ilitary Sealift Command reports through three distinct and separate chains of command:

• To the Commander in Chief of U.S. Transportation Command for defense transportation matters,
  
• To the Chief of Naval Operations for Navy-unique matters, and
  
• To the Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Research, Development and Acquisition for procurement policy and oversight matters.

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 U.S. Transportation Command was established as the joint command responsible for all defense transportation during war or contingency. In 1992, the command’s mission was expanded to include defense transportation in times of peace. 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 of U.S. Transportation Command on defense transportation issues.

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.

Programs and Directorates

During FY 2001, MSC operated on the basis of five programs or business lines.

• Naval Fleet Auxiliary Force
  
• Special Mission
  
• Prepositioning
  
• Ship Introduction
  
• Sealift

Each program was 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 provided specialized support services to the five business programs and to the MSC commander.

• Maritime Forces and Manpower Management (N1)
  
• Counsel (N2)
  
• Operations and Plans (N3/5)
  
• Logistics (N4)
  
• Command, Control, Communications and Computer Systems (N6)
  
• Engineering (N7)
  
• Comptroller (N8)
  
• Strategic Planning (N9)
  
• Contracts and Business Management (N10)

MSC headquarters is supported by 95 U.S. Navy reservists who provided 3,492 work days during FY 2001.

Area Commands

MSC has five area commands, each headed by a U.S. Navy captain, covering the Atlantic, Pacific, Europe, Middle East and Far East areas of responsibility. MSC’s five area commanders are the focal points for MSC customers in their respective areas and the personal representatives of MSC’s commander. The area commands also are the MSC commander’s direct links to MSC ships, providing maintenance, logistics and other needed services.

MSC Atlantic

Headquartered in Norfolk, Va., MSC Atlantic’s area of responsibility stretches from the eastern coastlines of Canada, the United States, Mexico, Central America and South America to Greenland, Iceland and the islands of the Caribbean, including the waters roughly defined as 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.

MSC Atlantic manages assigned Naval Fleet Auxiliary Force ships and supports Special Mission, Prepositioning and Sealift Program ships operating in or transiting the area. MSC Atlantic has offices or representatives at Camp Pendleton in Virginia Beach, 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 has seven U.S. Naval Reserve units assigned that augment the staff during mobilizations and for selected exercises and training. In FY 2001, the 300 assigned reserve personnel provided 1,649 work days of support to MSC’s mission.

Fiscal year 2001 also saw MSC Atlantic ships involved in various community and international events, as well as military exercises.

• November 2000: While visiting Norfolk, Bulgarian naval officers observed MSC underway replenishment operations on board USNS Kanawha, an MSC oiler. USNS Hayes, a special mission ship conducting acoustic research, hosted 685 visitors during the Kennedy Space Center and Cape Canaveral Air Force Station open house.
  
• December 2000: MV Northern Explorer, a commercial vessel chartered by MSC, redeployed U.S. Army equipment from Aqaba, Jordan, to Sunny Point, N.C., for exercise Early Victor.
  
• April 2001: USNS Sirius hosted Navy Supply Corps School students in Norfolk. MSCLANT headquarters and ten remote port offices were augmented by Navy reservists for exercise Eastern Ready.
  
• May 2001: USNS Bruce C. Heezen hosted 70 hydro conference attendees in Norfolk.
  
• June 2001: USNS Comfort, one of MSC’s two hospital ships, provided tours to the Norfolk medical community.
  
• July 2001: USS Supply, a fast combat support ship, was decommissioned and transferred to MSC.
  
• September 2001: USNS Comfort sailed to New York City to provide relief for rescue workers following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

MSC Pacific

MSC Pacific is headquartered in San Diego, Calif., and manages Naval Fleet Auxiliary Force ships in the Eastern Pacific, coinciding with the area of responsibility of the Navy’s Third Fleet. MSC Pacific also provides administrative support to all other MSC ships in the area and engineering and personnel support to forward-deployed Naval Fleet Auxiliary Force ships operating with the Fifth and Seventh Fleets in the Western Pacific, Indian Ocean and Persian Gulf.

ABOVE: Crew members from USNS Indomitable who freed the sea turtle. From left to right are Able Seaman Adeeb Saleh, Ordinary Seaman Bill Howell, Boatswain Bobby Taylor and Ordinary seaman Clyde Wynne. Photo by Bobby Taylor.	RIGHT: Able Seaman Adeeb Saleh and Ordinary Seaman Clyde Wynne lift the turtle to cut away the net that was entangled in its flippers. Photo by Bobby Taylor.

MSC Pacific maintains a Military Sealift Command Office in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, and representatives in Alameda, Calif.; Seattle, Wash.; and Anchorage, Alaska.

The six U.S. Naval Reserve units assigned to MSC Pacific include 139 people who provided 1,027 work days of mission support in FY 2001. These units support operations throughout the MSC Pacific area of responsibility.

Fiscal year 2001 highlights for MSC Pacific ships, crews, reservists and staff included more than 1,190 underway replenishments, 287 vertical replenishments and 177 in-port replenishments. Exercises, operations and rescues also filled the year:

• January 2001: USNS Indomitable, an MSC ocean surveillance ship, provided medical assistance to a shark-bitten fisherman in the Eastern Pacific. Shortly after, Indomitable’s environmentally minded crew rescued a sea turtle trapped in fishing nets off the west coast of South America.
  
• March 2001: USNS Indomitable and USNS Stalwart, another MSC ocean surveillance ship, rescued 149 people from a stranded vessel adrift for 14 days off the northern coast of South America.
  
• May 2001: USNS Sioux, an MSC fleet ocean tug, rescued two individuals from a sinking vessel off the coast of Baja California.
  
• August 2001: USNS Sumner, an MSC oceanographic survey ship, collected sea current and ocean bottom data for moving the Japanese ship Ehime Maru, sunk by a collision with a U.S. submarine.
  
• September 2001: USNS Tippecanoe, an MSC oiler, transferred more than six million gallons of fuel to the USS Stennis and USS Constellation Battle Groups as they patrolled off the California coast in support of Operation Noble Eagle in the four days immediately following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in the United States.

MSC Europe

Headquartered in Naples, Italy, MSC Europe also maintains an office in Rotterdam, The Netherlands, and a Navy liaison officer in London, United Kingdom.

MSC Europe’s area of responsibility coincides with that of the 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.

MSC Europe manages government-owned and contract ships, providing sealift transportation, direct fleet support, ships for special projects and strategic sealift (prepositioning) for the U.S. European commands and its component commands. MSC Europe also oversees Mediterranean-based Maritime Prepositioning Ship Squadron One whose ships preposition U.S. Marine Corps heavy combat equipment and U.S. Air Force munitions at sea, available for any contingency.

Five U.S. Naval Reserve units with 130 people assigned provided 1,711 work days of support to MSC Europe in FY 2001. The reserve personnel manage port operations for contingencies and exercises.

Fiscal year 2001 highlights for MSC Europe included:

• October-November 2000: USNS Henson, an MSC oceanographic survey ship, completed a major survey off the coast of Gabon in western Africa.
  
• January 2001: USNS Mohawk, an MSC fleet ocean tug, successfully salvaged a fully fueled U.S. Navy small boat off the coast of Sardinia, Italy, avoiding a potential environmental disaster.
  
• February 2001: Chartered and government-owned sealift ships helped rotate peacekeeping forces in Kosovo using the port of Bourgas, Bulgaria, for the first time. Opening new ports in the region provided the U.S. European Command with greater flexibility for force rotations.
  
• March-April 2001: USNS Mohawk conducted dive and salvage exercises with Albania, a significant event in bilateral relations in a volatile area of the world.
  
• March-May 2001: USNS Littlehales, an MSC oceanographic survey ship, conducted a major survey of the waters around the island nation of Cape Verde off the western coast of Africa.
  
• June 2001: Navy reservists participated in exercise Unified Charger, working heavy combat equipment movement scenarios at four commercial ports throughout Europe.
  
• June 2001: SS Pfc. Eugene A. Obregon participated in Baltic Operations 2001, acting as a United Nations sanction "violator" while Russian and Swedish search and seizure teams practiced storming the ship. During the same exercise, Obregon also acted as a high-value vessel for escort practice by warships from 14 NATO and Partnership for Peace countries.
  
• August 2001: USNS Sirius, an MSC combat stores ship, hosted the U.S. ambassador to Tunisia and defense representatives from eight countries, including Russia and China.
  
• September 2001: Chartered and government-owned sealift ships assisted with stabilization force rotations in Bosnia and Herzegovina. For the first time, MSC ships used the port of Koper, Slovenia.

A floating crane (center) moored to USNS Mohawk (foreground right) and to the shore, was used to lift a sunken liberty launch.

MSC Central

MSC Central is headquartered in Manama, Bahrain. Under the Fifth Fleet Task Force Commander for fleet logistics support, MSC Central exercises operational control of assigned Naval Fleet Auxiliary Force, Special Mission Program, Prepositioning Program and Sealift Program ships in Southwest Asia. MSC Central provides administrative support to Afloat Prepositioning Ship Squadron FOUR, located in Diego Garcia.

The MSC Central area of responsibility includes the water areas, associated islands and seaports of the Suez Canal, Red Sea, Persian Gulf and the Arabian Sea north of five degrees south latitude and west of 68 degrees east longitude, including Seychelles, Somalia, Kenya and Pakistan, but excluding India.

Four U.S. Naval Reserve units support MSC Central, augmenting the command during war or other contingencies and selected exercises. The 151 Navy reservists assigned provided 1,105 work days in FY 2001, including support of exercise Bright Star, which was conducted in Egypt.

Command highlights for the fiscal year include:

• October 2000: USNS Catawba, an MSC fleet ocean tug, towed USS Cole, a Navy ship damaged by a terrorist bomb, from her anchorage to MV Blue Marlin, a heavy-lift, float-on/float-off ship that carried Cole back to the United States for repairs. USNS Spica, an MSC combat stores ship, provided fleet logistics services to the Navy warships protecting Cole.
  
• November 2000: USNS Walter S. Diehl, an MSC oiler, helped escort MV Blue Marlin and USS Cole from the Gulf of Aden to the tip of South Africa.
  
• September 2001: Exercise Bright Star involved SS Maj. Stephen W. Pless and MV Cpl. Louis J. Hauge, two MSC Maritime Prepositioning Force ships, surge sealift ships USNS Pililaau and USNS Shughart and chartered vessels MV Argonaut, MV Maersk Arizona and MV Advantage. The ships carried supplies and equipment for the U.S. Army, U.S. Marine Corps and U.S. Coast Guard. Exercise play was interrupted by the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the United States, but was resumed to successfully complete the exercise.
  
• September 2001: Eleven Navy reservists were activated to augment the MSC Central crisis action capabilities for Operation Enduring Freedom as the United States declared war on terrorism.

MSC Far East

Headquartered in Yokohama, Japan, MSC Far East represents the command in the Western Pacific and Indian Oceans, providing combat logistics, prepositioning, special mission and sealift ships to support unified and fleet commanders.

MSC Far East’s area of responsibility corresponds with 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.

Additionally, MSC Far East operates five offices on the islands of Guam, Okinawa, Singapore and Diego Garcia and in Pusan, Korea. Six U.S. Naval Reserve units with 197 people assigned augment MSC Far East in the event of mobilization. During FY 2001 the reservists provided 3,141 work days of support for exercises and events such as joint U.S.-Korea exercise Reception, Staging, Onward Movement and Integration of Forces; joint U.S.-Thailand exercise Cobra Gold; and joint U.S.-Korea exercise Ulchi Focus Lens.

MSC Far East highlights for FY 2001 include:

• December 2000: The crew of USNS Watson, an MSC prepositioning ship at Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean, rescued two Navy sailors thrown from a runaway power boat.
  
• May 2001: Exercise Cobra Gold, a joint U.S.-Thailand exercise, included Ready Reserve Force ship MV Cape Hudson, which lifted U.S. Army rolling stock, and chartered commercial vessels MV Bujin and MV Kassel.
  
• June 2001: Exercise Turbo CADS, a combined joint logistics-over-the-shore operation, tested the capability of moving containerized munitions to Korea. MV Maersk Alaska, a commercial container ship chartered by MSC, and Ready Reserve Force ships SS Cape Mohican and SS Flickertail State carried supplies, equipment and water craft for off-loading munitions at sea and transferring them to shore. SS Chesapeake, an RRF offshore petroleum discharge system ship, also participated.