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USMMA Aerial be able to get that at all, in which case we may have to look at maybe a build-lease kind of option. And we’ve done that before. We built the frst afoat pre-positioning ships that way.”

Actually, in one of the frst defnitive statements about the issue to date, Buzby all but promised that he would get the ships. “We’re looking at multiple options how to make this work, but the key to it is we know we have to replace school ships. Absolutely, we have to.”

At the same time, Buzby conceded that sounding the warn- ing bell about a mariner shortage was a tough sell in a market awash with mariners and too few billets to accommodate them all. He added, “It is quite cyclical. I really don’t know where it’s going right now. I’m hoping that it will start to cycle back.

You know, we’re starting to see a little bit of glimmer of hope, especially in the container market. But it may be that in the short term to retain them, they may have to do some other sorts of jobs just to keep their hand in it and keep the pool alive. It’s not the best way to do it, but you gotta do what you gotta do.”

Kings Point Turns the Corner?

Buzby arrives at Marad as his alma mater is recovering from what could kindly be described as a rough two or three years, punctuated by a sexual harassment scandal and arguably more serious, the very real possibility that the school’s accreditation would be lost. Shortly after our discussions in Washington,

Buzby announced that the school had achieved full accredita- tion. It was also clear that restoring the school’s reputation and making sure that it was functioning at a high level was one of his most important priorities. that ultimately produce 75% of the nation’s deep draft licensed Buzby was reluctant to talk about the pending budget in mariners. Because there simply isn’t a ‘ghost feet’ anymore great detail, but he did indicate that Marad would be asking from which Marad can fnd replacements, a new way of think- for more money for Kings Point. “We’ve got a 70 year old ing is in play. Buzby says, “We can’t use the model that we’ve plant up there, most of it constructed in 1943. And we’ve used in the past. We have to approach this in a much differ- got 60 million dollars of backlogged maintenance – deferred ent way. Building the purpose-built ship would be the ultimate maintenance – over the years. We’ve done some capital im- way to do it if we were really serious. But thus far, we have not provement programs where we just redid all the barracks, the done that. So the fall back – if we don’t build a purpose-built mess hall, and we’re just getting ready to go to town on our ship – is to go on the market, and it’s going to have to be a for- frst academic building – Samuels Hall – which we’re going eign-built, existing used ship because, because there aren’t any to convert into a kind of a state-of-the-art simulator center.” in the US inventory that could fulfll that. Buying a foreign ship Buzby adds, “We’re working through that, but as I walk and modifying it in a U.S. yard – we’re doing that homework around the campus, it’s getting a little threadbare in places now. We have to look at it. We can’t depend on a 320 million and we need to infuse some more dollars into it. It’s a federal dollar brand new ship. We just can’t depend on that so we have service academy, for God’s sake.” to have a fall back, and it’s what we plan to do.” In somewhat of a surprise announcement, Buzby also told

Asked if he thought that the newly designed National Se- MLPro, “I’m anxious to get GMATS going again.” GMATS curity Maritime Vessel (NSMV) class could get funded and was the continuing education Global Maritime and Transpor- built, he pointed to some creative fnancing options that might tation School that was shut down suddenly by the Department work if traditional funding did not. “I think that there still is of Transportation in 2012 as of July 2012. Back then, GMATS a possibility. It may not be through a traditional procurement employed 30 full-time employees, operating as a non-appro- path. If we’re looking to get regular construction money out of priated funded instrumentality (NAFI). Buzby has plans to the Navy or out of Congress to the tune of 320 million dollars, bring it back, and bring it back big.

we may have to get that quite incrementally, or we may not “It’s [GMATS] an important component to have that con- www.maritimelogisticsprofessional.com 21

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