MSC celebrates 51st year

WASHINGTON (USTCNS) --- The U.S. Navy's Military Sealift Command, the ocean transportation provider for the Department of Defense, marked 51 years of service to the nation on Sunday, Oct. 1.

Military Sealift Command was established on Oct. 1, 1949, consolidating four Department of Defense transportation agencies into one Navy command.

In the 51 years since, MSC has been involved in every major conflict of the latter half of the 20th century -- from the Korean War to the Vietnam War to Desert Storm to recent operations in Kosovo.

If the U.S. military was there -- from the jungles of Vietnam to the mountains of the Balkans, chances are the majority of their equipment got there by sea and got there aboard an MSC ship.

MSC is an integral part of peacetime operations as well,
transporting crucial supplies to remote Thule Air Force Base in Greenland once a year as well as equally remote McMurdo Station in Antarctica once a year.

MSC ships perform special missions such as mapping the world's oceans for the Oceanographer of the Navy and providing counter-drug support for the U.S. Coast Guard.

MSC is a critical part of U.S. deterrence around the globe. MSC ships preposition U.S. military equipment near potential hot spots worldwide.

MSC Combat Logistics Force ships provide food, fuel, spare parts and munitions to Navy combatant fleet ships forward deployed throughout the world, allowing the combatant fleet to stay on station, at sea and combat ready.

MSC ships perform all these unique missions with civilian crews -- both civil service mariners and contract mariners. MSC operates about 110 active ships everyday in 23 out of 24 time zones around the world.

As MSC enters its 51st year, the command continues to innovate and expand to meet the needs of a changing Navy and a changing world. In January the first of three MSC combat stores ships deployed to the Mediterranean with two commercial helicopters and accompanying personnel aboard, replacing the standard Navy helicopter detachment of two CH-46 helicopters and crew.

The commercial helicopters save the Navy money, free up Navy personnel for billets within the combatant fleet and offer a viable alternative for performing this type of mission to the aging fleet of CH-46 helicopters.

The commercial helicopters are currently deployed aboard a second combat stores ship and continue to receive rave reviews from fleet customers for their professionalism and the speed of their vertical replenishment missions.

MSC is also in the process of a major expansion of its sealift and prepositioning capability. By 2003, 20 large, medium-speed, roll-on/roll-off ships will have joined MSC's ship inventory, providing both surge sealift capability in contingencies and prepositioning capability to deter potential aggressors around the globe.

Each of these mammoth ships, about 950 feet long and about 105 feet wide, can carry approximately 380,000 square feet of cargo. (FROM MILITARY SEALIFT COMMAND PUBLIC AFFAIRS).