Returning from Ebb Tide
Renewing the United States Commercial Maritime Enterprise
Edited by Steven Wills, PhD
with a foreword by Admiral James Foggo, USN (Ret)
DOI: 10.56686/9798987336267
ABOUT THE BOOK
Returning from Ebb Tide highlights the decline in our nation’s commercial maritime capability for a variety of reasons-the peace dividend in the post-Cold War era; elimination of subsidies for the commercial maritime sector during the Ronald W. Reagan administration; and globalization whereby we outsourced our maritime lift requirements to foreign carriers, some of whom may not be friendly to us in times of war. It is one thing to lament the inability of our current maritime industrial base to produce aircraft carriers, warships, icebreakers, and submarines on time and on budget, yet policy makers and commentators often ignore the atrophy of our commercial maritime fleet. This is the fleet that supported the Allies to defeat authoritarian regimes in the First and Second World Wars and ferried hundreds of thousands of troops and millions of pounds of equipment in support of Desert Shield and Desert Storm. This fleet is a shadow of its former self, and this book represents a clarion call to action. Failure to revitalize America’s once-great merchant fleet will spell sure defeat in the next time the United States finds itself fighting a major conflict. We cannot afford to idly observe the status quo in the commercial maritime sector.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Foreword
Admiral James G. Foggo, USN (Ret), Dean of the Center for Maritime Strategy, Navy League of the United States
Select Abbreviations, Acronyms, and Terms
Introduction
Part 1 : The Current State of America’s Commercial Shipping Industry
Chapter 1. Why a Standalone U.S. Commercial Fleet?
John D. McCown Jr.
Chapter 2. The Late Cold War and Post–Cold War World of Shipping and the Impact on the U.S. Commercial Fleet
John D. McCown Jr.
Chapter 3. A Strategy for the Commercial Maritime Industry
Brent Sadler
Chapter 4. Savannah’s Legacy: Advancing U.S. Commercial Shipping with Small Nuclear Reactors
Thomas Davies and Sanjana Shashikumar
Part 2 : The Elements of Strategic Sealift
Chapter 5. The Role of U.S. Transportation Command
Vice Admiral Dee Mewbourne, USN (Ret), PhD
Chapter 6. Sealift: Requirements, Capabilities, and Capacity
Bradley Martin, PhD
Chapter 7. The Maritime Security Program and the Tanker Security Program: Force Multipliers for U.S. Sealift
William McDonald
Chapter 8. The National Defense Reserve Fleet, the Ready Reserve Force, Strategic Sealift, and Prepositioning Programs
Sabreena Croteau
Part 3 : The Merchant Marine
Chapter 9. Introduction to the Merchant Marine
John Konrad
Chapter 10. The Maritime Academies and Maritime Training
Christopher Chiego, PhD; Amy Skoll, PhD; and Ryan Wade, PhD
Chapter 11. Mariner Retention: Decades of Neglect
Geoffrey Brown, with Lieutenant Commander Eric Bardot, USN
Select Bibliography
About the Authors