I never knew the army had their own navy.
Don’t you remember The Wackiest Ship in the Army? An old Jack Lemmon movie that they later made a TV series from.
> I never knew the army had their own navy. <
I didn’t either. But I must admit that it’s pretty clever. If it confuses us, it must certainly confuse our enemies.
In fact, I now urge the US Air Force to form its own tank divisions and its own submarine service. That would drive the ChiCom analysts crazy.
“I never knew the army had their own navy.I never knew the army had their own navy.”
Corp of Transportation, US Army, has an interesting array of ships.
The Army has one of the largest navies in NATO, currently 132 ships and water craft.
In WWII the Army had a bigger navy than the Navy.
http://www.usmm.org/armynavy.html
People also don’t know that the Army did the vast majority of the beach landings and the fighting in the Pacific, the Army’s Pacific losses were about equal to the entire WWII losses for the Navy and Marines combined.
[ssapro #9] I never knew the army had their own navy.[Leaning Right #21] I didn’t either. But I must admit that it’s pretty clever. If it confuses us, it must certainly confuse our enemies.
[Right_Wing_Madman #25] Yes, and the army actually has more boats than the navy.
A bunch of transport ships does not make a navy. As the Army braintrust has recently discovered, its ability to engage in contested logistics is sorely lacking. Contested logistics is trying to deliver supplies while a Russia or China is trying to stop you. The Army ships are for Army logistics in uncontested waters.
Does the Army have a fleet of combat warships to transport about a million men and equipment across an ocean without being sunk? What does an Army transport ship do when an enemy warship or submarine shows up?
Links only due to source, Army Times and Defense News.
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https://sealiftcommand.com/about-msc
The Military Sealift Command (MSC)
The U.S. Navy's Military Sealift Command is the premier provider of ocean transportation to the Department of Defense. The Command operates approximately 125 civilian-crewed ships that replenish U.S. Navy ships, conduct specialized missions, strategically preposition combat cargo at sea around the world and move military cargo and supplies used by deployed U.S. forces and coalition partners.While we do play a critical role in support of our nation's defense, our employees are not active duty members of the military. MSC civil service mariners (CIVMARs), the largest segment of our global workforce, are federal civil service employees.
All CIVMARs are employed by the Navy to serve MSC onboard naval auxiliaries and hybrid-manned warships worldwide, in peace and war. MSC exists to support the joint warfighter across the full spectrum of military operations. MSC provides on-time logistics, strategic sealift, as well as specialized missions anywhere in the world, in contested or uncontested environments.
We recruit transitioning military, merchant marines, maritime academy graduates, and skilled entry-level candidates to fill our maritime job opportunities. The MSC mission is big. So are the rewards for the CIVMARs who help us complete it.
The Army had amphibious landing craft and diesel electric locomotives at their transportation school at Ft. Eustis when I visited there years ago. They still have a great museum there.