The Military Sealift Command (MSC), responsible for operating and maintaining a fleet that supplies combat forces, refuels Navy vessels, provides logistics support, conducts special missions, moves military equipment, delivers humanitarian aid, and strategically positions combat cargo worldwide, is facing a significant manpower challenge. As a result of the military’s ongoing personnel shortage, several vessels might enter an “extended maintenance” period, with their crews reassigned to other ships, according to multiple military sources cited by U.S. Naval Institute News (USNI), which first reported the story. This reallocation plan, informally dubbed “the great reset,” is reportedly awaiting approval from Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Lisa Franchetti. MSC, which recently celebrated its 75th anniversary, is the leading provider of ocean transportation for the Navy and the Pentagon. Headquartered in Norfolk, Virginia, MSC operates approximately 125 ships daily around the globe with a civilian crew of 5,500 employed by the Navy. However, across MSC, there are roughly 4,500 billets for crew on support ships, but for each billet, there are only about 1.27 mariners available to fill the positions — a ratio that two former senior crew members told USNI is unsustainable. “If you’re required to have 100 people on a vessel. There are only 27 more people on shore at any given time to rotate those crew members,” the former mariner said. “That math just doesn’t work,” they added. “No one is able to have a healthy work-life balance and be able to get off the ship and get adequate time to go home, have time at home with their family, take leave, take care of medical requirements [in that timeframe]. There is so much training required of every billet at MSC to stay proficient with Navy requirements and training and merchant marine credentialing.” If the Navy moves forward with the reassignment plan, it could free up 600-700 sailors, allowing them more time on shore. The personnel shortage began because of the demanding schedule, but was exacerbated by military policies during the COVID-19 pandemic. During that period, sailors were not allowed to disembark, and many reported poor treatment, which led to a wave of resignations, a retired sailor told USNI. Since that time, “mariners have been quitting at a greater rate than MSC can hire new ones,” they said. The retired sailor also stated that people quit because of a terrible work-life balance created by U.S. Military policies. “This is basically the result of many years of neglect and mismanagement of their force,” Sal Mercogliano, former MSC mariner and associate professor of history at Campbell University, told USNI News. “They are just burning through people.”The U.S. Navy may be forced to sideline 17 support ships due to a shortage of qualified personnel to operate them.
