Another Pete Buttigieg Failure? Merchant Marine Manpower Deficit Sidelines 17 Support Ships For Wartime  

Former President Trump warned on Sunday, “There will be no future under Comrade Kamala Harris, because she will take us into a Nuclear World War III!” 

There will be no future under Comrade Kamala Harris, because she will take us into a Nuclear World War III! She will never be respected by the Tyrants of the World!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 25, 2024

Far-left activists within the Biden-Harris administration have spent what appears to be more time prioritizing their woke religion than effectively managing the nation as the war in Eastern Europe broadens, regional conflict fears elevated in the Middle East, and South China Sea threats rise. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg is the prime example of a woke activist within the admin, pushing “racial equity in roads” and diversity hiring in the FAA’s hiring practices. 

Buttigieg is an ineffective manager, and it’s no surprise why. He’s more focused on pushing far-left activism and spreading woke ideology through the federal government than on doing his job. His mishandling of the Ohio train derailment, the failed nationwide EV charger rollout, and a string of mid-air mishaps in commercial aviation are just a few examples of his incompetence.

The list of failures is quickly growing with Buttigieg, and this time, it’s more serious than ever, as maritime news website USNI News reported:

“Military Sealift Command has drafted a plan to remove the crews from 17 Navy support ships due to a lack of qualified mariners to operate the vessels across the Navy.” 

The support ships are part of the Merchant Marines fleet, overseen by the Maritime Administration, an agency of the Department of Transportation, which makes this Buttigieg’s responsibility at the end of the day.

Fox News Digital spoke with Rear Admiral (Ret.) Mark Montgomery, senior director of the Center on Cyber and Technology Innovation at the Foundation for Defense of Democracy, stated that the Merchant Marines don’t have enough manpower to keep the 17 support ships operational. These include replenishment vessels, tankers, and other crucial ships needed to deliver military personnel and weapons worldwide. 

Under Buttigieg’s watch, this has morphed into a crisis of war preparedness, as the Biden-Harris team seems to be mishandling conflicts around the world, which has stoked, as Trump said, nuclear war risks. 

This is starting to go viral 🤩

Fox & NYP correctly reported it’s a US Merchant Mariner, not Navy, shortage 🤩

They didn’t call us civilians 🤩

BUT nobody here asking who is in charge of the US Merchant Marine?

Who is responsible for this disaster?

Answer: @SecretaryPete 👈 https://t.co/wa6pdhzYio

— John Ʌ Konrad V (@johnkonrad) August 25, 2024

USNI provided more color on the labor shortage affecting Merchant Marines: 

The MSC “force generation reset” identified two Lewis and Clark replenishment ships, one fleet oiler, a dozen Spearhead-class Expeditionary Fast Transports (EPF) and two forward-deployed Navy expeditionary sea bases that would enter an “extended maintenance” period and have their crews retasked to other ships in the fleet, three people familiar with the plan told USNI News Thursday.

Based on the crew requirements on the platforms, sideling all the ships could reduce the civilian mariner demand for MSC by as many as 700 billets.

A defense official confirmed the basic outline of the plan to USNI News on Thursday. Two sources identified the forward-deployed sea bases as USS Lewis Puller (ESB-3), based in Bahrain in U.S. Central Command, and USS Hershel “Woody” Williams (ESB-4), based in Naval Support Activity Souda Bay, Greece, and operated in U.S. European and Africa Command.

A Navy official, when contacted by USNI News, acknowledged the service was working on a plan to retask civilian mariners but did not provide details.

The new effort, known informally as “the great reset” has yet to be adopted by the Navy and is awaiting approval from Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Lisa Franchetti, USNI News understands.

The Military Sealift Command operates a fleet of logistics ships that refuel and resupply the Navy’s ships around the world and are crewed by 5,500 civilians who are employed by the Navy.

Across the MSC there are about 4,500 billets for mariners on a wide variety of U.S. support ships ranging from resupply vessels, fleet oilers that refuel ships and aircraft, salvage ships, the Navy’s two command ships, submarine tenders and hospital ships.

For every billet on an MSC ship there are about 1.27 mariners to fill the positions, a ratio that two former MSC master mariners told USNI News on Thursday was unsusstainable.

“If you’re required to have 100 people on a vessel. There are only 27 more people on shore at any given time to rotate those crew members,” a former MSC mariner told USNI News.

At that ratio, a mariner would be at sea for four months and off for about a month ­and then return.

“That math just doesn’t work,” the former mariner told USNI News.

“No one is able to have a healthy work-life balance and be able to get off the ship and get adequate time to go home, have time at home with their family, take leave, take care of medical requirements [in that timeframe]. There is so much training required of every billet at MSC to stay proficient with Navy requirements and training and merchant marine credentialing.”

Montgomery also told Fox, “There’s a lack of experienced merchant mariners to crew the ships, and this is really a clear danger to national security.” 

Yet, there will never be any accountability for Buttigieg’s mounting failures to the taxpayers. His latest failure threatens the logistical backbone of the entire Navy while nuclear war threats are quickly rising.

Voters should demand accountability and ask why Buttigieg is more focused on “racial equity in roads” than winning the next world war. 

Failure after failure by the Biden-Harris administration, with zero accountability for taxpayers, has many folks asking if the nation is being purposely undermined.