Maritime Academy Act Amendments

young people in NROTC in college to participate in the program, this was clearly a clear investment in that.

We were not giving them something. We are buying their service in the future.

Mr. WATKINS. I appreciate the gentleman coming before us.

Mr. DOWNING. Thank you very much. You have made a significant contribution.

Mr. LEGGETT. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman.

Mr. DOWNING. Our next witness will be Rear Adm. Edward J. O'Donnell, of the New York State Maritime College.

Admiral, it is good to see you again.

STATEMENT OF REAR ADM. EDWARD J. O'DONNELL, U.S. NAVY,
RETIRED, PRESIDENT OF THE STATE UNIVERSITY OF NEW
YORK MARITIME COLLEGE

Admiral O'DONNELL. Good morning, sir. Good morning, gentlemen.
Mr. DOWNING. Do you have a prepared statement?
Admiral O'DONNELL. Yes, I do, sir.

Mr. DOWNING. You may proceed.

Admiral O'DONNELL. Mr. Chairman and gentlemen, I, too, am grateful for this opportunity to come here this morning. I am Rear Adm. Edward J. O'Donnell, U.S. Navy, retired, president of the State University of New York Maritime College.

Our college stems directly from the New York training ship that was founded in 1874 through the initiative of Stephen Luce, a naval officer who reformed all levels of training in the Navy and who was intent on seeing American seamen in both the merchant ships and Navy ships of our country. Admiral Luce cited the Land-Grant College Act of 1862, the so-called Morrill Act, when he recommended the founding of the New York Maritime School. Stephen Luce capped his career of service to training and education for seamen by founding the Naval War College in Newport.

Over the years at the New York school there was an evolution both as to curriculum and length of the course. This culminated in the school's joining the State University of New York in 1948 when it became a 4-year college, conferring degrees accredited by the Middle States Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools and the board of regents of the University of the State of New York.

The mission of the State University of New York Maritime College is:

To educate and train qualified young men to become licensed officers in the American merchant marine; to provide a sound undergraduate and graduate background by combining a nautical education with the courses of a college curriculum to prepare the cadets for successful careers in the maritime industry, afloat and ashore; to educate and train the cadets in leadership and to instill in them an abiding sense of honor, discipline, responsibility, and mature citizenship; to develop in the cadets a pride in their profession and a determination to uphold its finest traditions.

I am here to support the Hathaway bill that increases the contribution of the Federal Government to the State of New York to $250,000 and that insures a subsidy payment to cadets of at least $600.

for Federal objectives, I noted when I examined H.R. 13247, the ocean resources bill, pages 5, 6, and 7, that there were 11 stated functions of the proposed agency. The State University of New York Maritime College directly supports nine of these 11 objectives in its educational

process.

I said above that when Admiral Luce initiated the foundation of our college he was stimulated to act by the Land-Grant College Act. In these colleges, of course, Federal moneys are contributed in return for provision of education in the mechanical arts, agriculture, and the offering of military training.

I note that in the fiscal year 1968 the Federal Government granted $147 million to the land-grant colleges.

I believe that the contribution of the State maritime academies and colleges is just as vital to the national interest, and that the contributions from the Federal Government have not kept pace with the contributions to the land-grant colleges.

To dwell a little longer on the analogy with the land-grant colleges, I stress that the graduates of the State maritime colleges are well educated, professional officers who will be available to the country whenever needed for a significantly long time after graduation.

In the current situation almost every one of our graduates is sailing for at least 3 years in order to retain his Naval Reserve commission. After 3 years, whether these men are at sea or ashore, they constitute a vital asset in the national security of this country because they would be available for rapid mobilization into the merchant marine.

The recent experience of the Vietnamese war, in which fewer than 600.000 troops were involved, demonstrated how barren our resources are in merchant marine manpower.

I believe that this country must plan a merchant marine in the interest of national security that will support a total conventional war in which forces comparable to those used in World War II are employed, and in which North America would be the logistic base and arsenal of the free world.

This, of course, implies an identifiable asset of merchant marine manpower. I think that modern information retrieval methods make the management of such a system quite feasible. An advantage that the State maritime college men would enjoy in the long term is that during periods when commercial demand for merchant shipping was low and when jobs were relatively scarce, their formal education would make them capable of finding good jobs on the beach.

But I stress they would still be available as a mobilization reserve. When one reads of the vast sums of Federal money that go into general education at all levels, often where the relationship to urgent national needs is much harder to discern, the Hathaway bill is surely a modest recognition of the need to give the State maritime schools. increased support.

Thank you, sir.

Mr. DOWNING. Thank you very much, Admiral, for a fine statement. Admiral, Congressman Leggett referred to the degrees which a maritime college can give. Explain to us how a college is authorized to give a degree.

Admiral O'DONNELL. In each region of the country there is an accrediting association such as the Western Colleges Association, etc.

New York on the State itself and surrounding area. The New York Port Authority issued figures showing that in June of 1967 there were 220,000 jobs in the New York area primarily attributable to oceanborne commerce.

Further, in 1968, oceanborne foreign trade alone, in the Port of New York, amounted to $14,099 million.

It is the purpose of the State of New York and the State University of New York that the maritime college serve as an educational, research, and intellectual adjunct of the maritime industry. The State University of New York Maritime College vigorously supports the interest of the Federal Government in maritime matters. Our graduates are found in large number in key positions in the industry both at sea and ashore. Virtually all of the graduates of our college are commissioned as Naval Reserve officers.

In the present situation all but a handful are sailing on their licenses for at least 3 years, and certain graduates are taking service commissions in the Coast Guard where they serve primarily in merchant marine inspection service, in ESSA, and in the Navy.

In the class that was graduated in June this year, 10 men took active duty commissions in the Coast Guard, three in ESSA (Coast and Geodetic Survey), and two in the Navy. Of the rest I know of only three who are not sailing on their licenses. One of the men who went on active duty in the Navy was a graduate in nuclear science who was accepted for the Rickover program, and certainly any work that he does there will carry over into more advanced technology for the entire maritime industry.

The upgrading of the educational process at the State University of New York Maritime College is also significant because of the introduction in 1958 of course work in meteorology and oceanography, and nuclear science for engineers; and more recently because of an intensification of the work in electrical engineering and naval architecture, all to keep pace with the more complex technologies employed in our new ships.

The State University of New York Martime College initiated a graduate program in marine transportation management in January of this year. Courses are given at night at the Seamen's Church Institute in downtown New York, with a long session one Saturday a month out at Fort Schuyler. There are about 40 people enrolled in this course. The maritime college has further plans to offer graduate work in ocean engineering and in environmental sciences, the latter perhaps stressing work at the interface between the atmosphere and the ocean.

Other programs that may be of interest to the committee are continuing education programs where noncredit courses are given in downtown New York at the Seamen's Church Institute in maritime subjects such as maritime law, naval architecture, navigation, astronomy, and so forth.

These were begun in January of 1969 also and are progressing at a moderate rate. Currently we are discussing methods of carrying out extension work for men actually at sea, not only using the resources of the maritime college but those of the entire State university.

As I said, the State of New York has in a particular way invested a great deal of money in the college because of the importance of the merchant marine to the State of New York. But in terms of support