On March 4, US President Donald Trump signed the ‘Military to Maritime’ order that enables members of the armed forces to user their sea time and training to meet USCG merchant mariner licensing requirements, after leaving active duty.
For the time being, Army, Navy and Coast Guard service doesn’t usually count towards the classroom and sea time needed to gain certification as an AB, QMED, deck officer or engineer.
Specifically, the ‘Military to Maritime’ initiative makes it easier to the US Army marine operations to mitigate the gap by harmonizing their training with merchant marine standards.
The executive order will boost the efforts and will also cover Navy and Coast Guard members as well.
[smlsubform prepend=”GET THE SAFETY4SEA IN YOUR INBOX!” showname=false emailtxt=”” emailholder=”Enter your email address” showsubmit=true submittxt=”Submit” jsthanks=false thankyou=”Thank you for subscribing to our mailing list”]
As President Trump stated, the Department of Defense and the Department of Homeland Security, that accommodates the USCG, must compile a list of all potentially applicable military training and sea service and submit it to the NMC within one year.
Following, NMC will decide which military training and experience is eligible for use in credentialing. Additionally, it will also have to provide license application fees for active duty service members.
The services will provide certification for departing service members’ sea time in a time frame of one month of discharge or release.
Peter Navarro, the head of the White House’s Office of Trade and Manufacturing Policy, commented
It makes it easier for sea service veterans to get high-paying, high-skilled jobs as mariners by waiving government-issued licensing fees and by crediting military training in the National Maritime Center credentialing system.
He continued stating that the order encourages the US’s experienced members to enter the US Merchant Marine, which is sometimes called the nation’s Fourth Arm of Defense.
Concluding, Navarro noted that American mariners earn on average $65,000 annually, well above the national average, and that many earn substantially more. Despite the financial benefits, the number of Merchant Mariners with unlimited ocean-going credentials who have sailed in the last 18 months has dropped below 12,000 – leaving a potential shortfall in the event of a sealift emergency.
