.M53:96-46 DEFENSE SEALIFT CAPABILITY HEARINGS BEFORE THE COMMITTEE ON MERCHANT MARINE AND FISHERIES NINETY-SIXTH CONGRESS ON THE CAPABILITY OF OUR NATION'S MERCHANT COMMITTEE ON MERCHANT MARINE AND FISHERIES JOHN M. MURPHY, New York, Chairman THOMAS L. ASHLEY, Ohio GLENN M. ANDERSON, California LES AUCOIN, Oregon NORMAN E. D'AMOURS, New Hampshire JAMES L. OBERSTAR, Minnesota WILLIAM J. HUGHES, New Jersey BARBARA A. MIKULSKI, Maryland DAVID E. BONIOR, Michigan DANIEL K. AKAKA, Hawaii MICHAEL OZZIE MYERS, Pennsylvania JOE WYATT, JR., Texas MIKE LOWRY, Washington EARL HUTTO, Florida EDWARD J. STACK, Florida BRIAN DONNELLY, Massachusetts PAUL N. MCCLOSKEY, JR., California EDWIN B. FORSYTHE, New Jersey CARL L. PERIAN, Chief of Staff (II) CONTENTS Amoss, W. James, Jr., president, Lykes Bros. Steamship Co......... Bird, Rear Adm. R. G., USN, Director for Logistics, Pacific Command Bruen, Maj. Gen. John D., USA, Commander, Military Traffic Manage- 213 Kelley, Lt. Gen. Paul X., Commander, Rapid Deployment Joint Task 228 Prepared statement... 230 Leggett, Robert L., president, Joint Maritime Congress... Prepared statement... 273 Renick, Brig. Gen. R. D., Deputy Director of Operations and Readiness, Office of the Deputy Chief of Staff for Operations and Plans, Depart- Rowsey, Capt. James, Chief, Current Plans Branch, Logistics Directorate, Organization of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Department of Defense............. 7, 216 Stryker, Russell, Assistant Administrator for Policy and Administration, Toner, Brig. Gen. Francis J., Director, Transportation, Energy and Troop Support Office of the Deputy Chief of Staff for Logistics, Department of Communications submitted Page Claytor, W. Graham, Jr.: Letter of June 14, 1978, to Hon. John M. 28 Diehl, Leo E.: Letter of November 14, 1979, to Stuart Eizenstat with enclosed memorandum..... 114 Eizenstat, Stuart: Letter of reply to Leo E. Diehl. 113 Leggett, Rober L.: Letter of February 21, 1980, to Representative John M. 284 Nemirow, Samuel B.: Letter of reply to Everett Pyatt.... 112 Letter of December 31, 1979, to Stuart Eizenstat.. 113 Pyatt, Everett: Letter of October 23, 1979, to Samuel Nemirow.... Seal, Mary Martha: Letter of December 4, 1979, to Department of Com 111 113 DEFENSE SEALIFT CAPABILITY WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 12, 1979 HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, COMMITTEE ON MERCHANT MARINE AND FISHERIES, Washington, D.C. The committee met at 10 a.m., in room 1334, Longworth House Office Building, Hon. John M. Murphy, chairman, presiding. Present: Representatives Murphy, Biaggi, de la Garza, Bonker, AuCoin, Wyatt, Lowry, Hutto, Donnelly, McCloskey, Lent, Dornan, Trible, Davis, and Melvin H. Evans of the Virgin Islands. Staff present: Carl Perian, Larry O'Brien, Penny Perian, Peter Kyros, Frances Still, and Elizabeth Coker. The CHAIRMAN. The committee will come to order. I am sure most of you are familiar with Murphy's law, that is if anything can go wrong, it will. Maybe it is not going wrong, but the Republicans scheduled a conference this morning and the Democrats a caucus. I have a few opening remarks so we will have other members of the committee in as we proceed this morning. I have convened this hearing to discuss the capability of our Nation's merchant marine to supply our military and naval forces in the event we are involved in hostilities overseas-and to carry the strategic materials-manganese, cobalt, titanium, chromium, aluminum, and the like-that would be needed by America's defense industry in the event of a war or protracted emergency relation to our national defense. Section 101 of the Merchant Marine Act of 1936 mandates that the United States possess a merchant marine capable of serving as a naval and military auxiliary in time of war or national emergency." Do we have this capability today? 66# * * Let me give you a quote on Operation Reforger, that is reinforcement of our German commitments, 1979. Operation Reforger in 1979 was a scheduled, planned operation. It was not a no-notice operation. The operation involved four ships, three of them from the MSC. They were the Meteor, the Comet, and the Admiral Callahan. The fourth ship, the Maine-a Seatrain vessel-was just coming out of the shipyard where it was prepared for the Ready Reserve Fleet. It was turned over to the MSC in that state of readiness. According to spokesmen at the National Defense Reserve Fleet, the Maine was the only ship to complete its mission on time. While Operation Reforger was in progress, the NDRF was given a "no-notice" order to prepare the Washington. When the Washington was in a state of readiness, the NDRF was told to keep the ship on standby as a possible replacement for one of the MSC ships |