
The Navy said Secretary of the Navy Carlos Del Toro approved a plan on Oct. 30 to ease stress on the civilian mariners in Military Sealift Command (MSC), in part by setting aside some ships into extended maintenance periods. MSC has 5,500 civil service mariners plus 1,500 contracted mariners that operate 140 logistics supply ships to support transportation of cargo and replenishment of U.S. military forces. However, the MSC workforce has been stressed with lower than optimal levels of mariners…