protection of Shipping, and 452 supporting Cargo Afloat Rig Teams. MSC's "citizen sailors" train during peacetime so that they are ready during war or contingency. Cargo Afloat Rig Teams, or CARTs, augment the Navy's ammunition transfer capability from ammunition depots to forward deployed battle groups by providing underway replenishment capabilities aboard Ready Reserve Force ships. Two reserve officers and 48 enlisted reservists crew the installed modular cargo delivery system on board the ships. The CARTs handle all above-deck cargo rigging and handling duties for the underway replenishments. The teams are capable of transferring 30 loads per hour per station for two stations while the two ships are connected, or 30 vertical replenishment loads per hour via helicopter. MSC reservists participated in various exercises in FY 2000, integrating with area command organizations and conducting operations in ports throughout Europe, Egypt, Thailand and the United States.
During FY 2000, MSC reservists provided more than 11,000 workdays of peacetime support for projects, exercises, administrative tasks and more.
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ilitary Sealift Command reports through three distinct and separate chains of command:
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