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#with quarantine and all we ended getting a seal in the river though
starberry-cupcake · 3 years
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despite the incredibly out of season cold weather we’re having for late october (!!!!), the bats are out doing their thing, so I guess they don’t care, they just checked the calendar and decided to start their seasonal rounds, to my absolute dismay because they terrify me and going outside with their noises all around is the worst
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giftofshewbread · 3 years
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It’s Satan
By Daymond Duck    Published on: August 1, 2021
The writer of this article was recently asked, “Why do the globalists who are supposed to be very intelligent make decisions that are so clearly wrong?”
Most don’t realize it, but Satan is behind their evil.
He has blinded them to the extent that they don’t believe the Bible is the Word of God.
They push a godless world government, world religion, same-sex marriage, tracking everyone, etc., because they are not Christians (even though some falsely claim to be good Catholics, etc.).
Many were appointed by like-minded people, not elected by voters or nations.
They wouldn’t dare have an election because they don’t believe they can get elected.
The globalists overlook what the Clintons and Bidens have done because they share similar views on the issues listed above.
Their puppets impeached Trump twice because he opposed their views.
Their prosecution of Trump supporters for what happened at the capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, while ignoring the rioting, looting, destruction of property, etc. by Antifa, Black Lives Matter, and others, should concern every conservative and Christian because when the globalists get the upper hand (and they will), they will destroy the U.S. Constitution, and persecute and destroy those that disagree with them.
When they give their Antichrist power, he will go forth conquering and to conquer (Rev. 6:1-2; 13:4-7).
The following events indicate that the latter years and latter days, globalism, global pandemics, food shortages, persecution, etc., are on the horizon.
One, concerning the Battle of Gog and Magog in the latter years and latter days: on July 20, 2021, Sen. Lindsey Graham said, “The Iranians are progressing (on their development of nuclear weapons) at a dangerous pace.”
“Israel may need to take pre-emptive military action against Iran.”
“I’ve never been more worried about Israel having to use military force to stop the program than I am right now.”
Two, also concerning the Battle of Gog and Magog: it was reported on July 21, 2021, that Israel’s military and foreign intelligence agency said Israel needs a variety of plans to sabotage, disrupt and delay Iran’s development of nuclear weapons, and they will probably be asking for the money and resources to do that.
Three, also concerning the Battle of Gog and Magog: Israeli Prime Min. Netanyahu and Russian Pres. Putin agreed that Israel would give Russia advance notice of Israeli attacks in some areas of Syria, and Russia would not intervene.
Israel jets recently fired several missiles at Iranian targets near Aleppo, Syria, and a Russian official said Syria used Russian-made anti-missile systems to shoot down all of Israel’s missiles.
On July 24, 2021, DEBKAfile, an Israeli intelligence and security news source group, reported that a Russian official confirmed that Russia has changed its policy on not intervening in Israeli attacks in some areas of Syria because Russia has received confirmation from the Biden White House that the U.S. does not condone the continuous Israeli raids.
Thus, while the Biden administration is publicly saying Israel has a right to defend itself, it is telling Russia that some of Israel’s efforts to do that are unacceptable.
The Bible clearly teaches that the merchants of Tarshish and all the young lions (perhaps includes the U.S.) will not help Israel during the Battle of Gog and Magog (Ezek. 38:13).
Corrupt world leaders, deceit, and lying are also signs of the end of the age.
Four, on July 27, 2021, i24NEWS reported that Israel has notified the Biden administration that Iran is on the verge of crossing the nuclear threshold, and it could happen at any moment.
Because Pres. Obama sent Iran a planeload of money during his administration and seems to be influencing events in the Biden administration, notifying Biden might be a waste of time.
This may help explain the belief that the U.S. will not help Israel during the Battle of Gog and Magog (Ezek. 38:13).
Five, concerning famine: it is common knowledge that the Covid-19 lockdowns disrupted the world’s food chains (farmers and farmhands were quarantined; stores ran out of toilet paper, some foods, etc.; food processors closed or cut back; some trucks stopped rolling, etc.).
On July 23, 2023, it was reported that there are still bare shelves in some food stores in the U.K., the food supply chains are “at risk of collapse,” millions of workers have been ordered to self-quarantine, the food industry is running out of workers to keep the stores supplied, and the U.K. could be just a few months away from a major crisis.
Under the guise of stopping the spread of Covid, the U.K. government may be creating “food shortages and mass famine.”
Note: It was recently reported that Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell warned that there will be another lockdown in the U.S. if American citizens “don’t wise up and get vaccinated against Covid-19.”
Note: On July 28, 2021, in an interview on “Fox & Friends,” Stuart Varney said an important business group is predicting that supply shortages will last until 2023.
Some prophecy teachers believe that Covid-19 is a created crisis (a pretext, a set-up, perhaps an engineered cluster of catastrophes) that globalists are using to prepare the world for a world government.
According to the pro-liberty group, Brighteon, on July 22, 2021, “very few people are prepared to survive a multi-layered, engineered cluster of catastrophes that are unleashed on top of each other.”
God’s Seal, Trumpet, and Bowl judgments during the Tribulation Period will be multi-layered catastrophes (pandemics, famine, economic collapse, etc.) on top of each other, and very few will survive.
Note: This writer believes we could be watching the development (early stages) of those multi-layered judgments.
Six, concerning deceit: on July 20, 2021, Sen. Rand Paul said on Sean Hannity’s T.V. program, “I will be sending a letter to the Department of Justice asking for a criminal referral (of Dr. Anthony Fauci) because he has lied to Congress” (about the involvement of the National Institutes of Allergy and Infectious Diseases in the research at China’s Wuhan Institute of Virology).
Note: This writer does not know how to verify it but has seen reports that Fauci owns stock in one or more of the companies that have been approved to sell the Covid-19 vaccine (If true, he is likely profiting off forcing people to be vaccinated and opposing the use of Hydroxychloroquine and Ivermectin).
Second Note: It has been reported that Fauci could spend up to 5 years in prison, but it is the opinion of this writer that the globalists (also called the Shadow Government, Deep State, super-wealthy elitists, etc.) will protect him because they are pro-vaccination. They want him to keep using his ever-changing fake science.
Seven, concerning world government and open borders: on July 21, 2021, it was reported that keeping the U.S. border with Mexico open is costing about 3 million dollars a day in suspension and termination payments to contractors to guard steel, concrete, and other materials they have in the desert.
Eight, militant Muslims say Jews should not be allowed on the Temple Mount because the entire Temple Mount is an Islamic site and none of it belongs to Israel.
For this reason, Jewish officials have allowed Jews to visit the Temple Mount at certain times, but they have not been allowed to pray on the Temple Mount.
On July 17, 2021, the eve of Tisha B’ Av (a holiday for remembering the destruction of the first 2 Jewish Temples; July 17-18 in 2021), it was reported that Jews were praying (and some were teaching Torah, a name for the Scriptures in the first 5 books of the Bible) on the Temple Mount.
On July 20, 2021, Prime Min. Bennett came out in support of freedom of worship for Jews on the Temple Mount.
This may lead to more violence, but it is worth noting that the Jews have gone from not being allowed to pray on the Temple Mount to praying and teaching on the Temple Mount, and Israel’s new Prime Min. supports it.
According to the Bible, the Jews will eventually get permission to rebuild the Temple.
Update: On July 25, 2021, it was reported that the temporary truce between Israel and the Palestinians is fragile, may be coming unraveled, and another war could be on the horizon.
Nine, concerning pestilence: on July 22, 2021, Israeli Prime Min. Bennett said as of Aug. 8, 2021, Israeli citizens will not be allowed to enter synagogues and other facilities without a vaccine certificate or proof of a negative Covid-19 test.
U.S. citizens are not having to prove that they have been vaccinated to attend places of worship, but some companies are requiring it.
Ten, concerning natural disasters: on July 26, 2021, it was reported that June in North America was “the hottest in recorded history.”
Record high temperatures were broken in several western states.
On June 28, 2021, the temperature was 117 degrees in Salem, OR; 110 in Redmond OR; 110 in Quillayute, WA; 110 in Olympia, WA etc.
The southwest U.S. is experiencing the worst drought in 122 years.
It covers almost 90% of the southwest, and much of that is classified as severe to exceptional drought.
Reservoirs and rivers are drying up, fish are dying, wildlife is suffering, farmers and ranchers are hurting, crop and cattle production is down, some ranchers and dairy farmers are going out of business, water rationing is beginning to kick in, and more than 60 million people are impacted.
Lake Mead, a 112-mile-long water reservoir, is at its lowest level since it was built 85 years ago (It is now only 35% full).
Utah’s Great Salt Lake has reached a record low.
86 wildfires are burning in 12 states, drought conditions have made them worse, two major wildfires have merged, and more than 10,000 houses are in danger.
The long-range forecast is for the high temperatures to continue through the fall.
Call it what you want; some officials are already blaming it on global warming because it fits their globalist agenda. But natural disasters will be like birth pains (increase in frequency and intensity) at the end of the age, and this record-breaking event seems to qualify.
As I close, understand that as bad as things are right now, Satan and the Antichrist are limited or partly restrained (II Thess. 2:7-9).
But the time will come (the Tribulation Period) when Satan and the Antichrist will no longer be restrained, and the events will be worse than anything that has ever happened or ever will happen (Matt. 24:22).
Finally, are you Rapture Ready?
If you want to be rapture ready and go to heaven, you must be born again (John 3:3). God loves you, and if you have not done so, sincerely admit that you are a sinner; believe that Jesus is the virgin-born, sinless Son of God who died for the sins of the world, was buried, and raised from the dead; ask Him to forgive your sins, cleanse you, come into your heart and be your Saviour; then tell someone that you have done this.
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djemsostylist · 3 years
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What is Libertas?
Tl;dr Libertas is the Sword of the Red Hilt, first wielded by Galahad in the Quest for the Holy Grail, and Nathaniel Garro is probably a descendent of Joseph of Arimathea. Or something.
Okay, so this summer, while waiting for the next Siege book, I started a thorough reading of Arthurian Legend.  I’ve read Malory and de Troyes and I’m currently making my way through Vulgate.  (Bear with me, this is going somewhere I promise)  It was in reading Malory though, that something kind of crystalized. 
I got access to Saturnine back in early quarantine, like mid-March or so.  The whole book was phenomenal of course--particularly the part with the Kill Teams.  The whole thing is cathartic and chaotic and perfect, but it was also the first time we’ve seen Loken and Garro in a while--and damn was it an outing for both of them.  But it was also where we sort of went from “Libertas is a really good sword” to, “okay, what is up with Libertas?”  And while it seems the most obvious answer is “Excalibur” because swords in stones and all that, I actually think there is a better answer. 
From Saturnine (pg 331 of the ebook): “Garro cartwheeled, and landed hard, his pauldron splintered. Libertas had been knocked out of his grip. The sword had landed two metres from him, tip down, the blade buried a third of its length deep in the stone floor...Kibre thumped towards {Garro]. He glanced at the sword, quivering in the ground. He’d seen what it could do...He grabbed it to pull it free. It would not budge. He pulled harder, applying the full might of his amplified body and amplified plate.
Libertas would not come free...Garro was on his feet again...Garro slid the sword out of the stone with no effort at all. The blade came up, and impaled Kibre through the chest.”  (Kibre failing to draw the sword is important--remember it, and we’ll come back to it later).
My immediate reaction on reading it was “holy shit, EXCALIBUR?????” because yes, Excalibur was technically the sword Arthur received from the lady in the lake after pulling the sword from the stone and then breaking it fighting Pellinore, but also the tales are often confusing because Malory refers to both swords as Excalibur (because of the differing versions in Vulgate), and then there’s Caliburn from Geoffrey of Monmouth which is probably also Excalibur, and yeah.  Anyway, the point is that while the sword in the stone isn’t really Excalibur, it also kind of is for most people, so that would seem to be the obvious answer to “what is Libertas?” when you have a sword that only certain people can pull from a stone. 
EXCEPT that reading both Malory and various other Arthurian legends this summer led to another and actually more fitting answer. 
First let me start with what we know about Libertas (mostly taken from Garro and Flight of the Eisenstein).  It’s a greatsword, easily wielded two handed, and has “elements” from Old Earth before the Age of Strife.  We know that it is a power sword (so likely the hilt has been replaced and the “elements” are in the blade) and that holding it makes Garro feel “complete” and “right”.  
But perhaps the most interesting bit we have about Libertas is this passage from Garro: “At the last second, the legionary jack-knifed and fell on the attacker with his sword aimed down. The tip of the blade almost hit the mark, a fraction of a centimetre from the point where the neck-ring of the attacker’s armour joined the helmet seal. Had it fallen true, Libertas would have sliced down inside his collarbone, bursting through lung and primary heart. Instead, the sword tip slashed away hood and cloak, screeching down the chest plate to leave a sparking gouge in the ceramite. In the bright aura of the power sword, Garro saw the colour of his adversary’s wargear for the first time. A matte yellow-gold that could only belong to one legion.” 
This is Nathaniel Garro.  He’s a consummate swordsman.  He doesn’t miss.  We know Libertas is a strong blade--it is capable of literally bisecting fully armored marines.  And yet, the sword skips.  Nathaniel Garro jumps on a man, blade down, and somehow, despite the close range, element of surprise, and the fact that he’s Nathaniel Garro, it misses.  What it does do, however, is reveal a disguised brother for who he truly is.  Remember this--we’ll also come back to it in a bit.   
Then, of course, is the iconic moment in Saturnine, where Libertas is embedded in the stone, and Kibre fails to pull it out, Garro succeeds, and then Kibre is subsequently killed by Libertas. 
So this means Libertas is special.  The sword itself has meaning, unlike say Rubio’s sword, whose “specialness” is mostly in that it shows off Loken’s latent psyker abilities.  But Excalibur is a little too famous for Libertas.  Firstly, because Excalibur is a king’s sword--whether given by the Lady of the Lake, or pulled from the stone, the sword is given to a ruler.  And while I love Nathaniel Garro, he is not king.  And secondly, Excalibur just comes with a little too much baggage, if that makes sense.  
Luckily, Arthurian legend is full of nothing but swords, and this is where we find a perfect candidate, or as near to one as we are going to get.  
In Arthurian legend, there is a knight called Balin.  He is one of Arthur’s knights, but he is not a knight of the round table--that hadn’t been established yet.  Balin is a young knight in Arthur’s court when a maiden enters with a sword she says can only be drawn by the worthy.  Balin draws the sword, but when he refuses to give it back, the maiden curses it to “slay with the sword the best friend that ye have, and the man that ye most love in the world, and the sword shall be your destruction”.  This leads to a series of adventures (most of which end in tragedy--it is Arthurian legend after all), all of which culminate in him fighting his brother to the death. 
The catch is, he doesn’t know it’s his brother.  His brother, Balan, is currently serving as the Knight of the Fountain, which means he is wearing different armor and not carrying his usual device on his shield.  Balin also is not wearing his usual device, having just traded his shield for another.  So, unknowingly, the two brothers fight and mortally wound each other and thus Balin fulfills the curse by killing his brother with the sword--and, the sword becomes marked as a kin-slayer. 
After the fight, Merlin takes the sword, sets it in a new hilt, and places the blade in a marble plinth which he sets to float on the river.  “This is the cause, said Merlin: there shall never man handle this sword but the best knight of the world, and that shall be Sir Launcelot or else Galahad his son, and Launcelot with this sword shall slay the man that in the world he loved best, that shall be Sir Gawaine. All this he let write in the pommel of the sword.” 
Years later, the sword is spotted by Arthur and his knights before the feast of Pentecost.  The inscription on the blade reads “Never shall man take me hence, but only he by whose side I ought to hang, and he shall be the best knight of the world.”  Arthur asks Lancelot to draw it, but he refuses, saying that it is clearly not a sword meant for him, and also that “who that assayeth to take the sword and faileth of it, he shall receive a wound by that sword that he shall not be whole long after.”  
Okay, now, remember Kibre?  He tries to draw the sword from the stone, but fails, and shortly thereafter, he is killed by Libertas when drawn by Garro, it’s true wielder.  This fulfills the points of the curse--when an unworthy man tries to draw the sword, he will, after, be wounded by it.  Excalibur (or the sword in the stone), is attempted to be drawn by many hands.  And none of those people are killed by it.  (Okay, so maybe some are.  But only because they fought against Arthur, and not because of a curse).  
Arthur then asks Gawain to draw the sword, and Gawain attempts but fails, as does Percival.  Not long after that, Galahad, Lancelot’s son, is brought to court.  He proves his worth by sitting in Siege Perilous, which is the seat at the Round Table which could only be filled by the greatest Knight in the realm.  In some versions, when the seat is filled, it heralds the end of Arthur’s realm and the splintering of the Round Table. In Malory and Vulgate, while it’s not specifically stated as being prophecy, after Galahad sits, the Grail Quest is commenced, and the Round Table is never filled again, and after achieving the Grail, Arthur’s reign does begin its downfall and its descent into blood feud and civil war.  In a way, Galahad’s arrival is the beginning of the end for Camelot. 
Anyway, after he arrives in Camelot, Galahad goes down to the river and draws the sword (sometimes known as the The Sword of the Red Hilt).  Shortly thereafter, the quest for the Grail begins, and of course, Galahad is the only one to achieve the quest through his purity, piety, and strength of will and character.  
Back to the curse--if someone unworthy attempts to draw the sword, they will be killed by it.  BUT, also remember that time when Garro tried to murder an Imperial Fist and didn’t (or couldn’t)?  After starting on the Grail quest, Galahad comes upon two knights in unknown armor--and he himself is also disguised.  One of the knights is his father, whom he overthrows with a lance, but the other knight is Percival--who also tried to draw the sword.  With Percival, Galahad has to resort to using his sword, and he does wound Percival, thus fulfilling the prophecy again.  However, he doesn’t kill him because at the last minute the sword “swerves”, sparing Percival’s life.  “And then he drew his sword, and dressed him unto Sir Percivale, and smote him so on the helm, that it rove to the coif of steel; and had not the sword swerved Sir Percivale had been slain, and with the stroke he fell out of his saddle”.  Sound familiar?  Like perhaps the sword has something of a will, and will not slay a beloved brother in unknown guise?  Especially a brother who is doing the work of God--or the Emperor?  (Percival did almost achieve the Grail after all, and was with Galahad until the end).   
After his death, the sword goes to Lancelot, who eventually uses it to mortally wound Gawain--who originally tried to draw the sword first--after the sundering of the round table--again, fulfilling the curse.  Falkus Kibre anyone?  (Which, I know we are focusing on Garro/Galahad parallels, but the point is that it is not the wielder who fulfills the curse, but the sword itself. ) 
And not that Garro is Galahad (although they both start with G, so take that as you will).  But, Galahad does sit at Siege Perilous, which is a seat that can only be occupied by the most worthy knight.  Garro is a Battle-Captain, which is an old, symbolic rank, that no one else in the Legion occupies.  And Garro is there at the beginning of the end--some might say he is the cause of it, when he witnesses the attack on Isstvan and brings the news to Dorn--but he also fulfills the quest that no one else can by bringing the news early and giving Dorn some time to prepare.    
So this is my theory.  The blade of Libertas is the sword of the Red Hilt, Galahad’s sword.  The hilt is replaced many times--the blade is what matters.  It retains the original prophecy and curse--that it may only be drawn/wielded by the worthy, and that anyone who attempts to draw it will be killed.  It also retains an element of will or memory--it began as a kin-slayer unknowing, and thereafter, its will allows it to turn aside when brought to wield against unknown brothers fighting in the service of God (or the Emperor BBA).  It is wielded by a true and honorable knight, one who follows a path of truth, righteousness, and reconciliation, a true knight of the realm, who lives to serve his king and God (and also one who saves a not insignificant number of maidens…) 
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shardclan · 5 years
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A Moment in the Summerlands
High noon rises and finds Analemma in silence. Noon Point stands empty, the merchants warned away, and the residents taking shelter in their homes. The eternal scent of steaming milk from the Happy Harpy Creamery, the one constant through even the darkest depths of winter, is absent.
Rebis stares down at the figure of Malu, sedated and physically restrained to the infirmary bed. Dust is at he side. She has left him only infrequently since bringing him there. Both share the same grim expression. Both are awaiting the inevitable.
"Enamor," Lavi had explained. "The single most basic skill in the entirety of light magic. A brief skill of captivation, something to make your enemy forget to speak their spell. It goes ignored a lot. But here we are, with an astral who has effectively taken it to the outer limits. To enthrallment."
Even Ashlesha had been too afraid to stay. His words blurted and near-panicked, were still fresh in Rebis' mind: 
"I brought us here as soon as I realized Titi-tet was here, because Lavi loves you, and I promised I'd be better and I'd care more and think about these things, but I have thought about it and in this case warning you and then leaving and locking the door behind us is best thing for everyone. I'm sorry I can't find it, it's--disseminating itself in the light, to me it feels like Titi-tet is everywhere, and it's too dangerous for me to stay here because she WILL come to you. It's her nature, she has be observed, she has to be worshiped, and if I end up enthralled I'm liable to erase everything you have built here for fun and you have maybe two people in the entire territory who could even begin to stop me, so please, please forgive me and let me take Lavi back to Horizon's Landing. Let us LEAVE."
Rebis didn't see Ashlesha very often, but his behavior was quite different. When they met, he had been unaffected and only interested in Invigilavi. To think he would beg her to allow him anything still weighs on her. Something is...amiss with him. But maybe that is only because he is human.
Malu opens his eyes. He looks around, and does not see the astral that has enthralled him. He shivers, and struggles, and soon begins to cry. His sobs are a rough and unfamiliar croak.
Dust presses a cool hand to his forehead and offers soothing but unheeded whispers. Titi-tet took his will, but they already know that can be returned. 
The same is not certain for his voice.
In the main office of the Tahalil Infirmary, Alala watches gravely as her mother flips back to the first page of a report from Noon Point's practice for third time. The symptoms. The names. The proposal written with complete impartiality at the bottom.
Haematica taps her pragmatically short nails with increasing disquiet atop her desk. The report is stirring memories old and rancid as bad wine. With lethal sharpness, she recalls the small practice she had with Tungsten on the edge of the Starwood Spa. She recalls the sharp rise in disassociative episodes before it all went wrong.
She hadn't been able to figure out what it meant, or why it was happening at the time. She had even disclosed that information to Dantalion. But none of them had been able to figure out the source. None of them had been able to stop Opal, or even identify him as the source of the problem, until their homes were in ruin.
She looks up into Alala's eyes. They both know Haematica had her first children to give the clan more plaguelings in a time when she was the only one who knew what it meant to survive. But she has never shared the stories of what the Exodus was like for her.
She cannot articulate the gravity of carrying Copernicus' mother out of the badlands on her back because the bogsneak didn't want to be cremated. Of thanking Carnelian for letting her give up on Ismene to focus on those with better chances. Of working through the night until her fingers were raw and gnarled and still having to watch Tawny set fire to the bodies of three imperials while they all held their breath and prayed that an emperor wouldn't be born.
The last thing Haematica wants is for the past to repeat itself for Alala. She places their family's seal on the letter and rolls it back up, and again she meets her daughter's eyes.
"Alala." Her voice comes out quietly, but with a maternal edge that makes the younger skydancer sit just a bit straighter. "You're also anxious."
"So are you, mother." Alala gives a weak smile. "But I think you are worried about your children, and I am worried about mine."
Haematica frowns. Alala and Rubedo's nests have an unfortunate tendency to precede ill happenings, and this time they have one lone egg to protect. She stands and fiercely embraces her daughter, mother to mother, before pressing the scroll into her hands.
"I would like it if you and Rubedo would take the egg and go stay with Asura for awhile. Maybe take Eshe, she hasn't spent much time in Feldspar."
"I think that's a good idea...for Rubedo, Eshe, and our egg." Alala peers down at the scroll in her hands. Though it is only parchment, it weighs the world. "As the Tribune of Health, I can't leave. Not now."
Haematica nods. "I know. Whenever you need me, blood of my heart, I'm here. Go. You have a lot to do if you're going to quarantine House Perihelion."
Camellia stands alone under the arcade that connects the Foursong Nursery to House Perihelion. Shrouded in layers of black silk and chiffon, with a single golden egg cradled in her arms, she stands out among the marble like the shadow of death in paradise.
When Haematica asked her to retrieve the egg holding their next grandchild, she did not ask why. They were old, dear friends, and Camellia trusted there must have been a reason.
She can feel this reason in the air around her. House Perihelion does not outwardly look different. Glamours wandering through idyllic scenery without any sense of rush or bustle is normal. House Perihelion has no businesses; it is all residences and gardens and skylights into public halls where river waters had been diverted into bubbling streams and mirror-still meditation pools.
But she feels eyes on her. Innumerable irregular clicks of bitten nails and the vibrations of jittery legs resonate in her horns.
Generous spots her and walks to her with friendly, animated haste. "Camellia~!" he sings. "My necro-chic darling, it's been too long!"
While they are familiar, even friendly in the right atmospheres, he has never been one to be touchy with her. Yet he throws his arms around her as though they are the best of friends.  
"Big smile dear," he whispers urgently. "Something isn't right and I don't think we're safe."
Camellia immediately responds with her most winning smile and throws one arm around him. "You know how it is Generous, I am always at the spans and you are always at the spa. Do you have a moment to walk with me? I'm on a granny errand."
"Granny?" He looks to the egg, and for a moment his eyes light with genuine joy, before he remembers the situation they are in. "O-oh. Oh dear. Uhm, yes--yes, of course! Let's catch up!"
Generous keeps a protective hold of her shoulders the whole way out. It isn't until they are well beyond the borders that he and Camellia relax and begin to exchange information.
Titi-tet sits in the lap of luxury.
The game of hide and seek is over, and the residents of House Perihelion have all had their time to see her--living wonder that she is.  She doesn't really know all their names yet, and it doesn't really matter. She doesn't need to know any of them when Pistis knows all of them. Pistis knows the good ones, and the bad ones, which ones will help most with getting Malu back, and which ones Titi should avoid being seen by.
Titi would have loved to have the guardian named Prophecy. She was old, she knew cool magic, and could have definitely been of use. But Pistis warned that Prophecy was perhaps too accomplished at light magic. She would know if Titi was bending light, and would probably not be easy to make a friend of. On the other hand, Titi would never ever have bothered with Dalma beyond her personal fancy. He was just some boring tundra man, not a special or interesting thing about him by appearances. But apparently he was the Queen's Historian.
"A queen..." Titi murmurs with growing indignance. She kicks over a bowl of fruit. "Hmph, I can be a better queen than some dumb fae... What's an Arcanite even doing running a light clan?"
"She's lightborn," Miscedence clarifies simply. "She is called 'Rebis the Rose-Eyed' because she was poisoned with Arcane magic in a magical mishap. Rebis is many things, but she cannot be called a particularly healthy or hardy queen."
"How's she manage to stay alive? Arcane energy is so gross!"
"A crown of white celestine," Stellaria answers. "It keeps her from getting too sick by siphoning the Arcane energy from her body. It's fine for her, but white celestine is lethal to Arcanites."
"I want that!" Titi-tet said, practically bouncing on her paws. "Can I have it?"
Verbena smiles, and pats Titi's head. "I'm sure we can get Ranti to make you one."
"No! She'll make one that's not as nice because I'm not a princess; I want the queen's crown!"
Verbena, Stellaria and Miscidence look at each other, but they chave nothing to offer. They look to Dalma, who looks to Laleh and Primsy, and they both turn their gaze to Moyo.
"I am not my sister," he reminds with a smile. "But the little diamond deserves a diamond in turn. It is simple, who can retrieve the queen's crown? Surely, the Tribunes must have this access?"
Miscidence quickly shakes his head. "If we touched the crown while it rested on Rebis' head, Bestealcian would take our hands before we could take a step."
"But I want it!" Titi insists. "Phi can't you just magic it off or something?"
"My magic doesn't do that..."
"Well it's quite simple then," Pistis chimes. "If Titi wants the crown, all we have to do is take Titi to see the Tahalil knight. When we explain to her that Titi would like Rebis' crown, I'm sure she'll be able to make it work."
Titi shines brighter than ever. She throws herself into Pistis’ arms, showering her with affection, completely unaware of the envious gazes of her other friends. 
If asked, Titi would probably not even remember Malu’s name.
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yourdailykitsch · 6 years
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Taylor Kitsch Gets in Touch With His Inner David Koresh in ‘Waco’
Taylor Kitsch loves being Taylor Kitsch, and one of the charms of the 36-year-old actor is that if you meet him, you’ll love that Taylor Kitsch loves being Taylor Kitsch too. It was a crisp afternoon in late October, and Kitsch was sitting at a picnic table on the patio of the Mean-Eyed Cat, a Johnny Cash–themed bar on West Fifth Street in Austin. Kitsch was enjoying the sunshine. (“The weather’s been insane. It’s why you live in Texas, you know?”) Kitsch was enjoying his barbecued pork ribs. (“Eating a plate of meat is rare for me, but it’s fun right now.”) Kitsch was enjoying his sleek and very expensive-looking BMW GS Rallye motorcycle, which he’d parked in front of the bar’s entrance. (“That bike’s spanking new. It’s like my child. I love it.”)
Over the past few months, Kitsch had gone on a two-thousand-mile motorcycle trip through the mountain west, riding up Glacier National Park’s Going-to-the-Sun Road, winding along Idaho’s Salmon River. He’d visited Africa, “because I didn’t know what the **** was going on with all the poaching, and I wanted to know.” He’d traveled to San Diego to skydive with a bunch of Navy SEALs and his friend and mentor, the macho-man director Peter Berg. He’d gone to the “Harvey Can’t Mess With Texas” benefit show at the Frank Erwin Center in Austin—“a really great concert, like top five for me”—and afterward “tipped, like, 48 beers” with his friend country music star Ryan Bingham. Now Kitsch was preparing to leave the South Austin apartment where he has lived for the past decade and move into his dream house, a 6,500-square-foot bachelor pad on Lake Austin. His whole family—mom, brothers, sisters, nieces, nephews—was coming down from British Columbia for Christmas, and Kitsch couldn’t wait to show off his new place. “My mom’s going to lose her mind,” Kitsch said. “We grew up in a single-wide mobile home, then moved to a double-wide—she’ll lose it.” Kitsch was going “full Griswold” on yuletide decorations. He’d already purchased a ten-foot-tall blow-up polar bear to put on his front porch, and he and his oldest brother, Daman, were planning to install an elaborate light display before the rest of the family arrived. “It’ll hurt your eyes,” Kitsch said. “Literally, I hope we get fined by the HOA. That’s our goal, so we’ll do it.” Kitsch became famous for playing the Dillon Panthers’ bad-boy fullback Tim Riggins on the TV show Friday Night Lights, and over the course of five seasons, he made the character irresistible to watch—a teenage jumble of empathy, anger, machismo, and freewheeling fun. When the show ended, Kitsch appeared to be on a rocket path to superstardom, but he still hasn’t quite gotten there. Instead, his career since Friday Night Lights has been defined by soaring expectations, big-budget disappointments, and consistently good acting. When Kitsch and I met in Austin, he had just finished back-to-back press tours for two fall movies in which he plays supporting roles—the espionage thriller American Assassin and the wilderness-firefighter drama Only the Brave. But we were there to talk about Kitsch’s latest part—“the best work of my career, for sure”—which forced the actor to command the screen as never before and might just turn him into a bona fide Hollywood leading man. On January 24, the first episode of this project, Waco, a six-part miniseries about the 1993 standoff at the Branch Davidian compound in Central Texas, will premiere on the newly renamed Paramount Network (formerly Spike). The show stars Michael Shannon, John Leguizamo, Rory Culkin, and Melissa Benoist, but Kitsch has the plum role. Kitsch is playing David Koresh. The Waco siege has been the subject of a dozen or so documentaries that range from serious-minded to crackpot, but the new series is improbably the first dramatic re-creation of the entire event: 51 days of stalled negotiations and rising tensions that ended in an inferno that killed Koresh and 75 of his followers. The project’s genesis is unexpected: it was written, directed, and produced by brothers John and Drew Dowdle, whose handful of career credits includes low-budget horror films like Devil and Quarantine and the poorly reviewed Owen Wilson–Pierce Brosnan thriller No Escape. (Harvey Weinstein was an executive producer on the series, but his name has been removed from the credits.) The Dowdles may not have had much experience, but they had a plan: though the Waco siege has been a political and cultural lightning rod for the past 25 years, the brothers decided that their film wouldn’t dwell on the controversies. They wanted to tell the tragic, human, “no-bad-guys version of the story.” To do that, they knew that their single most important decision would be casting someone who could bring tragic humanity to Koresh. “We thought Koresh as a character is a deeply flawed individual, but there’s something a bit everyman about him, there’s something about him that people liked,” Drew Dowdle said. “The Taylor Kitsch version of David Koresh is inherently someone you would enjoy being around.” When Kitsch first heard about the part, he had only a hazy memory of news coverage of the Waco siege. But the more he read, the more fascinated he became. After meeting with the Dowdles, he reached out to his agent and said, “If they want me to do it, I’ll swing. I just need prep time.” Shooting was set to start in Santa Fe in April 2017, and as 2016 was coming to a close, Kitsch steeled himself for the next half year of preparation and production. “I went to Telluride for New Year’s and just blew it out—like, pizza, anything you could drink, ski, just go all out, don’t even worry about anything,” Kitsch said. On January 2, he arrived back in Austin, ready to begin his transformation. When Kitsch first came to Austin, in 2006, to film the pilot for Friday Night Lights, he was 24 years old, “green and raw” and mostly in the dark about acting and the entertainment business. “I genuinely didn’t know what a critic was,” he told me. Kitsch had grown up four hours west of Vancouver in the city of Kelowna, British Columbia, with his mother and two older brothers—his dad was mostly absent—and until he was 20, he dreamed about playing professional ice hockey. When back-to-back knee injuries ended his career, he moved to New York to try to make it as an actor, beginning a scrappy period in which he took classes, modeled, and, for a several-week stretch, spent his nights sleeping on the subway. Kitsch had almost missed his screen test for Friday Night Lights due to visa issues, and when he arrived, Berg, the series’ creator, first made him improvise in character for thirty minutes. Berg was suitably impressed. “What you did in there, make sure you do in this screen test with all the execs, and I think we’ll be just fine,” he told Kitsch. Friday Night Lights never had a big audience, but to the people who watched it week after week, it might as well have been War and Peace, except about high school football, and way more fun. Kitsch was the heartthrob, and even while the show was in the middle of its run, he was getting movie work, playing Gambit in an X-Men movie and the war photographer Kevin Carter in The Bang Bang Club. After Friday Night Lights ended, in 2011, Kitsch was primed to really make it big. Going into 2012, he had starring roles in two massively hyped movies with enormous budgets, John Carter and Battleship, both of which seemed like good bets to turn into franchises. “I had two ten-year contracts,” Kitsch said. “I would have been going Carter, Battleship, Carter, Battleship, and maybe an indie somewhere in there if I could.” But both films fizzled at the box office, and Kitsch’s career was forced to become more interesting. “I still have my journal from when I was in acting class in New York where it’s like, ‘All I want to do is indies and these characters and Sean Penn, Sean Penn, Sean Penn,’ ” Kitsch told me. He got his wish. He’s spent the past four years bringing a coiled-up intensity to men as varied as Navy SEAL Lieutenant Michael P. Murphy in Lone Survivor, Gay Men’s Health Crisis president Bruce Niles in HBO’s The Normal Heart, and patrolman Paul Woodrugh in the much-maligned second season of True Detective. Instead of conquering the world as an above-the-title star, Kitsch became our most finely featured character actor. When Kitsch arrived back in Austin after his Telluride bacchanal, he got down to studying. He read the memoirs of Branch Davidian survivor David Thibodeau, watched home videos of Koresh preaching, and made a stab at grasping the Branch Davidians’ end-times theology. “I literally had a beginner’s-Bible-study version of the Book of Revelation,” Kitsch said. Koresh was an enthusiastic rock guitarist and singer (followers wore “David Koresh: God Rocks” T-shirts), so Kitsch took guitar and voice lessons to pull off the on-screen performances. To physically transform into Koresh—who did not have movie-star muscles—Kitsch dropped thirty pounds, limiting himself to eight hundred calories a day and running around Lady Bird Lake while listening to Koresh’s sermons. As Kitsch dug into his research, he saw a clear path to playing the public persona of the Branch Davidian leader. “Before the siege, it’s his birthday every day,” Kitsch said. “It’s all about him. He’s got a go-cart track and a shooting range, and he’s a rock star—obviously the lead singer, obviously the lead guitarist.” In Waco, Koresh, as played by Kitsch, oozes charm and bravado and knows just how to manipulate the people around him. That’s not a stretch. The 33-year-old self-proclaimed “Lamb of God” was in the habit of waking up his followers in the middle of the night so that they could listen to him show off his savant-like recall of the Bible. He had about two dozen “spiritual wives,” including some who were already married to other Branch Davidians. After a claimed revelation from God, he commanded all men in the compound to be celibate, with the singular exception of David Koresh. (“I’ve assumed the burden of sex for us all, but not for my own kicks,” Kitsch as Koresh says in the show’s first episode.) He was good at a drawling, tough-guy act too: he drove a ’68 Camaro, loved his firearms, and famously sent a message to the FBI saying, “You come pointing guns in the direction of my wife and my kids, dammit, I’ll meet you at the door any time.” But Kitsch also had to reckon with Koresh’s darkness. Among Koresh’s wives were women whom he had married when they were as young as twelve years old, and even if you think the federal government acted disastrously at Waco, it’s hard to see Koresh as blameless in the deaths of the 86 people who perished in the initial raid and the final fire. “Taylor and I had long talks: ‘How do you play this guy in a human way?’ ” John Dowdle said. “That was a big part of the preparation, just trying to get through the ugly stuff so he’s not a monster from the get-go.” Kitsch seized on Koresh’s childhood to understand him, trying to find that part of the Branch Davidian leader that was still Vernon Wayne Howell, Koresh’s given name. During his research, Kitsch read about a phone call that Koresh placed to his mother during the ATF raid on the compound. Koresh had been shot twice, was bleeding profusely, and thought that he was minutes from the end. His mother didn’t pick up, but he left a message, telling her he was dying, asking her to “tell Grandma hello for me,” and saying, “I’ll see y’all in the skies.” “I broke reading it,” Kitsch said. “I was crushed. And after that, I was like, ‘I’m dialed in now and I’m ready to go.’ ” The call hadn’t been in the script, but Kitsch emailed the Dowdles and urged them to add it: “I’m like, ‘This will take fifteen, twenty minutes to shoot, guys, we’ve got to have this in there. This is not Koresh—this is Vernon calling his mom.’ ” The Dowdles agreed. When Kitsch arrived on set, cast and crew who were wondering what he’d bring to the role didn’t have to wait long. On the first day, the Dowdles had scheduled a scene in which Kitsch delivered a nine-page sermon on divine joy to his congregants. “It was pretty remarkable to see him get up and do that,” Paul Sparks, who plays Koresh’s deputy, Steve Schneider, told me. “I had heard some of Koresh on the internet, but to be in the room and listen to this person talk about these complex, different ways of looking at Scripture—it was like, ‘Right, that’s what it was like.’ ” Regardless of whether Waco is a hit, Kitsch has his next project lined up. He’s planning to go to a friend’s San Saba ranch in February to shoot a movie currently titled Pieces. It will be his debut as a screenwriter and feature-film director. Pieces tells the story of “three best friends who take an opportunity to change their lives.” In this case, that opportunity is to intercept a drug drop on the Texas-Mexico border, after which, as you might assume, “all hell breaks loose.” Kitsch wrote the script over the course of several motorcycle road trips, and he used the journeys not only to clear his mind for writing but as an opportunity to conduct research. “I remember being in Idaho and there’s this truck-stop hooker, basically, and I had a coffee with her,” Kitsch told me. “Don’t read into that, it was—literally, it was a coffee—and I just bombed questions at her, and she was just super cool. I put a character based on her in the movie.” Kitsch seems to have exactly the kind of fame that he wants. He can build a dream house and get a dream role, but he can drop by a truck stop in Idaho and bomb questions at people who don’t recognize him. He has famous friends and wild adventures, but every interaction he has doesn’t have to be about his celebrity. As we were sitting at Mean-Eyed Cat, Kitsch told me about turning down a role recently. It was a “little rom-com for five days’ work,” he said, and it was “stupid money.” He would have made more on that movie than he did on Waco, Only the Brave, and three Normal Hearts combined—“for five days’ work,” he said again. I asked him why he’d said no. He did the voice-over work for Ram Trucks commercials, after all. First he answered like an actor. “It’s just not where I want to be, it’s not the story I want to tell,” he said. Then he added a caveat that was pure Taylor Kitsch. “I mean, I’m for sale,” he said, a big smile breaking out over his face. “If you want to give me $20 million for something and my mom never has to work again and my family’s good for the rest of their life, yes, I’m going to do it—don’t care who you are. I come from nothing, so to give my mom that call would just be awesome. I mean, I wouldn’t do porn, but, you know?”
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paulbenedictblog · 4 years
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Fox news Power Rankings: Brady's Bucs higher than Pats - NFL.com
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Fox news
COVID-19 would possibly possibly well own humanity in hiding, but the Energy Rankings cower from nothing and no person.
We're relieve for the critical time in seven weeks, checking in on groups after the critical wave of free company. We'll traipse this relieve all any other time after the draft. Need more of an NFL fix for the interval of these unsure events? Test out the Spherical The NFL Podcast, hosted by yours the truth is, which is coming at you 5 days per week for the interval of this profoundly out of the ordinary time in human historical previous.
OK, relieve to my cave. Are trying now no longer to get too worked up regarding the keep your team sits on March 24. As fresh world events own made abundantly clear, life can trade in a whisk.
Be get and assign healthy, pals.
NOTE: Team slide below displays changes from the post-Significant Bowl LIV Energy Rankings.
Outdated imperfect: No. 1
The defending champions own been soundless in the critical wave of free company. Which is ... challenging. Kansas City slapped the franchise tag on Chris Jones when it couldn't get a prolonged-time frame deal completed with the standout defensive lineman. A vital defender used to be lost when Kendall Fuller returned to the Redskins. On the quite quite a bit of side of the ball, receiver Sammy Watkins is composed right here. The dilapidated wideout used to be idea to be a skill cap casualty, but he stays a Chiefs employee as of this writing. We'll gaze if it stays that manner.
Outdated imperfect: No. 2
Honest for general manager John Lynch and coach Kyle Shanahan for resisting temptation. Tom Brady has prolonged been linked to the team he rooted for as a boy, and NFL conditions aligned to the stage that Brady in a Niners uniform turned a very precise possibility. But sticking with Jimmy Garoppolo is the orderly prolonged-time frame transfer; it's miles that this humble Energy Ranker's conception that Jimmy G will get completely too great guff from the Football Cognoscenti. Procuring and selling away the out of the ordinary DeForest Buckner definitely stings, nonetheless it puts the defending NFC champions in space to enter subsequent month's draft with a pair of first-spherical picks. No longer a heinous articulate to be.
Outdated imperfect: No. 5
Packers followers had to wince after they saw megastar wideout DeAndre Hopkins get moved to the Cardinals for decrease than a first-spherical fetch. There had prolonged been rumblings about Hopkins and Bill O'Brien being in a now no longer-so-immense articulate earlier than the change. Did Packers GM Brian Gutekunst ever fetch up the cellular phone? Bewitch show cowl of this yet one other instance of why we need a GM App that connects all these guys. Correct imagine Hopkins and Davante Adams working routes for Aaron Rodgers! It ain't going down, and it appears to be like to be worship the important upgrades on the flexibility positions can own to sit down up for the draft. Unsolicited advice for Gutie: Call the Bengals and kick the tires on A.J. Green.
Outdated imperfect: No. 6
With a new deal for Ryan Tannehill and the franchise tag for Derrick Henry, the Titans will enter the 2020 campaign with the two gamers who guided them to the brink of an AFC title, alongside with a playoff conquest in Foxborough in January. (Rapid aside: Congrats to free agent Logan Ryan, who can continuously whine he intercepted Tom Brady's closing proceed as a Patriot and took it to the tip zone.) No longer your whole news used to be factual in the critical wave of free company, though: Stunning take care of Jack Conklin, a extinct prime-10 fetch who robotically blew open working lanes for Henry, is now in Cleveland on a rich free-agent deal. Coming off a monster 2019 workload and absent a key traipse blocker, it's gorgeous to surprise if a dip in manufacturing is coming for Henry.
Outdated imperfect: No. 7
In a few of the surprise twists of free company, Jadeveon Clowney stays on the open market at publishing. This is able to bode effectively for the Seahawks, who own a standing offer that will well discontinue up being basically the most efficient one Clowney receives. Groups that are traipse effectively keep of abode a trace on a player and follow it, resisting the temptation to overpay and restrict their alternate choices down the avenue. We'll gaze if GM John Schneider is rewarded for his prudence.
Outdated imperfect: No. 12
GM Howie Roseman made a giant splash with his change for cornerback Darius Abolish, a proven distinction-maker who addresses a giant keep of need in the Eagles' secondary and helps mitigate the loss of Malcolm Jenkins, who signed with the Saints. Roseman historical free company to land defensive take care of Javon Hargrave, a monster on the inner and a challenging complement to Fletcher Cox and Malik Jackson. The protection feels worship it's in a better articulate, but what regarding the quite quite a bit of side of the ball? Carson Wentz wants some explosive playmakers he can count on. Receiver Robby Anderson is composed obtainable and is colorful. Roseman also can select the draft to tackle a obvious need at that space.
Outdated imperfect: No. 16
All I must attain is discuss about Ben Roethlisberger's beard. Or now no longer it's challenging and mysterious and monstrous and strange and comforting ... all on the related time. It appears to be like to be worship Mammoth Ben has been in quarantine since closing March. The exit of Javon Hargrave to the Eagles hurts, but the Steelers acted rapidly to tackle the loss by buying and selling with the Ravens(!) for defensive lineman Chris Wormley. On offense, Roethlisberger will get a new crimson-zone weapon in tight discontinue Eric Ebron, who's one season eradicated from a 13-touchdown campaign with Andrew Good fortune and the Colts. Ebron is a fallacious player, but the extinct first-spherical fetch has a chance to position up numbers in Pittsburgh's two tight discontinue offense.
Outdated imperfect: No. 13
The Cowboys made the transfer they felt they'd to, biting down exhausting and making Amari Cooper a few of the very splendid-paid wide receivers in football. Cooper, Ezekiel Elliott and Dak Prescott would possibly possibly comprise basically the most efficient keep of abode of "triplets" in the NFL, but Dallas can own a lot of cash invested in honest three gamers (assuming the franchise-tagged Dak in the end will get that prolonged-time frame deal). To invent this work, Dallas can own to be orderly and effective in the 2nd and third wave of free company, then the draft. Used All-Authentic Gerald McCoy used to be a solid signing on the inner line of defense, but gamers out the door consist of cornerback Byron Jones, proceed rusher Robert Quinn, receiver Randall Cobb, tight discontinue Jason Witten and defensive take care of Maliek Collins. Oh, and Authentic Bowl center Travis Frederick honest retired. Jerrah and Co. own work to realize.
Outdated imperfect: No. 19
Tom Brady is the quarterback of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Or now no longer it's miles the splendid free-agent transfer in the historical previous of the franchise, and it instantly makes the Bucs one of basically the most compelling groups in the NFL. It used to be the uncommon perfect transfer in free company: Brady will get a two-one year deal for now no longer extreme money (two years and $50 million, with $9 million in incentives) to raise his unmatched trip and management to town. It also frees the Bucs from the purgatory that comes with Jameis Winston as your starting quarterback. Tampa Bay tried to invent it work with the extinct No. 1 general fetch, nonetheless it honest never came about. Brady will enter Week 1 at 43 years extinct, but he is rarely the truth is been this motivated, and he'll own star gamers to throw the ball to. This would possibly possibly own to be enjoyable.
Outdated imperfect: No. 20
Peter King wrote this week that Tom Brady had ardour in signing with the Colts, so assign shut into consideration it vital that Indy never made a contract offer to the G.O.A.T. The team as a change invested its resources in Philip Rivers, giving the longtime Chargers star a one-one year, $25 million deal that instantly upgrades the quarterback space whereas giving Frank Reich and Chris Ballard wiggle room to devise for the prolonged traipse on the distance. Brian Hoyer signed with Original England over the weekend after being launched by the Colts, an indication that Jacoby Brissett will sprint relieve into his more pure space as a No. 2 man. The Colts own as factual a chance as anybody to whine the AFC South in 2020.
Outdated imperfect: No. 11
Procuring and selling a 26-one year-extinct star receiver coming off relieve-to-relieve 1,000-yard seasons is rarely the truth is easy, but the Vikings did what they'd to realize with Stefon Diggs. It appeared worship Diggs used to be never going to be gratified in Minnesota, and the resolution to elongate quarterback Kirk Cousins the truth is sealed Diggs' destiny in red. So that they flipped the playmaker to the Funds for four draft picks, alongside with a first-rounder. That's better than acceptable compensation for an out of the ordinary wideout who's composed presumably a hasten or two in the relieve of the gorgeous elites at his space. The receive-now Vikings own 12 draft picks subsequent month, alongside with two in the critical spherical at Nos. 22 and 25 general. A Diggs change and a cornerback (or three) are on the menu.
Outdated imperfect: No. 9
Or now no longer it's a change that will well proceed down as a few of the splendid heists ever: DeAndre Hopkins and a fourth-spherical fetch to the Cardinals for David Johnson, a 2nd-rounder and a fourth-rounder. Hopkins, arguably basically the most efficient wideout in the NFL, used to be despatched packing for 50 cents on the greenback in a seismic change that puts coach/GM Bill O'Brien instantly below the spotlight (and most likely on the sizzling seat) worship never earlier than. Hopkins historical social media to determine out to downplay reviews of a fractured relationship with his head coach, and O'Brien can fresh the change to his boss as a transfer that provides future cap reduction, imports a high quality player in Johnson and delivers welcome draft capital. But c'mon. On paper, the Texans obtained loads worse. You furthermore mght can splendid surprise what Deshaun Watson is thinking, especially now that he's in Cryptic Tweet Mode.
Outdated imperfect: No. 8
Or now no longer it's almost now no longer skill to imagine a scenario all over which Tom Brady is now no longer the quarterback of the Original England Patriots. And yet, right here ... we ... are. The G.O.A.T. now grazes in Tampa, and the Patriots did no longer invent a transfer to add a quarterback to their roster till this previous weekend, after they welcomed Brian Hoyer relieve for a third stint with the team. Is it doubtless Bill Belichick would possibly possibly enter camp with a quarterback room headlined by Jarrett Stidham, a 2019 fourth-spherical fetch with four occupation proceed makes an are attempting, and Hoyer, a occupation backup coming into his age-35 season? Seems now presumably no longer, but Original England so far has passed on the quite quite a bit of vital QBs on the open market. The Brady-Belichick divorce changes every thing: at 1 Patriot Position, in the AFC East and all around the overall NFL.
Outdated imperfect: No. 14
Commerce happens hasty in the NFL: The Rams own rapidly long gone from an group on the rise to a team in transition. Working relieve Todd Gurley, the extinct face of the franchise and the man who once appeared destined to open up Sofi Stadium because the constructing's greatest star, used to be launched and rapidly signed by the Falcons. With reference to half of the team's starting protection from 2019 can own to get changed. Groups are calling about receiver Brandin Cooks. There are composed constructing block pieces in articulate ( Jared Goff, Aaron Donald and Jalen Ramsey originate a rattling solid basis), but the Significant Bowl window has closed for the time being. Can Sean McVay and Les Snead re-open it?
Outdated imperfect: No. 15
Solid work by the Falcons in the critical week of the league one year. The team imported two Rams stars in working relieve Todd Gurley and proceed rusher Dante Fowler Jr., then changed tight discontinue Austin Hooper (off to Cleveland on a giant-money deal) by buying and selling for extinct Ravens first-spherical fetch Hayden Hurst, a younger player with legit upside. Fowler is an give a select to over Vic Beasley, who signed with the Titans, nonetheless it's Gurley who exists because the team's immense curiosity. The chronic knee subject can't be now no longer famend, but is it doubtless the Rams' regression alongside their offensive line used to be lost sight of as an reason in the relieve of Gurley's pedestrian play in 2019? We'll gather out in September. (Confidently.)
Outdated imperfect: No. 23
The Browns proceed to realize effectively this time of one year. Cleveland acted hasty because the negotiation window opened, touchdown tight discontinue Austin Hooper and pretty take care of Jack Conklin, the two most efficient gamers on the market at their respective positions. The Conklin transfer used to be especially major, because the Browns must attain every thing of their vitality to dapper up the pocket for Baker Mayfield in his pivotal third season. If Cleveland can land a legit left take care of with the 10th general fetch, this would possibly possibly well own turned a team weak point into a strength. One attention-grabbing show cowl: Case Keenum obtained $10 million in assured money to be Mayfield's backup. That's loads. Hmmmm ...
Outdated imperfect: No. 21
The Jets own drafted as poorly as anybody in the league over the closing decade, and too generally, the team has tried to invent up for that shortcoming with excessive-profile free-agent signings that hardly determine. GM Joe Douglas used to be brought in to trade how the team does industry, and we now own considered that by the critical wave of free company. Douglas passed on making a giant splash in prefer of a soundless rebuild of the offensive line. The Jets added three new starters (LT George Fant, C Connor McGovern, OG Greg Van Roten) on good deals, and would possibly possibly add a fourth new starter with the No. 11 fetch in the draft. Huge receiver Robby Anderson, in the period in-between, stays on the open market. Could per chance presumably Anderson discontinue up relieve with the Jets on a demonstrate-it deal? It can well even be a most efficient-case scenario for Original York.
Outdated imperfect: No. 17
The Bears did what all and sundry anticipated, bringing in a dilapidated name model to compete with Mitch Trubisky. That dilapidated is Gash Foles, the extinct Significant Bowl MVP who endured a nightmarish (but very profitable) one-season stint with the Jaguars. Trubisky will doubtless enter practicing camp because the presumed starter, but retaining off Foles would possibly be great more refined than preserving off Traipse Daniel used to be a one year prior to now. Attach aside it this kind: There is a very factual chance Foles ends up starting more video games subsequent one year than the extinct first-spherical fetch hypothetically sooner than him on the depth chart. The Robert Quinn signing used to be ... challenging. The transfer to raise in 33-one year-extinct Jimmy Graham, who did subsequent to nothing with Aaron Rodgers throwing him spirals, makes you surprise if GM Ryan Dawdle will ever determine the tight discontinue space.
Outdated imperfect: No. 26
If the Cardinals weren't working towards social distancing, absolutely there would own been a event in Glendale after GM Steve Keim landed wide receiver DeAndre Hopkins. It used to be the uncommon perfect change, a transfer that supplied 2nd-one year QB Kyle Murray a legit No. 1 wide receiver with out mortgaging the prolonged traipse by surrendering top fee draft picks. Throw in the indisputable fact that Arizona managed to unload the redundant David Johnson and his bloated contract, and this would possibly possibly proceed down because the splendid change heist since Mike Ditka gave up his whole draft class for Ricky Williams. (That the truth is came about, kids.) The Cardinals improved their protection, as effectively, with the additions of linebacker Devon Kennard and defensive take care of Jordan Phillips. The Cardinals also can very effectively be a player in the NFC West, worship, gorgeous now.
Outdated imperfect: No. 24
You knew a spending spree used to be coming in Miami, and that is the reason precisely what came about. The Dolphins, armed with more cap apartment than any team in the league, handed out a bunch of huge money contracts in the critical week of the league one year to lock up cornerback Byron Jones, linebacker Kyle Van Noy, defensive discontinue Shaq Lawson and offensive take care of Ereck Vegetation on deals that all equaled on the least three years and $30 million. Jones is now the very splendid-paid cornerback in the NFL. Jordan Howard used to be brought aboard to again select the NFL's worst speeding assault in 2019. The subsequent half is the splendid, though: Can the Dolphins land their quarterback of the prolonged traipse in the draft? Within the event that they fetch gorgeous, they're a player in the wide-open AFC East. Really!
Outdated imperfect: No. 27
The Giants own a fresh open in an Eli-free world, and their work in free company so far signifies Mammoth Blue is now taking a more methodical manner to team constructing. GM Dave Gettleman made a few splashes, alongside with cornerback James Bradberry and heart linebacker Blake Martinez on mighty deals, and the resolution to franchise Leonard Williams came with a hefty trace trace ($16.1 million). However the whispers connecting the Giants to Jadeveon Clowney proved to be counterfeit, and the team did no longer invent a giant splurge to present a select to the offensive line that many predicted. Catch now no longer be shocked if Gettleman uses the Giants' first draft fetch (No. 4 general) to tackle the team's offensive line or proceed-traipse wants.
Outdated imperfect: No. 31
The Bengals the truth is spent some money in free company! Maintain been they sending a message to Joe Burrow that they're certainly a team enthralling and willing to compete? Potentially now no longer, nonetheless it's enjoyable to join dots. The Bengals historical the franchise tag to assign onto receiver A.J. Green, then lifted the NFL's worst protection with huge-money deals for defensive take care of D.J. Reader and cornerback Trae Waynes. All told, the Bengals spent $95 million on the two veterans. In step with ESPN Stats & Files learn, Cincy had now no longer committed better than $26 million to a single free agent since 2015. With Burrow ready in the wings, the Bengals would possibly be willing to rise. For precise.
Outdated imperfect: No. 30
Ron Rivera ended up importing the quarterback from Charlotte we all anticipated ... Kyle Allen. This is able to now no longer own been the splash transfer some anticipated in Washington, nonetheless it's miles colorful to present Dwayne Haskins one other one year to fabricate, and Allen is a solid backup kind who already knows new coordinator Scott Turner's offense. Top doubtless-case scenario right here is Allen helps Haskins absorb a new offense, and Haskins' sport elevates consequently. Kendall Fuller used to be a solid add to the secondary. On the downside, the Trent Williams stalemate is coming into into the substandard direction. The left take care of's agent launched an announcement on Tuesday that opened with the next plea: "The connection between the Redskins and Trent Williams has reached a level the keep it's in basically the most efficient ardour that the Redskins change or commence him."
Outdated imperfect: No. 28
The Jags are starting over. Cornerback A.J. Bouye, defensive lineman Calais Campbell and quarterback Gash Foles own been all moved in trades after closing one year's grim 6-10 perform. Dart rusher Yannick Ngakoue is a staunch tag-and-change candidate. Yes, a childhood slide is on in Jacksonville, and Gardner Minshew appears to be like to be worship he'll get the possibility to handbook the manner. A whole lot of vital dilapidated QB alternate choices stay on the market, but the Jaguars would possibly be wise to present Minshew a corpulent season to show cowl what he can attain. This also can very effectively be a developmental one year for the franchise; why put a 30-one thing QB below center? Jacksonville did hand LB Joe Schobert a hefty deal and signed dilapidated cornerback Darqueze Dennard, but right here's a team with its survey on the next day.
Be conscious Dan Hanzus on Twitter @DanHanzus.
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ledenews · 4 years
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The Human Side of No Sports
"Day 4 Without Sports: Looked over across the couch and noticed a strange woman sitting there. Apparently we’re related, along with these two kids running around. Strange. They seem nice though." It’s a variant of a constantly updated meme circulating throughout social media about what sports fans have been doing since athletic competitions from the professional level down to youth sports came to a grinding halt as the battle to contain the coronavirus wages across the country. Sure, they are funny, and for some, might be downright cathartic. But there’s a human element to the canceling of sports, and it’s not just the professional athletes it’s affecting. After all, nearly all of them will be back for another season, whenever sports resume. For high school and college amateur athletes, though, that next chance may never come. Some who are eagerly awaiting the prospect of starting back up spring sports are hoping against hope. Others had their championship dreams dashed right as they were about to reach them. LEDENews wanted to put a human face to this decision and asked four area athletes, three high school seniors and one collegiate athlete, just how they felt when they had a dream, a goal they’d worked for their entire careers suddenly ripped away.
She Was Right There
Danielle Stewart spent her first two collegiate seasons at Notre Dame College in Ohio. The first two seasons, she won the Mountain East Conference’s pole vault title. But following her sophomore season, NDC opted to drop its track program, necessitating a change of scenery for the Strongsville, Ohio native. She found Wheeling University, then still known as Wheeling Jesuit, and made the transfer. While she came up short in the conference meet her junior year, finishing second, Stewart returned atop the podium her senior season, setting multiple PR marks along the way. “It was definitely a change being this far from Strongsville, but I love it,” Stewart said. “It was the best move I could have ever made. I’ve PR’d by over a foot since coming here and I’ve got to experience so many new things. I love the school, my teammates and my coaches.” Another on that list is qualifying for the NCAA Division II Track & Field Indoor Championship Meet. Stewart’s mark of 3.93, her PR to date, at a meet in Youngstown earned her the qualifying mark. She equaled that mark later in capturing the MEC title. Stewart was pumped when she learned of her automatic qualification. After all, she and another athlete each finished with the same height, 20th best, last season. They took her and left Stewart at home.  “I had to hit a big height this year to guarantee my spot,” Stewart said. “Hitting 3.93 felt like a dream. Honestly, I was in shock. I could not stop smiling and hugging my teammates and coaches. Honestly, it was one of the best moments of my life.”
In Shock
One of the best moments that sadly, gave one to one of the worst. Stewart and head coach Patrick Stanton had been in Alabama two days when the decision was handed down. She had a good two days of practice and was ready to take on her competitors. “I honestly had just had the best vault practice of my life,” Stewart said. “The head coach and I were out to lunch when he got the email. I did not believe him at first. I had to call my pole vault coach and tell him not to get on the plane and fly down. I just sat there in shock but when my vault coach called, I bawled. After what happened last indoor season, I was so ready to prove myself.” Stewart had thought of the possibilities prior to the announcement, but already being there, she figured the meet would go on, just without spectators. Her parents were already told not to travel down.  She definitely has some unfinished business and goals to achieve. Fortunately, the NCAA has given spring sports athletes another season of eligibility. So, if the credits and financials work out, Stewart plans to be back. “I am happy I qualified for nationals, but I do not feel like I finished my goal of becoming an All-American,” Stewart said. “And my goal ever since I started vaulting was to clear four meters and so that is another reason I feel I am not finished. “We were allowed to take practice jumps at the facility (in Alabama) and I cleared a 4-meter bungee.”
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Kiersten Kesselring (15) is Fort Frye's lone senior and is a four-year starter at center.
Lone Senior’s Last Chance
Getting to the final four in Ohio is a monumentally difficult task. The Fort Frye girls program, in all its storied history, had only done it once. That’s until this season, when the Cadets knocked off No. 2 Portsmouth Notre Dame in a Division IV regional final, 49-31, to advance to Columbus.  Always in the hunt, Fort Frye fell to Shadyside last season in the district finals as it was the Lady Tigers who advanced to the Final Four. The previous two seasons, the Cadets’ demise came in the district semifinal round. But not this season. Something about this season’s team clicked early. “The entire year felt like this was our year as a team” said Kiersten Kesselring, a four-year starter at center and the team’s lone senior. “Even from the beginning, this year felt different … We just play so well and strong together and are extremely close.” Kesselring would know. She’d been around for the previous years’ narrow losses in 2019 and 18, and the blowout loss to Hiland her freshman season. So that family feel she picked up early this fall during preseason camp gave her the feeling like this could be there year. “Our team is definitely a family,” Kesselring said. “We are all close and care about one another. None of us are selfish and we can all score.”
Should Have
The stats attest to that statement. Fort Frye had multiple players average double figures, but not even leading scorer Hannah Archer averaged better than 15. You won’t find any Cadets on the all-Ohio first or second team. But you will find them at St. John Arena. Or, that is to say, you would have … should have. “It was definitely a shock and no one was prepared for it,” Kesselring admitted when she and her teammates learned the game would be postponed. “We are still shook up about it and not knowing if we’ll ever get to play together again or not is hard. I’m devastated by the fact I could’ve played my last game as a Lady Cadet and didn’t even know it.” The OHSAA has a press conference scheduled for noon Thursday when the fate of the Cadets, and many teams like them in basketball and wrestling across Ohio, will likely be decided. Given the continued efforts to quarantine the public from one another in effort to slow the spread of COVID-19, the upcoming presser is ominous.  “This was our year to make history and have the opportunity right in front of us to make the finals; to do it for the community, our families and coaches,” Kesselring said. “These games meant so much to us and it’s a heartbreaking feeling to have them just taken away. My heart goes out to all the other teams and athletes going through the same feelings we are right now.”
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Alex Vargo is pictured with head coach Michael Jebbia, receiving a plaque for breaking the school record for most points in a game with 53.
Ending a Lengthy Drought
Wheeling Park is one of the more tradition-rich boys’ basketball programs in the Ohio Valley, and in West Virginia with multiple state championships. Yet the school had hit a bit of a snag in state tournament appearances on the boys’ side, not having been to Charleston since the 20-plus win season of 2011-2012. That changed this season when senior all-state Alex Vargo canned a mid-range stepback in the waning seconds against Morgantown, followed by a steal from junior D.J. Saunders to seal the game and end the drought. Or at least it should have. “Winning the regional game was definitely the best moment in my four years as a Patriot,” Vargo said. “I’ve never had the chance to play in the state tournament so winning regionals was and always has been my main goal. Finally accomplishing that was the best feeling ever.” Like many others across the state, that feeling quickly changed. First the NBA announced the suspension of its regular season, followed by the NCAA opting for fan-less tournament games and ultimately a cancellation of March Madness.
Canceled
“I found out an hour before practice,” Vargo recalled. “I saw it on Twitter and then everyone starting sending me the news through text. When the NBA and NCAA started canceling their games and tournaments, I figured ours would be canceled too. I was angry when I first found out. My teammates and I’s hard work was taken away.” Vargo noted that Morgantown had been a thorn in the Patriots’ side throughout his career, including a humbling defeat at the Palace on the Hill to those same Mohigans prior to the start of the sectional tournament. But Vargo and his teammates ultimately got the job done when it mattered.  “Being on the other side of that felt great,” Vargo said of the win. “I was shocked/angry/sad the whole day after finding out because I know this year’s team is special and could’ve made some serious noise down at the tournament. But I still have hope and I’m going to continue to work hard every day as if it’s being played next week.”
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St. Clairsville's Derek Witsberger is shown atop the podium at the Jimmy Wood Invitational earlier this season.
Finally His Time
St. Clairsville Derek Witzberger is a fun loving guy, but when he’s on the field or on the mat, he’s all business. Once football season turned to wrestling, Witsberger’s singular focus was finally getting over the hump and qualifying for the state meet. He’d came close in the past, placing fifth as a junior at 195. He qualified but failed to place as a sophomore. Wisberger narrowly missed finishing as District Champion, losing a tough 5-4 decision to River View’s Dalton Cunningham in the semifinals. Cunningham went on to win by technical fall in the finals. Witsberger, meanwhile, secured his third-place finish with a pin. Now was his time. Finally. “I was more prepared and hungry than excited,”Witsberger said of qualifying for the state meet. “I put my whole heart into one goal and when it became postponed, it broke my heart. We were almost ready to lead and head to Columbus when I found out.”
It Came True
Witsberger is the team captain and is the lone St. Clairsville senior to qualify for states. His win total is fourth in the school’s history. He placed at OVAC’s twice, finishing runner-up this season and fourth as a junior. He was ready to go for that state medal. He admitted he began to worry about it being canceled as news kept rolling but still, it took a bit to sink in. “When everything began getting canceled and postponed, I started to worry but it never resonated with me until it actually became true,” Witsberger said. “It’s still too early because I feel like I have some unfinished business left to prove.” While Witsberger’s wrestling days may be over, depending on Thursday’s announcement, his athletic career is not. He earlier signed on to continue his football career at Marietta College in the Ohio Athletic Conference, joining a large incoming recruiting class of some of the OVAC’s best. But is he holding out hope for Thursday? “It’s already been done and in three weeks, everyone will either be way overweight or completely out of wrestling shape,” Witsberger lamented. “It’s very difficult to get into wrestling shape and compete at a high level.” Read the full article
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hudsonespie · 4 years
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COVID-19 and the Straining U.S. Merchant Marine
[By Dr. Salvatore R. Mercogliano]
On July 29, 2020, the heads of three maritime unions – Marshall Ainley of the Marine Engineers’ Beneficial Association, Don Marcus from the International Organization of Masters, Mate & Pilots, and Michael Sacco, the long-time President of Seafarers International Union – jointly penned a letter to Rear Admiral Michael A. Wettlaufer, the Commander of the U.S. Navy’s Military Sealift Command. In their one-page letter, they were blunt and to the point: “We are writing to you today to communicate our ongoing and increasingly grave concerns regarding the mental health and well-being of MSC’s CIVMARS [civilian mariners].”
They highlighted three specific issue. First, the March 21, 2020 “Gangway Up” order that restricted merchant mariners to their ships due to the COVID-19 outbreak. While the act was prudent and ensured the readiness of the vessels to respond to missions, it was done with no warning and more importantly, did not apply to naval personnel assigned to the vessels or contractors. Therefore, the quarantine intended to be in place on board ship was broken daily, while crewmembers who reported on board for work that morning found themselves trapped and threatened with termination if they left the vessel, while others moved freely on and off the ship. This became apparent with a breakout on board USNS Leroy Grumman undergoing a yard availability in Boston.
The second issue involved the recent tragedy on board USNS Amelia Earhart. On July 22, third officer Jonathon J. Morris of San Mateo, CA fatally shot himself on board. The letter from the three union heads noted, “the ongoing and selective ‘Gangways Up’ restriction may have, in some part, contributed to the unnecessary and senseless act.”’ While there is no evidence to indicate this, my personal communications with crewmembers on board Amelia Earhart indicate that the event has not triggered any change in the operation of the vessel. While counselors were sent to the ship, its operations continue with no safety stand down, and not even a chaplain accompanied the vessel as it sailed to perform services for the fleet with some of the mariners not setting foot on ground for almost a half a year, except to remove the body of their shipmate. Mariners remained restricted to the ship in port, while active duty Navy personnel left the vessel.
The final issue is the delay in reliefs for crews, up to 90 days late in some cases. Many mariners have not been home since the COVID-19 outbreak hit the United States or were permitted ashore in that time period. MSC’s leave policy for its mariners is well outside the norms of common maritime industry practice because mariners hired directly by MSC must conform to government employment rules, even though they operate in an environment completely different than the normal federal employee. Mariners earn a set number of hours of leave every two weeks.  The only addition is 14 days of annual shore leave. For new employees to MSC, this means 10 months onboard ship (tours are usually limited to four months, but delays are typical) and only two on land in a year.
While shore-side government workers enjoy flex work schedules, weekends at home, get holidays off, enjoy the occasional snow day, and can schedule vacations well in advance, MSC mariners are toiling at least eight hours a day, seven days a week for a minimum of four months at a time when wages are comparable to those ashore. They miss weekends, holidays, birthdays, anniversaries, events with children, and now they face prolonged wait for relief. Unlike Navy sailors, MSC mariners do not rotate to shore billets or have many of the opportunities for education and training afforded to naval personnel. Even worse, those waiting to get out to ships have used all their leave and are now ashore, considered absent without leave, and not being paid as they await a call to report back to work for a potential assignment out to the fleet.
This is the situation facing 5,383 MSC mariners who crew 20 percent of the 301 ships in the U.S. Navy.  Let that number sink in for a moment: one out of every five ships in the battle force of the U.S. Navy is crewed by merchant mariners and not U.S. Navy sailors. All 29 of the auxiliary supply ships, the dozen fast transport ships, and the fleet tugs and salvage ships are all operated and commanded by merchant mariners. Some ships, such as the submarine tenders, command ships, and expeditionary support bases, while commanded by a naval officer, have merchant mariners who operate the deck, engine, and steward departments on board. This does not include the fleet of contract operated vessels in the afloat prepositioning force, sonar surveillance, ocean survey or sealift vessels with another 1,400 contract merchant mariners.
Yet these recent issues facing the Merchant Marine are not simply the product of COVID or other recent events. They are simply yet another expression of the longstanding problems of status the Merchant Marine has faced within the U.S. Navy.
Inequality in the Merchant Marine
Throughout the U.S. Navy, specialized communities are commanded by one of their own – submariners command submarines, aviators command squadrons and carriers, SEALs command special operations, and so forth. Yet, when it comes to merchant mariners, they fall under the command of serving U.S. naval officers with little to no experience with merchant mariners.
Recently, MSC had two commanders – Mark Buzby and T. K. Shannon who graduated from merchant marine academies and were at least familiar with the U.S. merchant marine. The last two MSC commanders – Dee Mewbourne and Michael Wettlaufer – are both aviators. In the past, non-surface warfare commanders have done exceedingly well, particularly two submariners – Glynn Donaho and Lawson Ramage. They oversaw MSC’s forerunner – Military Sea Transportation Service (MSTS) – during the Vietnam era, when the service handled mainly passengers, cargo, and fuel and they were experts in disrupting those services due to their experience with sinking the Japanese merchant marine in the Second World War.
Today, MSC is integrated into the fleet structure and many of its previous sealift missions are shared with the Army’s Surface Deployment and Distribution Command and the United States Transportation Command. With the end of naval manning of auxiliaries in 2010, all of them are operated by MSC mariners, with some hybrid crews. No longer do MSC tankers and supply ships shuttle up to U.S. Navy auxiliaries attached to battle groups, but mariner-crewed oilers and combat supply ships are both shuttle and station ships for the U.S. Navy. Yet these ships lack two critical assets from their grey hull counterparts.
First, they have no means of defense at all. MSC ships, except for small arms, are completely unarmed. Ships that are intended to provide the fuel, ammunition, and vital supplies to keep an entire carrier strike group or Marine amphibious assault task force at sea lack even point-defense weapons. In the world wars, the U.S. Navy assigned armed guard detachments to merchant vessels to defend the ships. While Kaiser-class oilers have the mounts for close-in weapons systems (CIWS), they lack the weapons. If an enemy nation wanted to eliminate the threat of the U.S. Navy, why would it go head-to-head with a Nimitz-class carrier when all it could to do is wait, shadow, and sink unarmed supply ships and then wait for the task force to run out of gas?
Additionally, those mariners who now find themselves not dead or killed in the initial attack, but afloat in a life raft, face another challenge – what is their status? Not whether they are dead or alive, but are they considered veterans? They face on a common day the same challenges and threats as that of U.S. Navy sailors, but they are not considered veterans. Even those mariners that experienced the Second World War had to wait over 40 years, until 1988, to get their service acknowledged as veteran through a lawsuit.
Some argue that merchant mariners are contractors and therefore do not deserve this. But how many contractors command assets in the Unified Command Structure of the military? No contractor commands a squadron in the Air Force, or a battalion in the Army or Marines, yet one-fifth of the Navy’s ships have a merchant mariner in command. The Navy gets all the benefits of a sailor without giving the mariner those same benefits. That is a deal, but for the Navy.
Some say the easiest solution is to replace mariners on the 60-plus ships with U.S. Navy sailors, but it has been tried before. This unique arrangement came into being at the founding of the Navy. The first ships brought into the Navy were merchant ships along the dock in Philadelphia. The two founding fathers of the Navy – John Paul Jones and John Barry – learned their trade as master mariners. In the Revolutionary War and War of 1812, private men of war (privateers) vastly outnumbered public men of war. In the Civil War, mariners kept the Union army supplied along the coasts and rivers. At the end of the Spanish-American War, with a global empire, the Navy needed to prioritize its personnel and decided to hire a civilian crew to man USS Alexander, a collier. By 1917, almost all the Navy fuel ships were civilian manned by elements of the Naval Auxiliary Service. With the outbreak of war, and concerns of foreign elements in some of the crews, and a massive increase in the size of the Navy personnel, the crews of the NAS were militarized, and later the commercial passenger ships in the Transport Force. The Navy resisted civilian crewing, and in 1942 President Roosevelt placed the building, crewing, and operating of the commercial merchant marine in the hands of one person – Emory S. Land.
After the successes of the Second World War, the use of civilian-crewed merchant ships was cemented with the creation of the Military Sea Transportation Service (MSTS). It was expanded in 1972 when the first underway replenishment oiler, Taluga, was transferred to civilian control. While some in the Navy may advocate for removing the civilian crews from the MSC ships today, the Navy already lacks the necessary personnel for its current assets, let alone an additional 60 ships, or the expertise in handling such assets.
Creating Paths to Command
This comes to the final point – how to address the issues raised by the heads of the unions based on the current situation facing the Military Sealift Command. The solution comes from the history of MSC’s forerunner, MSTS, and its counterpart across the seas, the Royal Fleet Auxiliary (RFA) of Great Britain. Within MSC’s command structure are five Senior Executives – Legal Counsel, Director of Total Force Management, Director of Ship Management, Director of Maritime Operations, and Executive Director. They are all stellar and outstanding qualified people, and MSC is fortunate to have them. I know many of them and have worked with some of them in the past. They have impressive biographies and two of them graduated from merchant marine academies.
Yet nowhere in the chain of command for MSC is a Master or Chief Engineer from the fleet. They serve as Port Captains and Engineers and advise area commands, but there is no career path from the deckplate to the headquarters. That is a fundamental flaw in the organization and leads to the disconnect currently besetting the fleet.
In comparison, the Royal Fleet Auxiliary is commanded by Commodore Duncan Lamb. He has been in the RFA for 38 years and commanded many vessels in the fleet. His announced successor, Capt. David Eagles, has served with the RFA for more than 30 years. Unlike MSC, the RFA integrates their personnel into the command structure of the Royal Navy and therefore they have the opportunity for billets ashore and work within the shore base Navy.
What works for the Royal Navy may not work for the U.S. Navy, such as how Prince Edward* is the Commodore-in-Chief of the RFA, and they are much more regimented than MSC. However, they do have Royal Navy detachments on board for self-defense. The Royal Navy has a better understanding of how RFA ships work as demonstrated by their integration into the fleet during the Falklands Conflict of 1982.
A model where MSC mariners, starting at the junior level – 2nd Mate or Engineer – have the option for a career path that would involve assignment ashore to MSC area commands and fleets may better inform naval personnel of the particular needs of merchant mariners. Additionally, the appointment of senior master or chief engineer as vice commander at both the area command and headquarters level could ease the transition of new commanders who have little to no experience with MSC and provide a conduit and perspective from the fleet to the headquarters.
It is very doubtful that the Navy would allow any of its commands to be structured in a similar way. A small group of naval officers – 323 active Navy sailors – oversees MSC from its headquarters in Norfolk, to the five area commands and in dozens of offices around the world. This disconnect, with officers and civilians who have never served or commanded vessels with merchant marine crews or any of the types operated by MSC, explains why the issues raised by the union heads pervade the fleet. It appears that the role of merchant mariners in the role of national defense is reaching an inflection point.
Conclusion
Merchant mariners crew the fleet auxiliaries providing fuel, ammunition, and supplies to the U.S. Navy at sea. They operate the afloat prepositioning ships that would deploy the initial elements of Marine and Army brigades, along with materiel to a potential battlefield. They crew the 61 ships maintained by the Maritime Administration in the Ready Reserve Force and MSC’s sealift force, and they crew the 60 commercial ships of the Maritime Security Program. They are foundational to the nation’s ability to maintain, deploy, and sustain its armed forces abroad, and they cannot be easily replaced by naval personnel.
Yet despite this vital role, they lack representation within the command structure of the U.S. Navy. They are taken for granted by the Department of Defense and the public in general. They are overlooked in most strategic studies of American military policy and posture. And yet it is not clear whether in a future war the nation will be able to count on the U.S. merchant marine as it has in past conflicts.
This issue is not one caused by Admiral Wettlaufer, or any of the previous MSC commanders. It is a problem that has manifested itself as the command evolved from a primarily transport force of cargo, troops, and fuel, to one that is firmly integrated into the fleet structure in terms of ships. But the same cannot be said of its personnel.
MSC has undergone periodic transformations, alterations, and inflection points, and COVID-19 may be one of those moments. A group of former commanders, retired masters and chief engineers, and experts in the field should be formed to examine how to restructure MSC and present recommendations to the Secretary of the Navy and Chief of Naval Operations. The Royal Fleet Auxiliary and past civilian shipping entities can serve as models for how Military Sealift Command can proceed into its 72nd year of existence, and ease the issues facing the fleet and mariners today.
Salvatore R. Mercogliano is a former merchant mariner, having sailed and worked ashore for the Military Sealift Command. He is an associate professor of history at Campbell University and an adjunct professor at the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy. 
*Editor’s Note: Prince Andrew was originally listed as being the Commodore-in-Chief of the RFA when it is Prince Edward.
This article appears courtesy of CIMSEC and may be found in its original form here.
from Storage Containers https://maritime-executive.com/article/covid-19-and-the-straining-u-s-merchant-marine via http://www.rssmix.com/
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bountyofbeads · 4 years
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In Iraq, Where Beauty Was Long Suppressed, Art Flowers Amid Protests https://nyti.ms/2RR5PSs
This is a wonderful story that shows the healing power of art 🎨 and the human spirit's need to express itself. Please take time to read and view the photojournalism.
In Iraq, Where Beauty Was Long Suppressed, Art Flowers Amid Protests
Painters, sculptors and musicians are rallying to Baghdad’s protests, and the capital is overflowing with political art.
By Alissa J. Rubin | Published Feb. 3, 2020 Updated 10:09 a.m. ET | New York Times | Posted February 3, 2020 |
BAGHDAD — Hollow-cheeked and shivering slightly in jeans he had outgrown, Abdullah stood in an unfinished parking garage, transfixed in front of a mural whose meaning he was eager to decode for a visitor.
“See, the man in the middle, he is asking the security forces, ‘Please don’t shoot us, we have nothing, nothing.’” Abdullah said the final word twice for emphasis as he earnestly studied the black-and-white image on the wall.
Drawn in charcoal in a socialist realist style, the mural, more than 12 feet long, showed a group of men walking forward and carrying their fallen friends in their arms. The men depicted were unmistakably Everyman laborers, with rough clothes and strained faces.
Abdullah, 18 — a former cleaner in a hospital who asked that his surname not be used because he feared retribution for his involvement in anti-government protests — is now an unofficial art guide to one of the most unlikely galleries imaginable: a 15-story shell of a structure, known locally by all as the Turkish Restaurant building, that looks over the Tigris River. It is the self-declared stronghold of Iraqis who oppose the country’s current leadership.
Covered on all sides by banners with messages to the government, to the security forces and to the world, the building looks like a ship about to set sail, with the slogans written on white cloth ballooning in the wind.
The first five floors have become one of the half-dozen major art venues that have sprung up in Baghdad around the protests as painters — trained and untrained — have turned walls, stairwells and littered parks into a vast canvas.
Where did all this art come from? How is it that a city where beauty and color have been largely suppressed for decades by poverty, and by the oppression or indifference of successive governments, suddenly came to be so alive?
“You know, we have many thoughts about Iraq, but no one from the government ever asked us,” said Riad Rahim, 45, an art teacher.
The city’s creative hub is Tahrir Square. Art covers the underpasses that run below it, the green space behind it, and the streets leading into it.
The paintings, sculptures, photographs and shrines to killed protesters are political art of a kind rarely seen in Iraq, where art has been made for at least 10,000 years. It is as if an entire society is awakening to the sound of its own voice, and to the shape, size and sway of its creative force.
“In the beginning this was an uprising, but now it is a revolution,” said Bassim al-Shadhir, an Iraqi-German who goes back and forth between the two countries and has participated in the protests. “There is art, there is theater, people are giving lectures and distributing books — giving them away for free.”
Mr. al-Shadhir, an abstract artist with a degree in biology, painted his contribution to the scene on a wall on Sadoun Street, one of the capital’s broadest thoroughfares. It shows a man shot by the security forces, the blood pouring out of his heart in a vast pool, too large to be hidden or washed away by the masked military man standing behind him.
Nearby a mural begs the United Nations to rescue Iraqis. Another shows a map of Iraq inside a heart and says, “Oh my country, don’t feel pain.” There are two or three murals depicting lions, a symbol of Iraq dating from the Assyrian period and one that protesters have adopted.
There has been little if any new anti-American messages in the paintings in recent days, even though there is more anti-American feeling in Baghdad since the United States last month assassinated Maj. Gen. Qassim Suleimani, the head of Iran’s Quds force who was visiting Iraq.
One reason may be that there are already several murals that have anti-American and anti-Israeli messages. Another is that by now, there are so many walls covered with art, that it is hard to find empty space to add anything new.
The artistic subjects and styles on view show how much a younger generation of Iraqis has been influenced by the internet, discovering there images that resonate with them and then drawing them with Iraqi touches.
Rosie the Riveter has an Iraqi flag on her cheek; Vincent Van Gogh’s “Starry Night” has the Turkish Restaurant building in place of a cypress tree. Some paintings feature comic book characters, but wrapped in the Iraqi flag, the uniform of the protesters.
There are echoes of 1960s Pop Art in a painting of the Turkish Restaurant building with a red tuk tuk flying out of the roof. The tuk tuk is the protesters’ mascot, a diesel-fueled, three-wheeled vehicle that requires no license to drive and has become the unofficial front line ambulance, bearing the wounded to the first aid tents.
More than 500 protesters have been killed and thousands more have been injured.
Trees are another common subject, with painters in different locations in the Turkish Restaurant building drawing images of falling leaves.
“This tree is Iraq and I am going to write on each leaf the name of one of those martyred by the security forces,” said Diana al-Qaisi, 32, who trained as an information systems engineer but now works in public relations.
“Its leaves are dropping because it is autumn and those who are trying to kill the tree are trying to kill the revolution,” she said. “Even if they try, some leaves stay in the tree waiting to be born.”
Zainab Abdul Karim, 22, and her sister Zahra, 15, had a darker vision. Their tree is a black silhouette standing in a cemetery, each grave representing one of the protesters killed by the security forces.
More individualized portraits of those killed are also a common subject.
The small park behind Tahrir Square has been divided by tents, one of which has become a steadily expanding portrait gallery with photographs of those who have been killed by the security forces. People walk along the memorial quietly, looking at each of the faces, occasionally tears welling up when they see one they recognize.
The country is witnessing an expressive flowering in more than the visual arts.
More than a dozen songs have been written for the protests and circulate nonstop on social media. Luminaries of the Iraqi arts — actors and actresses, as well as musicians, painters and sculptors — came together to record a tribute to the fallen protesters.
Recently, Mr. Rahim, the art teacher, was working with his friend, Hussein Shenshul, 41, who runs a clothing store, on a low-budget, high-concept sculpture project. They were painstakingly carving archaeologically accurate maquettes of six famous Iraqi sites, three ancient and three modern.
They had finished three — the Al Hadba minaret in Mosul, which was destroyed in the fight with the Islamic State; the ziggurat of Samarra; and the Turkish Restaurant building. They were working now on the Ishtar Gate, which once stood in ancient Babylon.
Their tools were foam, toothpicks, box cutters and spray paint for the background color, paintbrushes for the calligraphy.
“We want to express what the Iraqi civilization means,” Mr. Rahim said. “We want to send a message to the world that this is our culture, we are educated, we are painters and poets, musicians and sculptors, this is what it means to be Iraqi.”
“Everyone thinks Iraq is all wars and fighting,” he added.
Outside the still unfinished Turkish Restaurant building — so named because some 25 years ago it housed a Turkish restaurant on the ground floor — Hussein Abdul Mufsin, 25, was finishing a mural on Sadoun Street. He had already painted four others — a far cry from his usual work as a house painter.
Two murals depicted silhouettes of protesters trying to scale the barriers that divide them from the security forces. But today his primary painting goal was not art, but life. He was painting the lines that delineate the street’s edges to keep cars from veering onto the curb.
“I brought my reflecting paint today from home because at night the government turns off all the electricity and the tuk tuks carrying the injured cannot see the edge of the road and could crash,” he said.
Why was he doing this? Shouldn’t it be the city’s responsibility?
“You could call it self-financing,” he said, looking down shyly. “Or maybe this is patriotism.”
______
Falih Hassan contributed reporting.
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Home at Last From China: A Foreign Exchange Student’s Travel Ordeal
A tense nighttime drive along deserted roads to an empty airport, then a scramble to join the rush of passengers leaving China amid the coronavirus scare.
By Miriam Jordan | Published Feb. 3, 2020 Updated 11:32 a.m. ET | New York Times | Posted February 3, 2020 |
LOS ANGELES — When Jaden Taylor, 17, pulled a mask off his face at Los Angeles International Airport on Sunday morning and smiled at the customs officer, who gave him a thumbs up, it was much more than the end of a 12-hour flight from Shanghai.
He was taking the final step in a weekslong scramble to get out of China, where he had been an exchange student caught in an outbreak of coronavirus, which was rapidly spreading and causing fatalities.
“Oddly enough, the officer didn’t ask me a single question,” said Jaden, after exiting the airport. “I feel lucky, I thought I was definitely going to be quarantined but it was so fast.”
His struggle, involving canceled flights, frantic negotiations across two continents and a series of checkpoints where the authorities checked his temperature, was playing out for countless travelers trying to leave China as the world tries to seal itself off from the fast-moving virus.
Jaden, a former high school student from Portland, Ore., may have been among the last Americans to get out of China and clear security with ease. By Monday morning, American air travelers who had been to China in the last 14 days were being routed through one of 11 airports to undergo enhanced health screenings, with the possibility that they could be quarantined.
Each year, thousands of Americans and other foreigners travel to China on student exchange programs. Since last month, these students have been among those caught up in the widening health crisis. Because of the nature of their studies, often embedded with families across China, some of them are hundreds of miles from a consulate or embassy. Many students have had to find their own way from far-flung cities to major airports for the return home.
American Field Service sent more than 300 students from all over the world to China, including about two dozen Americans, during the current school year. Jaden was the only American student placed in Anhui province, which borders Hubei province, the epicenter of the outbreak.
The nonprofit organization canceled all programs in China on Jan. 31.
‘IT SEEMED LIKE A FUN ADVENTURE’
Bored with high school in Portland, Jaden had hatched a plan to learn Mandarin and graduate early so that he could spend a year in China before college.
“It seemed like a fun adventure to a place that was completely foreign to me,” he said. “I would not know what to expect.”
He made the move in August, becoming the third generation in his family to go abroad as an exchange student.
In the city of Wuhu, he settled in with a host family and started school, planning to remain until June. He made Chinese friends and tried new foods, like turtle and cow stomach. As trade tensions between the United States and China escalated, he took it in stride when taxi drivers turned him away because he was an American.
It was early January when he first heard that the coronavirus had struck. Emails streamed in from his Chinese teachers informing him about an illness spreading in Wuhan, the capital of the adjoining province.
Around Jan. 15, the local coordinator for American Field Service and Jaden’s host family ordered him to remain inside at all times. “I was reminded almost everyday not to go outside,” he recalled.
By Jan. 20, the virus had crossed international borders. China had reported hundreds of infections, and the death toll jumped from three to 17 in a matter of days.
Two days later, Jaden’s grandmother, Christine Berardo, sent him a WhatsApp message saying that she had been reading about the virus and felt sorry that it might affect his travel plans for the Lunar New Year.
“The virus has been found in my city so everyone is wearing face masks,” he told her.
‘HAVE SOME GRIT,’ HIS MOTHER SAID
On Jan. 23, Wuhan, home to about 11 million people, was placed under quarantine and Chinese authorities closed off the city. “I was seeing images of borders shutting down and people not being able to leave Wuhan,” Jaden recalled. He began to worry.
So did his mother, Karin Berardo, 51, an investment manager in Washington, D.C. But she did not want to let on.
In a WhatsApp exchange, Ms. Berardo told her adventurous child, “to suck it up. Have some grit,” she recalled. “He had always been eager to conquer the world.”
Wuhu, about 300 miles northeast of Wuhan, was not officially quarantined but it might as well have been. Instead of celebrating the Lunar New Year with fireworks and festivities, people locked themselves indoors.
Except for those trying to stock up on food and masks, the streets were deserted; store shelves were almost bare. People glared at anyone who coughed, Jaden said. The images of a city in fear began to haunt him at night, and he had trouble sleeping. “I became very paranoid and anxious,” he said.
Friends from Portland, Berkeley, Baltimore and Abu Dhabi, places where Jaden had lived, were reaching out on Snapchat and WhatsApp to express concern about the risk of staying in China.
With ample time on his hands, Jaden scanned news reports on Reddit and waited for emails from the State Department. Chinese friends shared information they were gleaning from Chinese media. The news was getting worse with each passing day, it seemed.
Back in Washington, his mother contacted American Field Service to get their assessment of the situation.
“They said they were in close contact with A.F.S. Beijing and were advising the students to just stay inside,” Ms. Berardo recalled.
On Jan. 26, after learning that 56 million people were under quarantine in China, Ms. Berardo contacted a program representative in New York to request that her son be returned to the United States as soon as possible.
TRYING TO FIND A WAY OUT
The next day, program representatives had a tentative plan to get Jaden out. It involved flying out of Shanghai, about 215 miles away. But there was no one on the ground to escort him there, Ms. Berardo was told. “They said they could put him on a train, but he would have to figure out how to get to the airport in Shanghai,” she said.
Ms. Berardo feared that her son might end up stranded in the one of the world’s largest cities, where many cases of the virus had been reported.
Still, in a conversation, mother and son agreed to give it a try. Ultimately, program officials found someone to drive Jaden to Nanjing, about 60 miles from Wuhu, where he would catch a flight to Shanghai.
Jaden was booked on an American Airlines flight that was to leave on Sunday. But on Friday afternoon, the carrier announced that it had canceled the flight, as a spate of airlines began suspending their operations in China. He was rebooked on China Eastern Airlines leaving the same day.
“We calmed down for a minute,” Ms. Berardo recalled.
Jaden sneaked out of the apartment to say goodbye to Chinese friends and to take his last pictures of an empty Wuhu. His bags had been packed for two days.
He was scheduled for a 3 a.m. pickup but his host brother knocked on his door shortly after 11 p.m. A car was there to take him.
The only car on the road
His escort was concerned about potential delays if they encountered road closures along the way. Indeed, some portions were blocked, and the driver had to divert to side roads.
“I’m stressed and worried,” Jaden jotted down in a diary that he had decided to start to record his last hours in China. It was about 11:30 p.m. Saturday night.
“It’s pretty much pitch black everywhere and we’re the only car on the road,” he wrote. “I took my mask off for five seconds and the driver turned his head yelling.”
At multiple checkpoints, police officers pulled over the car and checked whether they were wearing their masks. Jaden’s temperature was taken with an infrared temperature gun every time.
Shortly after 12:30 a.m. on Sunday, as they approached the Nanjing airport, the police stopped the car. People in hazmat suits instructed Jaden to get out. They checked his temperature once, twice, three times. Every time, they said, his temperature was too high.
Jaden was not sure what was happening. He felt fine.
“I didn’t know what I would do if they didn’t let me go to the airport,” he said.
Finally, one of the health workers retrieved a different thermometer from their supply kits. This time, they said, Jaden’s temperature was acceptable.
Arriving at a deserted airport
Four hours after they had left, they completed the 60-mile journey and arrived at a deserted airport. It was just after 2 a.m.
When he checked in for his flight to Shanghai, three hours later, the agent told him that she could not check his bags all the way to Los Angeles because his flight might be canceled. Did he still want to go to Shanghai, the agent wanted to know.
Jaden figured there was no looking back at this point.
Once on the plane to Los Angeles, he tried to sleep, but it was hard: He kept thinking about the five months his program had been cut short, the lost opportunities.
At Los Angeles International Airport, he joined the swarms of people converging in the passport-control area after landing from all corners of the globe.
He entered the line for American citizens, pulled off his mask and waited his turn. In his pocket, he carried a booklet of the United States Constitution, in case he got pulled out of line by the authorities and had to reference his rights.
But when he got to the counter, the officer scanned his passport and returned it to him without asking a single question.
“At all the other kiosks,” he said, “anyone with a mask or who had traveled to China was being asked where they went and why. But not me.”
On the other side of security, his mother swooped all 6 feet 3 inches of her son into her arms. “Hi, Mom,” he said. “I’m tired.”
He strapped on his mask again briefly as they left the airport — before realizing that he was no longer in the middle of a virus emergency. He removed it, and they headed to a Chipotle, where he dug into two bean-and-cheese burritos. “This is heaven,” he said.
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Turkey Launches Deadly Airstrikes Against Syrian Forces
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that as many as 35 Syrian government troops had been killed, and he warned Russia against trying to prevent his country’s actions.
By Carlotta Gall | Published Feb. 3, 2020 Updated 10:08 a.m. ET | New York Times | Posted February 3, 2020 |
ISTANBUL — Turkey deployed F-16 fighter jets against government forces in northwestern Syria on Monday, a sharp escalation of the conflict there after six Turkish soldiers were killed by artillery strikes.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey said that as many as 35 Syrian troops had been “neutralized.” The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a monitoring group based in Britain, said the number of military personnel killed was at least 13, while state news media in Syria made no mention of any deaths. There were also reports on social media of at least eight civilian deaths when a minibus was struck.
Mr. Erdogan warned Russia, which backs the Syrian government and which controls the airspace in western Syria, not to prevent Turkey from retaliating.
“It should be out of discussion to block us,” Mr. Erdogan said, before leaving for a trip to Ukraine. Describing the dead Turkish soldiers as martyrs, he added that, “It is not possible for us to keep silent” as long as his country’s troops were being targeted.
Mr. Erdogan has frequently met with President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia to discuss Syria, and in particular, the thorny problem of Idlib Province, which Moscow wants to bring under Syrian government control to declare victory in the war.
In a sign of the fragility of the relationship and of the high stakes, Mr. Erdogan adopted a sober demeanor as he announced the Turkish casualties, despite a dispute with Russia over whether the Turkish military’s moves had been coordinated with their Russian counterparts. Turkish reporters noted that Mr. Erdogan’s understated tone and remarks were free of the vitriolic rhetoric he often uses for opponents.
Syrian government forces have recently intensified their offensive in Idlib, in western Syria, the last rebel-held province. Turkey deployed several hundred troops to observation posts there in 2018, as part of an agreement with Russia to create a de-escalation zone in the area.
But Russian and Syrian forces have been conducting an offensive on the major highway through the province, prompting hundreds of thousands of civilians to flee north toward the border with Turkey.
Turkey has already taken in nearly four million people trying to escape the war, which started nearly nine years ago, and is concerned that the Syrian push into the area will create a fresh surge of refugees. It has closed its border with Syria to prevent more refugees from entering.
Nearly 700,000 people have been displaced since the Russian-led offensive began in Idlib last year — 140,000 in January alone. Many are camping in the open in increasingly desperate conditions.
The deployment of air power came after the Turkish Defense Ministry said that a supply convoy bringing reinforcements into the observation posts on Monday had come under fire, leaving six Turkish soldiers dead and several others wounded.
The movement of the convoy had been coordinated beforehand, the statement said, and Turkish forces retaliated immediately. “Those who test Turkey’s determination with such heinous attacks will understand they have made a huge mistake,’’ Mr. Erdogan said.
Moscow, however, disputed Turkey’s account about coordinating with other forces in the province, saying that the Russian Defense Ministry had not been told about the troop movements.
Syrian forces were trying to hit militants linked with Al Qaeda, the Russian Defense Ministry said, according to The Associated Press, and the Turkish forces were struck because they were in the area. (To justify their attacks, including ones that have killed many civilians, Russia and the Syrian government have consistently argued they must go on the offensive to eradicate terrorists.)
Turkey has always supported the opposition forces fighting against the Syrian government of President Bashar al-Assad, including some radical Islamists, and has sought to delay the Russian-Syrian advance to take Idlib.
Mr. Erdogan has highlighted his good relationship with Mr. Putin and attempted to strengthen ties by  purchasing the Russian S-400 missile defense system against the wishes of the United States and other NATO allies. But those links do not appear to have won him any lasting concessions from Moscow over Idlib.
The Turkish Defense Ministry said that it was maintaining suppressive fire on Syrian targets for self-defense to evacuate the dead and wounded. “The perpetrators of this hateful attack will be brought to account and our right to self-defense will be exercised in the most robust way,” the ministry said.
The suffering continued for the civilians caught in the fighting. At least eight people, most of them women and children, were said to have been killed on Monday when their minibus came under fire on a rural road. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said that nine people had died in that attack, including four children.
Ahmad Aslan, who fled with his family from the town of Maaret al-Numan, said in a video message that he would have preferred death to abandoning his home. “We prayed many times to die from rockets or from barrel bombs there but it didn’t happen,” he said.
“After the regime advanced, we were forced to leave,” he added. “We have been living under the rain and cold, we lack shelter and food.”
Video distributed on social media showed people setting fire to their homes before fleeing the town of Saraqeb, ahead of the advancing Syrian forces. “We don’t want to leave anything behind for the thugs,” a voice in the background says.
Abdul Kareem Thalji, from Iss, a few miles from Saraqeb, said, “The regime is advancing and I’m racing with time to find a car and house to stay in.” He added that he was being displaced for the seventh time. “If you ask me about hope, I will tell you my entire ambition for life has collapsed, people here have lost hope.”
_______
Hwaida Saad and Vivian Yee contributed reporting from Beirut, Lebanon.
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The story of the 12 Thai soccer players and their coach who had to be rescued from a flooded cave in northern Thailand by more than a dozen international divers and Thai Navy SEALs has enthralled the world for the past 10 days.
Though a mission to bring them out through the cave at first seemed impossible, rescuers eventually came up with a scheme that involved fitting the boys with dive masks, and wrapping them on stretchers to transport them out of the cave safely.
“We are not sure if this is a miracle, a science, or what. All the thirteen Wild Boars are now out of the cave,” the Thai Navy SEALs said on their Facebook page on Tuesday after the mission was complete. The boys are currently in recovery at the Chiang Rai Prachanukroh hospital, where some are being treated for mild pneumonia.
The initial search mission to find the boys after they went missing on June 23 was almost called off because the flooded cave was so dangerous to navigate. But then the boys and their coach were found on July 2 some 2.5 miles from the cave’s mouth by a pair of British divers.
The larger search team consisted of Thai Navy SEALs and several international divers, including Ben Reymenants, 45, a Belgian who owns a diving company in Phuket, Thailand.
Reymenants’s search dives helped lay the groundwork for the rescue, and he was closely involved with the entire mission. Vox spoke to him about what it was like in the watery labyrinth with 13 lives at stake.
This conversation has been edited for length and clarity.
Radhika Viswanathan
When did you get called in to help look for the missing boys, and can you describe the first few days of the search?
Ben Reymenants
We saw on the news that the kids were missing, and then I saw that the British cave rescue group had already come to the site, so I’m like, “Okay, these guys are experienced, they’re in good hands.”
But they were helped by the Royal Thai Navy SEALs, who had less cave experience. So a friend of mine who deals with these guys says, “Hey, they’re going to need support. Can you please come over and advise these guys how to actually move through these caves and fix the lines?”
Of course, I didn’t think twice. Twelve boys with their whole lives in front of them. But then when I arrived, the British cave divers had just come out the cave and they were like, “This is madness.”
Radhika Viswanathan
Why?
Ben Reymenants
When I arrived, the entrance looked like the Colorado River, but with mud and with zero visibility, so it was really pulling hand over hand. There was this really strong outflow, and at the beginning we were advancing about maybe 100 meters a day in zero visibility, fighting the current. And then there are parts where you have to climb up quite steep, dragging all your tanks, so it was physical.
I turned around from one unsuccessful dive, and I took out my line and came back and I met the British who were on their way in. And then we decided, “We have to call it off, because it’s not going to happen. People will die, and we don’t even know if these kids are alive.”
We told the Navy commander. And he says, “Yes, but these are kids from Thailand. I can’t face the public and say ‘we’re calling it off.’”
So he said, “I’m going to send in my Navy SEALs and we’re going to try.”
Of course, 19-year-old SEALs … I could be their dad. So I’m like, “Okay, the least I can do is help them try.”
Then on the third day, the [visibility improved] and the current was less strong. The Navy Seals had come back unsuccessfully; they had swum in circles and couldn’t find the passage. The British cave divers had already said, “We’re going home.”
I managed to push 200 meters of line. And they said, “Let’s work in teams, laying line.” While one team was sleeping, the other continued, so round-the-clock. And we started advancing fast because the rain had stopped, the vis got better, the flow got less, and then we actually went really fast through the cave.
These were still dives of six to eight hours. Very, very tiring.
From left to right: Reymenants, Chiang Rai Gov. Narongsak Osotthanakorn, and Maksym Polejaka (another diver on the mission) photographed on July 2. Ben Reymenants via Facebook
Radhika Viswanathan
So how was it actually finding them?
Ben Reymenants
The difficult part was to find this T-junction [a narrow part of the cave with a very sharp turn, beyond which was the tunnel that eventually led to the boys]. We got stuck a few time, there were restrictions, we freaked out.
And then [our team] found the T-junction, laid another 400 meters of line in the right direction, and then I think we stopped literally not even half a kilometer from the room where we thought they were, and we ran out of line,
So we had to turn around. It was very frustrating.
When we came out, the British cave divers were just coming in, and we were like, “Oh guys you probably can find them. We think it’s just another 400 to 800 meters.” And so they went in right after us, and three hours later, they surfaced in the room where the kids were. You’ve probably seen the footage.
I couldn’t believe it. Especially that there were all 13, alive and nobody injured, and their mental status as well, they were all like, “Hey, oh, we’re so happy, What day is it?” Remarkable.
Radhika Viswanathan
So how did the decision-making process go for the rescue?
Ben Reymenants
Obviously the whole world … had solutions; you have no idea the messages that I got. I pushed away a phone call, and they kept calling me and they said, “It’s the offices of Elon Musk,” and I said, “Right, is Barack Obama gonna call me next?”
But they said, “No, check your email, it’s actually us,” and it was (someone)@spaceX and I said, “Oh shit, I’m so sorry.” And they said, “We have all these solutions.”
So they were actually trying at four different levels: they were trying drilling, they were trying sonar in the forest to find alternative entrances, they were making a capsule to get them out.
One of the [rescue team’s] options was actually to teach them how to dive. But this is already pretty hard for experienced cave divers. See, the risk is if the boys panic and they pull off the mask, they drown. It’s a mile in; there’s no chance for survival.
And they were so skinny and so weak, there was no way they could have walked over all of this. So we decided to put them on a stretcher, with a full face mask, with pure oxygen on a positive pressure.
And it was quite chilly, so although they were put in wetsuits, their metabolism was so low that they were half-asleep, half-unconscious when they were brought out. So they were put immediately in quarantine and medical care. [Some reports have also claimed that the kids were sedated for the journey.]
And they’re all in good health and it’s amazing. And what I heard was that the coach did long meditation sessions [before leaving the cave] so they could calm down.
Radhika Viswanathan
How did the divers maneuver the stretchers through the narrowest parts of the cave?
Ben Reymenants
The smallest space was actually 2 feet wide, so yes, it was quite high, 60 centimeters high. And these kids are quite skinny and strapped to a stretcher.
The kids had to be literally pulled and dragged through that part. That’s also why they decided to strap them in and cover their face with a full face mask, so just in case they would panic or whatever. It’s not easy.
I stayed outside of the cave [during the rescue], since I needed to heal my hands and back. But friends of mine, the cave divers, they basically literally pulled and dragged the stretchers and handed them over [to one another]. So 24 divers were actually in the cave, and the stretchers were pulled out one-by-one and handed over to the next group, and the next group.
It was still a good two hours per kid.
Radhika Viswanathan
How did it end up being so much shorter than the initial dives?
Ben Reymenants
By now, we knew the cave. In the beginning, we were literally looking and searching and fighting current. But now, with all the teams, by the time one team carried the stretcher about 100 meters, they got tired and could hand it over to the next team. So that’s why. It was very efficient.
Also from Camp 3, rock climbers had actually installed hooks in the roof and made a sort of cable zip line where you could attach the stretchers. It was initially installed there to haul more than 500 tanks into the cave. And the stretchers were clipped on there — they’re very light kids — and that made them come out very quickly.
But it was still only four kids a day.
Radhika Viswanathan
How long have you been cave diving? And what drew you to it?
Ben Reymenants
I’ve been diving unofficially for about 20 years, and I became a cave instructor roughly 10 years ago. Not even 10 percent of the submerged caves on the planet have been explored. So it’s really the last frontier for mankind because no machines or animals can go in there. Only humans that are trained can go to that extent, which makes it extra special.
Radhika Viswanathan
How often do these kinds of cave rescues happen and how does this one compare to others?
Ben Reymenants
Luckily these cave rescues happen rarely because a lot of countries have actually put policies in place that prevent non-trained cave divers from going inside caves.
This cave … is only visited when it’s the dry season; when it’s completely dry, people walk in there. It’s a very long cave—it’s about [5.5 miles] long.
When it’s flooded, nobody dives. There are no lines. Normally, dive caves have a full set of lines and arrows to point to the exit and safety markers in place, but this one had nothing. So it was really finding your way through with a pretty basic map.
Radhika Viswanathan
I’ve heard this will be turned into two movies.
Ben Reymenants
Oh, you have no idea how many requests. Discovery, National Geographic.
Original Source -> Dangerous currents and zero visibility: a diver on the Thai cave rescue mission
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PART II "THE ASSAULT"
10 The scream begins in my lower back and works its way up through my body only to jam in my throat. I am Avox mute, choking on my grief. Even if I could release the muscles in my neck, let the sound tear into space, would anyone notice it? The room's in an uproar. Questions and demands ring out as they try to decipher Peeta's words. "And you...in Thirteen...dead by morning!" Yet no one is asking about the messenger whose blood has been replaced by static. A voice calls the others to attention. "Shut up!" Every pair of eyes falls on Haymitch. "It's not some big mystery! The boy's telling us we're about to be attacked. Here. In Thirteen." "How would he have that information?" "Why should we trust him?" "How do you know?" Haymitch gives a growl of frustration. "They're beating him bloody while we speak. What more do you need? Katniss, help me out here!" I have to give myself a shake to free my words. "Haymitch's right. I don't know where Peeta got the information. Or if it's true. But he believes it is. And they're - "  I can't say aloud what Snow's doing to him. "You don't know him," Haymitch says to Coin. "We do. Get your people ready." The president doesn't seem alarmed, only somewhat perplexed, by this turn in events. She mulls over the words, tapping one finger lightly on the rim of the control board in front of her. When she speaks, she addresses Haymitch in an even voice. "Of course, we have prepared for such a scenario. Although we have decades of support for the assumption that further direct attacks on Thirteen would be counterproductive to the Capitol's cause. Nuclear missiles would release radiation into the atmosphere, with incalculable environmental results. Even routine bombing could badly damage our military compound, which we know they hope to regain. And, of course, they invite a counterstrike. It is conceivable that, given our current alliance with the rebels, those would be viewed as acceptable risks." "You think so?" says Haymitch. It's a shade too sincere, but the subtleties of irony are often wasted in13. "I do. At any rate, we're overdue for a Level Five security drill," says Coin. "Let's proceed with the lockdown." She begins to type rapidly on her keyboard, authorizing her decision. The moment she raises her head, it begins. There have been two low-level drills since I arrived in 13. I don't remember much about the first. I was in intensive care in the hospital and I think the patients were exempted, as the complications of removing us for a practice drill outweighed the benefits. I was vaguely aware of a mechanical voice instructing people to congregate in yellow zones. During the second, a Level Two drill meant for minor crises - such as a temporary quarantine while citizens were tested for contagion during a flu outbreak - we were supposed to return to our living quarters. I stayed behind a pipe in the laundry room, ignored the pulsating beeps coming over the audio system, and watched a spider construct a web. Neither experience has prepared me for the wordless, eardrum-piercing, fear-inducing sirens that now permeate 13. There would be no disregarding this sound, which seems designed to throw the whole population into a frenzy. But this is 13 and that doesn't happen. Boggs guides Finnick and me out of Command, along the hall to a doorway, and onto a wide stairway. Streams of people are converging to form a river that flows only downward. No one shrieks or tries to push ahead. Even the children don't resist. We descend, flight after flight, speechless, because no word could be heard above this sound. I look for my mother and Prim, but it's impossible to see anyone but those immediately around me. They're both working in the hospital tonight, though, so there's no way they can miss the drill. My ears pop and my eyes feel heavy. We are coal-mine deep. The only plus is that the farther we retreat into the earth, the less shrill the sirens become. It's as if they were meant to physically drive us away from the surface, which I suppose they are. Groups of people begin to peel off into marked doorways and still Boggs directs me downward, until finally the stairs end at the edge of an enormous cavern. I start to walk straight in and Boggs stops me, shows me that I must wave my schedule in front of a scanner so that I'm accounted for. No doubt the information's going to some computer somewhere to make sure no one's gone astray. The place seems unable to decide if it's natural or man-made. Certain areas of the walls are stone, while steel beams and concrete heavily reinforce others. Sleeping bunks are hewn right into the rock walls. There's a kitchen, bathrooms, a first-aid station. This place was designed for an extended stay. White signs with letters or numbers are placed at intervals around the cavern. As Boggs tells Finnick and me to report to the area that matches our assigned quarters - in my case E for Compartment E - Plutarch strolls up. "Ah, here you are," he says. Recent events have had little effect on Plutarch's mood. He still has a happy glow from Beetee's success on the Airtime Assault. Eyes on the forest, not on the trees. Not on Peeta's punishment or 13's imminent blasting. "Katniss, obviously this is a bad moment for you, what with Peeta's setback, but you need to be aware that others will be watching you." "What?" I say. I can't believe he actually just downgraded Peeta's dire circumstances to a setback. "The other people in the bunker, they'll be taking their cue on how to react from you. If you're calm and brave, others will try to be as well. If you panic, it could spread like wildfire," explains Plutarch. I just stare at him. "Fire is catching, so to speak," he continues, as if I'm being slow on the uptake. "Why don't I just pretend I'm on camera, Plutarch?" I say. "Yes! Perfect. One is always much braver with an audience," he says. "Look at the courage Peeta just displayed!" It's all I can do not to slap him. "I've got to get back to Coin before lockdown. You keep up the good work!" he says, and then heads off. I cross to the big letter E posted on the wall. Our space consists of a twelve-by-twelve-foot square of stone floor delineated by painted lines. Carved into the wall are two bunks - one of us will be sleeping on the floor - and a ground-level cube space for storage. A piece of white paper, coated in clear plastic, reads BUNKERPROTOCOL . I stare fixedly at the little black specks on the sheet. For a while, they're obscured by the residual blood droplets that I can't seem to wipe from my vision. Slowly, the words come into focus. The first section is entitled "On Arrival." 1. Make sure all members of your Compartment are accounted for. My mother and Prim haven't arrived, but I was one of the first people to reach the bunker. Both of them are probably helping to relocate hospital patients. 2. Go to the Supply Station and secure one pack for each member of your Compartment. Ready your Living Area. Return pack(s). I scan the cavern until I locate the Supply Station, a deep room set off by a counter. People wait behind it, but there's not a lot of activity there yet. I walk over, give our compartment letter, and request three packs. A man checks a sheet, pulls the specified packs from shelving, and swings them up onto the counter. After sliding one on my back and getting a grip on the other two with my hands, I turn to find a group rapidly forming behind me. "Excuse me," I say as I carry my supplies through the others. Is it a matter of timing? Or is Plutarch right? Are these people modeling their behavior on mine? Back at our space, I open one of the packs to find a thin mattress, bedding, two sets of gray clothing, a toothbrush, a comb, and a flashlight. On examining the contents of the other packs, I find the only discernible difference is that they contain both gray and white outfits. The latter will be for my mother and Prim, in case they have medical duties. After I make up the beds, store the clothes, and return the backpacks, I've got nothing to do but observe the last rule. 3. Await further instructions. I sit cross-legged on the floor to await. A steady flow of people begins to fill the room, claiming spaces, collecting supplies. It won't take long until the place is full up. I wonder if my mother and Prim are going to stay the night at wherever the hospital patients have been taken. But, no, I don't think so. They were on the list here. I'm starting to get anxious, when my mother appears. I look behind her into a sea of strangers. "Where's Prim?" I ask. "Isn't she here?" she replies. "She was supposed to come straight down from the hospital. She left ten minutes before I did. Where is she? Where could she have gone?" I squeeze my lids shut tight for a moment, to track her as I would prey on a hunt. See her react to the sirens, rush to help the patients, nod as they gesture for her to descend to the bunker, and then hesitate with her on the stairs. Torn for a moment. But why? My eyes fly open. "The cat! She went back for him!" "Oh, no," my mother says. We both know I'm right. We're pushing against the incoming tide, trying to get out of the bunker. Up ahead, I can see them preparing to shut the thick metal doors. Slowly rotating the metal wheels on either side inward. Somehow I know that once they have been sealed, nothing in the world will convince the soldiers to open them. Perhaps it will even be beyond their control. I'm indiscriminately shoving people aside as I shout for them to wait. The space between the doors shrinks to a yard, a foot; there are only a few inches left when I jam my hand through the crack. "Open it! Let me out!" I cry. Consternation shows on the soldiers' faces as they reverse the wheels a bit. Not enough to let me pass, but enough to avoid crushing my fingers. I take the opportunity to wedge my shoulder into the opening. "Prim!" I holler up the stairs. My mother pleads with the guards as I try to wriggle my way out. "Prim!" Then I hear it. The faint sound of footsteps on the stairs. "We're coming!" I hear my sister call. "Hold the door!" That was Gale. "They're coming!" I tell the guards, and they slide the doors open about a foot. But I don't dare move - afraid they'll lock us all out - until Prim appears, her cheeks flushed with running, hauling Buttercup. I pull her inside and Gale follows, twisting an armload of baggage sideways to get it into the bunker. The doors are closed with a loud and final clank. "What were you thinking?" I give Prim an angry shake and then hug her, squashing Buttercup between us. Prim's explanation is already on her lips. "I couldn't leave him behind, Katniss. Not twice. You should have seen him pacing the room and howling. He'd come back to protect us." "Okay. Okay." I take a few breaths to calm myself, step back, and lift Buttercup by the scruff of the neck. "I should've drowned you when I had the chance." His ears flatten and he raises a paw. I hiss before he gets a chance, which seems to annoy him a little, since he considers hissing his own personal sound of contempt. In retaliation, he gives a helpless kitten mew that brings my sister immediately to his defense. "Oh, Katniss, don't tease him," she says, folding him back in her arms. "He's already so upset." The idea that I've wounded the brute's tiny cat feelings just invites further taunting. But Prim's genuinely distressed for him. So instead, I visualize Buttercup's fur lining a pair of gloves, an image that has helped me deal with him over the years. "Okay, sorry. We're under the bigE on the wall. Better get him settled in before he loses it." Prim hurries off, and I find myself face-to-face with Gale. He's holding the box of medical supplies from our kitchen in 12. Site of our last conversation, kiss, fallout, whatever. My game bag's slung across his shoulder. "If Peeta's right, these didn't stand a chance," he says. Peeta. Blood like raindrops on the window. Like wet mud on boots. "Thanks for...everything." I take our stuff. "What were you doing up in our rooms?" "Just double-checking," he says. "We're in Forty-Seven if you need me." Practically everyone withdrew to their spaces when the doors shut, so I get to cross to our new home with at least five hundred people watching me. I try to appear extra calm to make up for my frantic crashing through the crowd. Like that's fooling anyone. So much for setting an example. Oh, who cares? They all think I'm nuts anyway. One man, who I think I knocked to the floor, catches my eye and rubs his elbow resentfully. I almost hiss at him, too. Prim has Buttercup installed on the lower bunk, draped in a blanket so that only his face pokes out. This is how he likes to be when there's thunder, the one thing that actually frightens him. My mother puts her box carefully in the cube. I crouch, my back supported by the wall, to check what Gale managed to rescue in my hunting bag. The plant book, the hunting jacket, my parents' wedding photo, and the personal contents of my drawer. My mockingjay pin now lives with Cinna's outfit, but there's the gold locket and the silver parachute with the spile and Peeta's pearl. I knot the pearl into the corner of the parachute, bury it deep in the recesses of the bag, as if it's Peeta's life and no one can take it away as long as I guard it. The faint sound of the sirens cuts off sharply. Coin's voice comes over the district audio system, thanking us all for an exemplary evacuation of the upper levels. She stresses that this is not a drill, as Peeta Mellark, the District 12 victor, has possibly made a televised reference to an attack on 13 tonight. That's when the first bomb hits. There's an initial sense of impact followed by an explosion that resonates in my innermost parts, the lining of my intestines, the marrow of my bones, the roots of my teeth.We're all going to die, I think. My eyes turn upward, expecting to see giant cracks race across the ceiling, massive chunks of stone raining down on us, but the bunker itself gives only a slight shudder. The lights go out and I experience the disorientation of total darkness. Speechless human sounds - spontaneous shrieks, ragged breaths, baby whimpers, one musical bit of insane laughter - dance around in the charged air. Then there's a hum of a generator, and a dim wavering glow replaces the stark lighting that is the norm in 13. It's closer to what we had in our homes in 12, when the candles and fire burned low on a winter's night. I reach for Prim in the twilight, clamp my hand on her leg, and pull myself over to her. Her voice remains steady as she croons to Buttercup. "It's all right, baby, it's all right. We'll be okay down here." My mother wraps her arms around us. I allow myself to feel young for a moment and rest my head on her shoulder. "That was nothing like the bombs in Eight," I say. "Probably a bunker missile," says Prim, keeping her voice soothing for the cat's sake. "We learned about them during the orientation for new citizens. They're designed to penetrate deep in the ground before they go off. Because there's no point in bombing Thirteen on the surface anymore." "Nuclear?" I ask, feeling a chill run through me. "Not necessarily," says Prim. "Some just have a lot of explosives in them. But...it could be either kind, I guess." The gloom makes it hard to see the heavy metal doors at the end of the bunker. Would they be any protection against a nuclear attack? And even if they were one hundred percent effective at sealing out the radiation, which is really unlikely, would we ever be able to leave this place? The thought of spending whatever remains of my life in this stone vault horrifies me. I want to run madly for the door and demand to be released into whatever lies above. It's pointless. They would never let me out, and I might start some kind of stampede. "We're so far down, I'm sure we're safe," says my mother wanly. Is she thinking of my father's being blown to nothingness in the mines? "It was a close call, though. Thank goodness Peeta had the wherewithal to warn us." The wherewithal. A general term that somehow includes everything that was needed for him to sound the alarm. The knowledge, the opportunity, the courage. And something else I can't define. Peeta seemed to have been waging a sort of battle in his mind, fighting to get the message out. Why? The ease with which he manipulates words is his greatest talent. Was his difficulty a result of his torture? Something more? Like madness? Coin's voice, perhaps a shade grimmer, fills the bunker, the volume level flickering with the lights. "Apparently, Peeta Mellark's information was sound and we owe him a great debt of gratitude. Sensors indicate the first missile was not nuclear, but very powerful. We expect more will follow. For the duration of the attack, citizens are to stay in their assigned areas unless otherwise notified." A soldier alerts my mother that she's needed in the first-aid station. She's reluctant to leave us, even though she'll only be thirty yards away. "We'll be fine, really," I tell her. "Do you think anything could get past him?" I point to Buttercup, who gives me such a halfhearted hiss, we all have to laugh a little. Even I feel sorry for him. After my mother goes, I suggest, "Why don't you climb in with him, Prim?" "I know it's silly...but I'm afraid the bunk might collapse on us during the attack," she says. If the bunks collapse, the whole bunker will have given way and buried us, but I decide this kind of logic won't actually be helpful. Instead, I clean out the storage cube and make Buttercup a bed inside. Then I pull a mattress in front of it for my sister and me to share. We're given clearance in small groups to use the bathroom and brush our teeth, although showering has been canceled for the day. I curl up with Prim on the mattress, double layering the blankets because the cavern emits a dank chill. Buttercup, miserable even with Prim's constant attention, huddles in the cube and exhales cat breath in my face. Despite the disagreeable conditions, I'm glad to have time with my sister. My extreme preoccupation since I came here - no, since the first Games, really - has left little attention for her. I haven't been watching over her the way I should, the way I used to. After all, it was Gale who checked our compartment, not me. Something to make up for. I realize I've never even bothered to ask her about how she's handling the shock of coming here. "So, how are you liking Thirteen, Prim?" I offer. "Right now?" she asks. We both laugh. "I miss home badly sometimes. But then I remember there's nothing left to miss anymore. I feel safer here. We don't have to worry about you. Well, not the same way." She pauses, and then a shy smile crosses her lips. "I think they're going to train me to be a doctor." It's the first I've heard of it. "Well, of course, they are. They'd be stupid not to." "They've been watching me when I help out in the hospital. I'm already taking the medic courses. It's just beginner's stuff. I know a lot of it from home. Still, there's plenty to learn," she tells me. "That's great," I say. Prim a doctor. She couldn't even dream of it in 12. Something small and quiet, like a match being struck, lights up the gloom inside me. This is the sort of future a rebellion could bring. "What about you, Katniss? How are you managing?" Her fingertip moves in short, gentle strokes between Buttercup's eyes. "And don't say you're fine." It's true. Whatever the opposite of fine is, that's what I am. So I go ahead and tell her about Peeta, his deterioration on-screen, and how I think they must be killing him at this very moment. Buttercup has to rely on himself for a while, because now Prim turns her attention to me. Pulling me closer, brushing the hair back behind my ears with her fingers. I've stopped talking because there's really nothing left to say and there's this piercing sort of pain where my heart is. Maybe I'm even having a heart attack, but it doesn't seem worth mentioning. "Katniss, I don't think President Snow will kill Peeta," she says. Of course, she says this; it's what she thinks will calm me. But her next words come as a surprise. "If he does, he won't have anyone left you want. He won't have any way to hurt you." Suddenly, I am reminded of another girl, one who had seen all the evil the Capitol had to offer. Johanna Mason, the tribute from District 7, in the last arena. I was trying to prevent her from going into the jungle where the jabberjays mimicked the voices of loved ones being tortured, but she brushed me off, saying, "They can't hurt me. I'm not like the rest of you. There's no one left I love." Then I know Prim is right, that Snow cannot afford to waste Peeta's life, especially now, while the Mockingjay causes so much havoc. He's killed Cinna already. Destroyed my home. My family, Gale, and even Haymitch are out of his reach. Peeta's all he has left. "So, what do you think they'll do to him?" I ask. Prim sounds about a thousand years old when she speaks. "Whatever it takes to break you."
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hudsonespie · 4 years
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COVID-19 and the Straining U.S. Merchant Marine
[By Dr. Salvatore R. Mercogliano]
On July 29, 2020, the heads of three maritime unions – Marshall Ainley of the Marine Engineers’ Beneficial Association, Don Marcus from the International Organization of Masters, Mate & Pilots, and Michael Sacco, the long-time President of Seafarers International Union – jointly penned a letter to Rear Admiral Michael A. Wettlaufer, the Commander of the U.S. Navy’s Military Sealift Command. In their one-page letter, they were blunt and to the point: “We are writing to you today to communicate our ongoing and increasingly grave concerns regarding the mental health and well-being of MSC’s CIVMARS [civilian mariners].”
They highlighted three specific issue. First, the March 21, 2020 “Gangway Up” order that restricted merchant mariners to their ships due to the COVID-19 outbreak. While the act was prudent and ensured the readiness of the vessels to respond to missions, it was done with no warning and more importantly, did not apply to naval personnel assigned to the vessels or contractors. Therefore, the quarantine intended to be in place on board ship was broken daily, while crewmembers who reported on board for work that morning found themselves trapped and threatened with termination if they left the vessel, while others moved freely on and off the ship. This became apparent with a breakout on board USNS Leroy Grumman undergoing a yard availability in Boston.
The second issue involved the recent tragedy on board USNS Amelia Earhart. On July 22, third officer Jonathon J. Morris of San Mateo, CA fatally shot himself on board. The letter from the three union heads noted, “the ongoing and selective ‘Gangways Up’ restriction may have, in some part, contributed to the unnecessary and senseless act.”’ While there is no evidence to indicate this, my personal communications with crewmembers on board Amelia Earhart indicate that the event has not triggered any change in the operation of the vessel. While counselors were sent to the ship, its operations continue with no safety stand down, and not even a chaplain accompanied the vessel as it sailed to perform services for the fleet with some of the mariners not setting foot on ground for almost a half a year, except to remove the body of their shipmate. Mariners remained restricted to the ship in port, while active duty Navy personnel left the vessel.
The final issue is the delay in reliefs for crews, up to 90 days late in some cases. Many mariners have not been home since the COVID-19 outbreak hit the United States or were permitted ashore in that time period. MSC’s leave policy for its mariners is well outside the norms of common maritime industry practice because mariners hired directly by MSC must conform to government employment rules, even though they operate in an environment completely different than the normal federal employee. Mariners earn a set number of hours of leave every two weeks.  The only addition is 14 days of annual shore leave. For new employees to MSC, this means 10 months onboard ship (tours are usually limited to four months, but delays are typical) and only two on land in a year.
While shore-side government workers enjoy flex work schedules, weekends at home, get holidays off, enjoy the occasional snow day, and can schedule vacations well in advance, MSC mariners are toiling at least eight hours a day, seven days a week for a minimum of four months at a time when wages are comparable to those ashore. They miss weekends, holidays, birthdays, anniversaries, events with children, and now they face prolonged wait for relief. Unlike Navy sailors, MSC mariners do not rotate to shore billets or have many of the opportunities for education and training afforded to naval personnel. Even worse, those waiting to get out to ships have used all their leave and are now ashore, considered absent without leave, and not being paid as they await a call to report back to work for a potential assignment out to the fleet.
This is the situation facing 5,383 MSC mariners who crew 20 percent of the 301 ships in the U.S. Navy.  Let that number sink in for a moment: one out of every five ships in the battle force of the U.S. Navy is crewed by merchant mariners and not U.S. Navy sailors. All 29 of the auxiliary supply ships, the dozen fast transport ships, and the fleet tugs and salvage ships are all operated and commanded by merchant mariners. Some ships, such as the submarine tenders, command ships, and expeditionary support bases, while commanded by a naval officer, have merchant mariners who operate the deck, engine, and steward departments on board. This does not include the fleet of contract operated vessels in the afloat prepositioning force, sonar surveillance, ocean survey or sealift vessels with another 1,400 contract merchant mariners.
Yet these recent issues facing the Merchant Marine are not simply the product of COVID or other recent events. They are simply yet another expression of the longstanding problems of status the Merchant Marine has faced within the U.S. Navy.
Inequality in the Merchant Marine
Throughout the U.S. Navy, specialized communities are commanded by one of their own – submariners command submarines, aviators command squadrons and carriers, SEALs command special operations, and so forth. Yet, when it comes to merchant mariners, they fall under the command of serving U.S. naval officers with little to no experience with merchant mariners.
Recently, MSC had two commanders – Mark Buzby and T. K. Shannon who graduated from merchant marine academies and were at least familiar with the U.S. merchant marine. The last two MSC commanders – Dee Mewbourne and Michael Wettlaufer – are both aviators. In the past, non-surface warfare commanders have done exceedingly well, particularly two submariners – Glynn Donaho and Lawson Ramage. They oversaw MSC’s forerunner – Military Sea Transportation Service (MSTS) – during the Vietnam era, when the service handled mainly passengers, cargo, and fuel and they were experts in disrupting those services due to their experience with sinking the Japanese merchant marine in the Second World War.
Today, MSC is integrated into the fleet structure and many of its previous sealift missions are shared with the Army’s Surface Deployment and Distribution Command and the United States Transportation Command. With the end of naval manning of auxiliaries in 2010, all of them are operated by MSC mariners, with some hybrid crews. No longer do MSC tankers and supply ships shuttle up to U.S. Navy auxiliaries attached to battle groups, but mariner-crewed oilers and combat supply ships are both shuttle and station ships for the U.S. Navy. Yet these ships lack two critical assets from their grey hull counterparts.
First, they have no means of defense at all. MSC ships, except for small arms, are completely unarmed. Ships that are intended to provide the fuel, ammunition, and vital supplies to keep an entire carrier strike group or Marine amphibious assault task force at sea lack even point-defense weapons. In the world wars, the U.S. Navy assigned armed guard detachments to merchant vessels to defend the ships. While Kaiser-class oilers have the mounts for close-in weapons systems (CIWS), they lack the weapons. If an enemy nation wanted to eliminate the threat of the U.S. Navy, why would it go head-to-head with a Nimitz-class carrier when all it could to do is wait, shadow, and sink unarmed supply ships and then wait for the task force to run out of gas?
Additionally, those mariners who now find themselves not dead or killed in the initial attack, but afloat in a life raft, face another challenge – what is their status? Not whether they are dead or alive, but are they considered veterans? They face on a common day the same challenges and threats as that of U.S. Navy sailors, but they are not considered veterans. Even those mariners that experienced the Second World War had to wait over 40 years, until 1988, to get their service acknowledged as veteran through a lawsuit.
Some argue that merchant mariners are contractors and therefore do not deserve this. But how many contractors command assets in the Unified Command Structure of the military? No contractor commands a squadron in the Air Force, or a battalion in the Army or Marines, yet one-fifth of the Navy’s ships have a merchant mariner in command. The Navy gets all the benefits of a sailor without giving the mariner those same benefits. That is a deal, but for the Navy.
Some say the easiest solution is to replace mariners on the 60-plus ships with U.S. Navy sailors, but it has been tried before. This unique arrangement came into being at the founding of the Navy. The first ships brought into the Navy were merchant ships along the dock in Philadelphia. The two founding fathers of the Navy – John Paul Jones and John Barry – learned their trade as master mariners. In the Revolutionary War and War of 1812, private men of war (privateers) vastly outnumbered public men of war. In the Civil War, mariners kept the Union army supplied along the coasts and rivers. At the end of the Spanish-American War, with a global empire, the Navy needed to prioritize its personnel and decided to hire a civilian crew to man USS Alexander, a collier. By 1917, almost all the Navy fuel ships were civilian manned by elements of the Naval Auxiliary Service. With the outbreak of war, and concerns of foreign elements in some of the crews, and a massive increase in the size of the Navy personnel, the crews of the NAS were militarized, and later the commercial passenger ships in the Transport Force. The Navy resisted civilian crewing, and in 1942 President Roosevelt placed the building, crewing, and operating of the commercial merchant marine in the hands of one person – Emory S. Land.
After the successes of the Second World War, the use of civilian-crewed merchant ships was cemented with the creation of the Military Sea Transportation Service (MSTS). It was expanded in 1972 when the first underway replenishment oiler, Taluga, was transferred to civilian control. While some in the Navy may advocate for removing the civilian crews from the MSC ships today, the Navy already lacks the necessary personnel for its current assets, let alone an additional 60 ships, or the expertise in handling such assets.
Creating Paths to Command
This comes to the final point – how to address the issues raised by the heads of the unions based on the current situation facing the Military Sealift Command. The solution comes from the history of MSC’s forerunner, MSTS, and its counterpart across the seas, the Royal Fleet Auxiliary (RFA) of Great Britain. Within MSC’s command structure are five Senior Executives – Legal Counsel, Director of Total Force Management, Director of Ship Management, Director of Maritime Operations, and Executive Director. They are all stellar and outstanding qualified people, and MSC is fortunate to have them. I know many of them and have worked with some of them in the past. They have impressive biographies and two of them graduated from merchant marine academies.
Yet nowhere in the chain of command for MSC is a Master or Chief Engineer from the fleet. They serve as Port Captains and Engineers and advise area commands, but there is no career path from the deckplate to the headquarters. That is a fundamental flaw in the organization and leads to the disconnect currently besetting the fleet.
In comparison, the Royal Fleet Auxiliary is commanded by Commodore Duncan Lamb. He has been in the RFA for 38 years and commanded many vessels in the fleet. His announced successor, Capt. David Eagles, has served with the RFA for more than 30 years. Unlike MSC, the RFA integrates their personnel into the command structure of the Royal Navy and therefore they have the opportunity for billets ashore and work within the shore base Navy.
What works for the Royal Navy may not work for the U.S. Navy, such as how Prince Edward* is the Commodore-in-Chief of the RFA, and they are much more regimented than MSC. However, they do have Royal Navy detachments on board for self-defense. The Royal Navy has a better understanding of how RFA ships work as demonstrated by their integration into the fleet during the Falklands Conflict of 1982.
A model where MSC mariners, starting at the junior level – 2nd Mate or Engineer – have the option for a career path that would involve assignment ashore to MSC area commands and fleets may better inform naval personnel of the particular needs of merchant mariners. Additionally, the appointment of senior master or chief engineer as vice commander at both the area command and headquarters level could ease the transition of new commanders who have little to no experience with MSC and provide a conduit and perspective from the fleet to the headquarters.
It is very doubtful that the Navy would allow any of its commands to be structured in a similar way. A small group of naval officers – 323 active Navy sailors – oversees MSC from its headquarters in Norfolk, to the five area commands and in dozens of offices around the world. This disconnect, with officers and civilians who have never served or commanded vessels with merchant marine crews or any of the types operated by MSC, explains why the issues raised by the union heads pervade the fleet. It appears that the role of merchant mariners in the role of national defense is reaching an inflection point.
Conclusion
Merchant mariners crew the fleet auxiliaries providing fuel, ammunition, and supplies to the U.S. Navy at sea. They operate the afloat prepositioning ships that would deploy the initial elements of Marine and Army brigades, along with materiel to a potential battlefield. They crew the 61 ships maintained by the Maritime Administration in the Ready Reserve Force and MSC’s sealift force, and they crew the 60 commercial ships of the Maritime Security Program. They are foundational to the nation’s ability to maintain, deploy, and sustain its armed forces abroad, and they cannot be easily replaced by naval personnel.
Yet despite this vital role, they lack representation within the command structure of the U.S. Navy. They are taken for granted by the Department of Defense and the public in general. They are overlooked in most strategic studies of American military policy and posture. And yet it is not clear whether in a future war the nation will be able to count on the U.S. merchant marine as it has in past conflicts.
This issue is not one caused by Admiral Wettlaufer, or any of the previous MSC commanders. It is a problem that has manifested itself as the command evolved from a primarily transport force of cargo, troops, and fuel, to one that is firmly integrated into the fleet structure in terms of ships. But the same cannot be said of its personnel.
MSC has undergone periodic transformations, alterations, and inflection points, and COVID-19 may be one of those moments. A group of former commanders, retired masters and chief engineers, and experts in the field should be formed to examine how to restructure MSC and present recommendations to the Secretary of the Navy and Chief of Naval Operations. The Royal Fleet Auxiliary and past civilian shipping entities can serve as models for how Military Sealift Command can proceed into its 72nd year of existence, and ease the issues facing the fleet and mariners today.
Salvatore R. Mercogliano is a former merchant mariner, having sailed and worked ashore for the Military Sealift Command. He is an associate professor of history at Campbell University and an adjunct professor at the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy. 
*Editor’s Note: Prince Andrew was originally listed as being the Commodore-in-Chief of the RFA when it is Prince Edward.
This article appears courtesy of CIMSEC and may be found in its original form here.
from Storage Containers https://www.maritime-executive.com/article/covid-19-and-the-straining-u-s-merchant-marine via http://www.rssmix.com/
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hudsonespie · 4 years
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COVID-19 and the Straining U.S. Merchant Marine
[By Dr. Salvatore R. Mercogliano]
On July 29, 2020, the heads of three maritime unions – Marshall Ainley of the Marine Engineers’ Beneficial Association, Don Marcus from the International Organization of Masters, Mate & Pilots, and Michael Sacco, the long-time President of Seafarers International Union – jointly penned a letter to Rear Admiral Michael A. Wettlaufer, the Commander of the U.S. Navy’s Military Sealift Command. In their one-page letter, they were blunt and to the point: “We are writing to you today to communicate our ongoing and increasingly grave concerns regarding the mental health and well-being of MSC’s CIVMARS [civilian mariners].”
They highlighted three specific issue. First, the March 21, 2020 “Gangway Up” order that restricted merchant mariners to their ships due to the COVID-19 outbreak. While the act was prudent and ensured the readiness of the vessels to respond to missions, it was done with no warning and more importantly, did not apply to naval personnel assigned to the vessels or contractors. Therefore, the quarantine intended to be in place on board ship was broken daily, while crewmembers who reported on board for work that morning found themselves trapped and threatened with termination if they left the vessel, while others moved freely on and off the ship. This became apparent with a breakout on board USNS Leroy Grumman undergoing a yard availability in Boston.
The second issue involved the recent tragedy on board USNS Amelia Earhart. On July 22, third officer Jonathon J. Morris of San Mateo, CA fatally shot himself on board. The letter from the three union heads noted, “the ongoing and selective ‘Gangways Up’ restriction may have, in some part, contributed to the unnecessary and senseless act.”’ While there is no evidence to indicate this, my personal communications with crewmembers on board Amelia Earhart indicate that the event has not triggered any change in the operation of the vessel. While counselors were sent to the ship, its operations continue with no safety stand down, and not even a chaplain accompanied the vessel as it sailed to perform services for the fleet with some of the mariners not setting foot on ground for almost a half a year, except to remove the body of their shipmate. Mariners remained restricted to the ship in port, while active duty Navy personnel left the vessel.
The final issue is the delay in reliefs for crews, up to 90 days late in some cases. Many mariners have not been home since the COVID-19 outbreak hit the United States or were permitted ashore in that time period. MSC’s leave policy for its mariners is well outside the norms of common maritime industry practice because mariners hired directly by MSC must conform to government employment rules, even though they operate in an environment completely different than the normal federal employee. Mariners earn a set number of hours of leave every two weeks.  The only addition is 14 days of annual shore leave. For new employees to MSC, this means 10 months onboard ship (tours are usually limited to four months, but delays are typical) and only two on land in a year.
While shore-side government workers enjoy flex work schedules, weekends at home, get holidays off, enjoy the occasional snow day, and can schedule vacations well in advance, MSC mariners are toiling at least eight hours a day, seven days a week for a minimum of four months at a time when wages are comparable to those ashore. They miss weekends, holidays, birthdays, anniversaries, events with children, and now they face prolonged wait for relief. Unlike Navy sailors, MSC mariners do not rotate to shore billets or have many of the opportunities for education and training afforded to naval personnel. Even worse, those waiting to get out to ships have used all their leave and are now ashore, considered absent without leave, and not being paid as they await a call to report back to work for a potential assignment out to the fleet.
This is the situation facing 5,383 MSC mariners who crew 20 percent of the 301 ships in the U.S. Navy.  Let that number sink in for a moment: one out of every five ships in the battle force of the U.S. Navy is crewed by merchant mariners and not U.S. Navy sailors. All 29 of the auxiliary supply ships, the dozen fast transport ships, and the fleet tugs and salvage ships are all operated and commanded by merchant mariners. Some ships, such as the submarine tenders, command ships, and expeditionary support bases, while commanded by a naval officer, have merchant mariners who operate the deck, engine, and steward departments on board. This does not include the fleet of contract operated vessels in the afloat prepositioning force, sonar surveillance, ocean survey or sealift vessels with another 1,400 contract merchant mariners.
Yet these recent issues facing the Merchant Marine are not simply the product of COVID or other recent events. They are simply yet another expression of the longstanding problems of status the Merchant Marine has faced within the U.S. Navy.
Inequality in the Merchant Marine
Throughout the U.S. Navy, specialized communities are commanded by one of their own – submariners command submarines, aviators command squadrons and carriers, SEALs command special operations, and so forth. Yet, when it comes to merchant mariners, they fall under the command of serving U.S. naval officers with little to no experience with merchant mariners.
Recently, MSC had two commanders – Mark Buzby and T. K. Shannon who graduated from merchant marine academies and were at least familiar with the U.S. merchant marine. The last two MSC commanders – Dee Mewbourne and Michael Wettlaufer – are both aviators. In the past, non-surface warfare commanders have done exceedingly well, particularly two submariners – Glynn Donaho and Lawson Ramage. They oversaw MSC’s forerunner – Military Sea Transportation Service (MSTS) – during the Vietnam era, when the service handled mainly passengers, cargo, and fuel and they were experts in disrupting those services due to their experience with sinking the Japanese merchant marine in the Second World War.
Today, MSC is integrated into the fleet structure and many of its previous sealift missions are shared with the Army’s Surface Deployment and Distribution Command and the United States Transportation Command. With the end of naval manning of auxiliaries in 2010, all of them are operated by MSC mariners, with some hybrid crews. No longer do MSC tankers and supply ships shuttle up to U.S. Navy auxiliaries attached to battle groups, but mariner-crewed oilers and combat supply ships are both shuttle and station ships for the U.S. Navy. Yet these ships lack two critical assets from their grey hull counterparts.
First, they have no means of defense at all. MSC ships, except for small arms, are completely unarmed. Ships that are intended to provide the fuel, ammunition, and vital supplies to keep an entire carrier strike group or Marine amphibious assault task force at sea lack even point-defense weapons. In the world wars, the U.S. Navy assigned armed guard detachments to merchant vessels to defend the ships. While Kaiser-class oilers have the mounts for close-in weapons systems (CIWS), they lack the weapons. If an enemy nation wanted to eliminate the threat of the U.S. Navy, why would it go head-to-head with a Nimitz-class carrier when all it could to do is wait, shadow, and sink unarmed supply ships and then wait for the task force to run out of gas?
Additionally, those mariners who now find themselves not dead or killed in the initial attack, but afloat in a life raft, face another challenge – what is their status? Not whether they are dead or alive, but are they considered veterans? They face on a common day the same challenges and threats as that of U.S. Navy sailors, but they are not considered veterans. Even those mariners that experienced the Second World War had to wait over 40 years, until 1988, to get their service acknowledged as veteran through a lawsuit.
Some argue that merchant mariners are contractors and therefore do not deserve this. But how many contractors command assets in the Unified Command Structure of the military? No contractor commands a squadron in the Air Force, or a battalion in the Army or Marines, yet one-fifth of the Navy’s ships have a merchant mariner in command. The Navy gets all the benefits of a sailor without giving the mariner those same benefits. That is a deal, but for the Navy.
Some say the easiest solution is to replace mariners on the 60-plus ships with U.S. Navy sailors, but it has been tried before. This unique arrangement came into being at the founding of the Navy. The first ships brought into the Navy were merchant ships along the dock in Philadelphia. The two founding fathers of the Navy – John Paul Jones and John Barry – learned their trade as master mariners. In the Revolutionary War and War of 1812, private men of war (privateers) vastly outnumbered public men of war. In the Civil War, mariners kept the Union army supplied along the coasts and rivers. At the end of the Spanish-American War, with a global empire, the Navy needed to prioritize its personnel and decided to hire a civilian crew to man USS Alexander, a collier. By 1917, almost all the Navy fuel ships were civilian manned by elements of the Naval Auxiliary Service. With the outbreak of war, and concerns of foreign elements in some of the crews, and a massive increase in the size of the Navy personnel, the crews of the NAS were militarized, and later the commercial passenger ships in the Transport Force. The Navy resisted civilian crewing, and in 1942 President Roosevelt placed the building, crewing, and operating of the commercial merchant marine in the hands of one person – Emory S. Land.
After the successes of the Second World War, the use of civilian-crewed merchant ships was cemented with the creation of the Military Sea Transportation Service (MSTS). It was expanded in 1972 when the first underway replenishment oiler, Taluga, was transferred to civilian control. While some in the Navy may advocate for removing the civilian crews from the MSC ships today, the Navy already lacks the necessary personnel for its current assets, let alone an additional 60 ships, or the expertise in handling such assets.
Creating Paths to Command
This comes to the final point – how to address the issues raised by the heads of the unions based on the current situation facing the Military Sealift Command. The solution comes from the history of MSC’s forerunner, MSTS, and its counterpart across the seas, the Royal Fleet Auxiliary (RFA) of Great Britain. Within MSC’s command structure are five Senior Executives – Legal Counsel, Director of Total Force Management, Director of Ship Management, Director of Maritime Operations, and Executive Director. They are all stellar and outstanding qualified people, and MSC is fortunate to have them. I know many of them and have worked with some of them in the past. They have impressive biographies and two of them graduated from merchant marine academies.
Yet nowhere in the chain of command for MSC is a Master or Chief Engineer from the fleet. They serve as Port Captains and Engineers and advise area commands, but there is no career path from the deckplate to the headquarters. That is a fundamental flaw in the organization and leads to the disconnect currently besetting the fleet.
In comparison, the Royal Fleet Auxiliary is commanded by Commodore Duncan Lamb. He has been in the RFA for 38 years and commanded many vessels in the fleet. His announced successor, Capt. David Eagles, has served with the RFA for more than 30 years. Unlike MSC, the RFA integrates their personnel into the command structure of the Royal Navy and therefore they have the opportunity for billets ashore and work within the shore base Navy.
What works for the Royal Navy may not work for the U.S. Navy, such as how Prince Edward* is the Commodore-in-Chief of the RFA, and they are much more regimented than MSC. However, they do have Royal Navy detachments on board for self-defense. The Royal Navy has a better understanding of how RFA ships work as demonstrated by their integration into the fleet during the Falklands Conflict of 1982.
A model where MSC mariners, starting at the junior level – 2nd Mate or Engineer – have the option for a career path that would involve assignment ashore to MSC area commands and fleets may better inform naval personnel of the particular needs of merchant mariners. Additionally, the appointment of senior master or chief engineer as vice commander at both the area command and headquarters level could ease the transition of new commanders who have little to no experience with MSC and provide a conduit and perspective from the fleet to the headquarters.
It is very doubtful that the Navy would allow any of its commands to be structured in a similar way. A small group of naval officers – 323 active Navy sailors – oversees MSC from its headquarters in Norfolk, to the five area commands and in dozens of offices around the world. This disconnect, with officers and civilians who have never served or commanded vessels with merchant marine crews or any of the types operated by MSC, explains why the issues raised by the union heads pervade the fleet. It appears that the role of merchant mariners in the role of national defense is reaching an inflection point.
Conclusion
Merchant mariners crew the fleet auxiliaries providing fuel, ammunition, and supplies to the U.S. Navy at sea. They operate the afloat prepositioning ships that would deploy the initial elements of Marine and Army brigades, along with materiel to a potential battlefield. They crew the 61 ships maintained by the Maritime Administration in the Ready Reserve Force and MSC’s sealift force, and they crew the 60 commercial ships of the Maritime Security Program. They are foundational to the nation’s ability to maintain, deploy, and sustain its armed forces abroad, and they cannot be easily replaced by naval personnel.
Yet despite this vital role, they lack representation within the command structure of the U.S. Navy. They are taken for granted by the Department of Defense and the public in general. They are overlooked in most strategic studies of American military policy and posture. And yet it is not clear whether in a future war the nation will be able to count on the U.S. merchant marine as it has in past conflicts.
This issue is not one caused by Admiral Wettlaufer, or any of the previous MSC commanders. It is a problem that has manifested itself as the command evolved from a primarily transport force of cargo, troops, and fuel, to one that is firmly integrated into the fleet structure in terms of ships. But the same cannot be said of its personnel.
MSC has undergone periodic transformations, alterations, and inflection points, and COVID-19 may be one of those moments. A group of former commanders, retired masters and chief engineers, and experts in the field should be formed to examine how to restructure MSC and present recommendations to the Secretary of the Navy and Chief of Naval Operations. The Royal Fleet Auxiliary and past civilian shipping entities can serve as models for how Military Sealift Command can proceed into its 72nd year of existence, and ease the issues facing the fleet and mariners today.
Salvatore R. Mercogliano is a former merchant mariner, having sailed and worked ashore for the Military Sealift Command. He is an associate professor of history at Campbell University and an adjunct professor at the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy. 
*Editor’s Note: Prince Andrew was originally listed as being the Commodore-in-Chief of the RFA when it is Prince Edward.
This article appears courtesy of CIMSEC and may be found in its original form here.
from Storage Containers https://maritime-executive.com/article/covid-19-and-the-straining-u-s-merchant-marine via http://www.rssmix.com/
0 notes