other navy

As the Navy struggles to increase the size of its dwindling fleet, what’s known as the “other navy” is having little trouble.
Rear Adm. Carol Pottenger has about 40 ships under her wing now, including oilers, ammunition ships, salvage vessels, hospital ships, ocean tugs and combat stores ships. And she expects more.
Pottenger runs the Military Sealift Fleet Support Command in Norfolk, which mans, equips and maintains the fleet of ships owned and operated by the government. Unlike Navy warships, these are manned by civilian crews, which can be as small as one-third the size of Navy crews that once sailed them.
The oiler Bridge, for example, which Pottenger previously commanded, had a crew of 600 uniformed Navy sailors. When it was turned over to the sealift command, it needed only 120 civilian mariners and a cadre of five to 10 sailors to handle communications.
Automation in the engine room and on the bridge and the elimination of weapons systems allowed the crew to shrink.
The Military Sealift Command’s overall armada of about 185 non combatant ships largely goes uncounted when the Navy talks about its fighting fleet shrinking to 282 ships today.
The Navy has dropped from nearly 600 ships at the height of the military buildup during the Reagan administration; projected budgets indicate the figure will fall to 200 or 220, Adm. Mike Mullen, chief of naval operations, has said. He wants Congress to boost the number to 313 ships by 2012.
The civilian-crew program began in the 1970s and has expanded as the Navy sought to save money and become more efficient, Pottenger said.
The biggest savings comes from smaller crews, swapping crews while the cargo ships remain deployed overseas, and keeping the ships at sea longer than the traditional six months that Navy ships are away.
Crews can take vacations, get mandated training ashore or fill in on other ships while the ships spend more time at sea, supporting the fleet.
While Pottenger’s fleet of 40 ships, known as the Naval Fleet Auxiliary Force , is counted in the 282-ship Navy total, another 136 the sealift command operates or charters are not, she said.
Those include about 24 special-purpose ships, such as research, cable repair and missile range instrumentation ships; 36 ships pre positioned overseas carrying military equipment ; 28 s ealift s hips, carrying petroleum products; and a reserve force of 48 ships that can be quickly activated. All have civilian crews. Ships that belong to the Military S ealift C ommand are known as United States Naval Ships, or USNS ships, but are not commissioned as Navy warships. A gold and blue stripe is painted on their smokestacks to distinguish them from USS Navy ships. T hey also carry the prefix T before their hull numbers.
Pottenger heads a staff of about 470 in Hampton Roads, just 44 of them military. The command also employes 4,400 civilian mariners – expected to grow to 5,600 by 2009.
The mariners belong to the federal civil service, are union members and receive pay about equal to military positions.
Pottenger leaves her job Wednesday after a year to take command of Expeditionary Strike Group Seven in November. It is based in Okinawa, Japan, and is known as Amphibious Group One.
She will become the first woman to lead a combat strike group.

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