Suppose There Was a War and the Merchant Marine Didn’t Come?
Without the ships and mariners of the U.S. merchant marine, the nation could find itself with military forces deployed overseas with no means to feed, arm, or sustain them.
By Salvatore R. Mercogliano
January 2020
Proceedings
Vol. 146/1/1,403
In July 2002, the USNS Watson (T-AKR-310) departed her anchorage in Chagos Archipelago for the Port of Ash Shuaybah in Kuwait. Once pierside, she discharged 999 pieces of rolling stock and 437 containers from her 950-foot hull under the auspices of Exercise Vigilant Hammer. The Watson was the lead ship of an eight-ship class of new large medium-speed roll-on/roll-off (LMSR) vessels built after the 1991 Gulf War. Late in January 2003, the USNS Yano (T-AKR-297), one of five ships converted into LMSRs, arrived at the same Kuwaiti seaport and discharged more than 8,000 tons of equipment after sailing from Charleston, South Carolina, via the Strait of Gibraltar and the Suez Canal. Also from Charleston, the MV Maersk Missouri loaded containers for an Army field hospital. Using Maersk’s network, the cargo was shifted to the MV Maersk Antwerp for delivery to Ash Shuaybah.
https://www.usni.org/magazines/proceedings/2020/january/suppose-there-was-war-and-merchant-marine-didnt-come
