Maritime Forces and Manpower Management (N1)

Seventy-four percent of Military Sealift Command employees serve at sea aboard MSC-controlled ships.

SC's various functional directorates provide specialized support to the command's business programs. In addition, the directorates ensure compliance with policies mandated by U.S. law, the Department of Defense, the U.S. Transportation Command, the Department of the Navy and MSC.

Highlights

Tracked by the Maritime Forces and Manpower Management Directorate (N1), total employment at Military Sealift Command for FY 2001 rose 1.9 percent over the previous year. On Sept. 30, 2001, MSC employed, directly or indirectly, 8,702 people worldwide, including federal civil servants, active and reserve military members and contract mariners. Seventy percent of those people served at sea aboard MSC-controlled ships.

MSC Employees Worldwide
	Federal Civil Service	Active Duty Military	Reserve Military	Contract Mariners	TOTAL
Serving Afloat	3,499	664	0	1,897	6,060
Serving Ashore	1,149	223	1,270	0	2,642
TOTALS	4,648	887	1,270	1,897	8,702

Ten of MSC's chief stewards and head cooks took a two-week-long advanced cooking course hosted by hospital ship USNS Mercy. Pictured from left to right are, Arturo Orara, Leandro Aquipel, John Breitenstein and Luis Francisco. Photo by Larry Crutchfield.

The Office of Counsel (N2) resolved myriad legal issues concerning use of civilian mariners in force protection roles, established a means of obtaining war risk insurance for commercial vessels supporting the Department of Defense in Operation Enduring Freedom and successfully concluded the last major case arising from the Gulf War.

The Logistics Directorate (N4), through its Afloat Residual Asset Management program, identified valuable items no longer needed by other government agencies and organizations, but useful to MSC ships.

Providing them to MSC ships added to more than $15 million in cost avoidance savings over the past two-and-a-half years. This "trash to treasure" reutilization program currently returns six dollars for every dollar spent.

The Current Operations Division of the Operations and Plans Directorate (N3/5) continued to obtain funding, authorized in FY 2000, to purchase protective clothing and detection and decontamination equipment for ships in the Ready Reserve Force and ships chartered by MSC to support contingency operations. In addition, the MSC Command Center, which serves as the focal point for information flow and as a link to worldwide Department of Defense communications, was expanded into a full crisis action team in September in support of Operations Noble Eagle and Enduring Freedom following the terrorist attacks in New York City, Washington, D.C., and Pennsylvania.

Implementation of a corporate data center and automatic transfer of shipboard logistics data to shore databases in real time topped the list of accomplishments of the Command, Control, Communications and Computer Systems Directorate (N6). N6 personnel also continued work on the transition to the Navy/Marine Corps Intranet, a worldwide, contractor-operated, integrated communication/computer network.

A CH-46 Sea Knight from Helicopter Tactical Wing Atlantic, Naval Air Station Norfolk, Va., practices landings aboard MSC oiler USNS Leroy Grumman off the coast of Virginia Jan.10. One of Grumman’s fire control team watches closely from the water and foam station on the edge of the flight deck. Photo by Frank Randall.

Focusing on new business opportunities for MSC, the Strategic Planning Directorate (N9) established an agreement with Naval Sea Systems Command and the Chief of Naval Education and Training to provide for operation and maintenance of government-owned service craft and boats for a Navy education and training facility in Florida. This will save the government almost one million dollars annually. The directorate's New Business Development Group also expanded MSC agreements for providing port operations services to Naval Station Roosevelt Roads, Puerto Rico, and Naval Station Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.

The Contracts and Business Management Directorate (N10) awarded 315 Voluntary Intermodal Sealift Agreement contracts for dry cargo time charters for MSC's Sealift Program. The VISA program assures the availability of U.S.-flagged sealift capacity in contingencies, national emergencies or war through placement of pre-negotiated contingency contracts with commercial vessel owners. In addition to the VISA contingency contracts, MSC awarded 3,100 contract actions totaling more than $1.1 billion. More than 96 percent of MSC's FY 2001 contract dollars were awarded on a competitive basis. Directorate personnel, along with counterparts in the Sealift Program and other functional directorates, earned the Competition and Procurement Excellence Award for Outstanding Contribution to Innovative Procurement for their work in chartering MV Blue Marlin, a heavy lift, float-on/float-off vessel, to bring the terrorist-crippled Navy destroyer USS Cole back to the United States from Yemen.