<p>The U.S. Merchant Marine has been in a state of decline since I graduated in 1975… I was persistent and lucky enough to get into MM&P (deck officers union) and I didn’t look back. It was difficult though… As an applicant member I sat in the L.A. Union hall making 2 job calls a day for 9 months before I finally got an offshore job… That would have been enough to drive most kids out of the business… I just had a burning desire to sail, raise my license and I eventually worked my way up to a Masters job… When I first started I took anything that floated, broken down shuttle ships on the China coast run, tankers that went from East Jesus to Nowheresville , you name it, I sailed on it. It took me 15 years to finally “get the chair” over at APL… then I had to turn around and do it all over again at MNC. I wish I could say there were plenty of jobs on deep sea American Merchant ships for everybody… the fact is there just aren’t. The competition for the jobs that are out there is keen… so you better be ready. Maybe I’m just looking at this from an MM&P perspective… maybe there are more jobs out there deep sea if you are willing to work MSC or AMO (MEBA district 2). But it’s no secret in the industry that the AMO wages and working conditions aren’t very good and while I hear at MSC the wages are okay, time off is hard to come by…
I don’t know much about the tanker side of the business, having been away from those ships for over 20 years.<br>
Anyway whether we are Cal Maritime, Kings Point, Mass Maritime, Maine Maritime or some other flavor maritime school, we had all better get together (parents, alums, current students) and try to influence congress to pass meaningful legislation that can help revitalize this industry. Just my 2 cents…</p>