Helis lied. Sea Year died.

It should have been an easy bet to win. After all, the leader of an institution that has an honor code that forbids a midshipman from lying, cheating or stealing wouldn’t lie, would he? Or, if he did, surely he would immediately tender his resignation. After all, any competent leader would recognize that at that point he had lost all moral authority to lead the institution. Right? Right?

Back in July, I offered $100,000 to the first person who could prove that Superintendent James Helis had not lied in this message posted on the Academy website. No one took the bet. Well Terry Gray reports that two weeks ago at the New York Parents Club meeting, a parent upped the bet and offered to buy Helis dinner and keep his (the parent’s) mouth shut for ever if Helis could prove that he had not lied.

Soooo, if the year as sea was deemed a problem, due to Sexual Assault, Sexual Harassment, and the Admiral simply decided to stop Midshipman going to sea; why do we have such a lousy institution and clown running it.

Sailors go to see! Crimes are committed! Do we just stop sailing the worlds oceans and defending our Freedom! Will we stop all commerce requiring transportation on the ocean.

You can’t even make this stuff up! Insanity is hard to Understand!

Terry L Walker
CWO5
Marine Gunner
USMC Retired
1974-2008

There’s ALSO a gravy train of 100s of millions of $$ for new training ships for the state-run schools - which will probably only get funded if the USMMA admin throws the federal Academy midshipmen OFF of their Sea Year service on commercial ships.

From KPS:

http://www.kingspointsentry.com/sea-year-stand-down/mystery-answered-creating-a-crisis-to-justify-new-training-ships/

“The training ships used by the state maritime schools are aging and need to be replaced. SUNY’s ship is the oldest and will age-out in 2019. MARAD, which currently loans federally owned ships to the six state schools, wants Congress to bail out the states and fund new ships at a cost of $300 million each, or $1.8 billion dollars (before cost overruns) for six. MARAD and the state schools have been trying to get the bailout funding for at least three years; but, so far they have not persuaded Congress to fund the bailout. Consequently, MARAD’s unelected bureaucracy has set about to create a crisis so that Congress will be forced to do MARAD’s bidding and fund new training ships for the state schools.

One of the biggest hurdles the states must overcome to persuade Congress to fund these ships (in addition to the basic question, “Why should the federal government fund a major capital investment for six state schools?”) is that few cadets from those schools graduate with a merchant marine obligation and military commitment. Only state school cadets who receive a tuition stipend from the federal government incur such an obligation. MARAD annually budgets for only 75 students (from all six state schools combined) to take the tuition stipend; but, MARAD rarely comes close to filling those 75 slots. In 2010, for example, only 38 graduates took the stipend, of which 4 were SUNY graduates. $300 million for a new SUNY training ship is a lot of money to spend on four students per year.

In contrast, every one of the approximately 225 graduates from USMMA graduate with USCG licenses and a merchant marine obligation/military commitment (and it is a longer obligation/commitment than the one imposed upon the state school students who receive stipends.) Thus, from a cost perspective, it would be far less expensive – and faster – to expand enrollment at the Academy by 75 midshipmen instead of building six new – very expensive – state training ships, the first of which could not be launched before 2021 at the earliest.”

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