Page 29: of Marine News Magazine (March 2021)

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Feature

Education & Training

MARAD gency ? ood response. A&M Maritime Academy at Galveston, the school slated

These will be big ships. In addition to educational assets, to receive the fourth vessel. He commented on the aca- each NSMV will include hospital facilities, a helicopter demic lobbying and partnerships: “Of? cials sit up and take pad, and the ability to accommodate up to 1,000 people notice when people from Texas work with people from in times of humanitarian need. The NSMVs will provide New York to help New York get a boat.” roll-on/roll-off and container storage capacity for use dur- When asked about the big news in December, Fossum ing disaster relief missions. commented that “it was a long time coming, almost an im- “The new NSMV,” Smith said, “will deliver a best-in- possible dream four years ago that we would actually start class training ship to prepare future mariners while also building the NSMVs.” He too emphasized that ships for supporting the nation’s needs in crisis.” Educational out- training were prioritized. “The current ships are too old,” comes can only improve, almost promising extensive pay- he said, “inadequate to do the job here in Texas.” offs considering that state maritime academies graduate Rear Admiral Francis X. McDonald is president of Mas- more than half of all new of? cers each year. sachusetts Maritime Academy, due to receive the second

Concerted leadership from all the maritime academies new NSMV. McDonald explained that funding for the was pivotal in developing NSMV program goals and bring- new vessels became available in early 2018 when, in a bi- ing it to fruition. Academy leadership worked with their partisan move, Congress signi? cantly raised defense and

Congressional delegations and MARAD, but requests and non-defense discretionary spending caps. The President priorities were delivered as a team message. followed with a budgetary addendum: $300 million to re-

Col. Michael E. Fossum is superintendent of the Texas place the two oldest training ships, the TS Empire State www.marinelink.com MN 29|