thedrifter
04-23-07, 08:39 AM
Congress asked to revise Sea Pay law
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Posted : April 30, 2007
With the first littoral combat ship in the water and its multicrew contingents expected to begin operations this year, Navy and Coast Guard officials have asked Congress to revise the current Career Sea Pay law to account for this new concept of going to sea.
The change is necessary, service officials say, because current qualification rules require a sailor or Coastie be assigned to a specific ship.
Those restrictions no longer apply to several new classes of ships, including LCS and the Navy’s future destroyers as well as the Coast Guard’s new National Security and Offshore Security cutters. Those ships will all have multiple crews that will rotate duty.
For example, for every three LCSs the Navy puts in the water, there will be four separate qualified crews. But no one crew will be assigned to a specific ship for more than six months. In essence, the ships will become more like gear — checked out for the deployment and turned back in at the end.
Under the proposed Sea Pay changes, simply being assigned to a rotating crew will now qualify. The goal is to prevent sailors or Coast Guardsmen from losing out on Sea Duty pay because of the unique rotational schedules they will likely have to maintain.
The Navy and Coast Guard expect to operate individual ships longer — possibly continuously — while the crews work on a set rotational schedule.
Ellie
-
Posted : April 30, 2007
With the first littoral combat ship in the water and its multicrew contingents expected to begin operations this year, Navy and Coast Guard officials have asked Congress to revise the current Career Sea Pay law to account for this new concept of going to sea.
The change is necessary, service officials say, because current qualification rules require a sailor or Coastie be assigned to a specific ship.
Those restrictions no longer apply to several new classes of ships, including LCS and the Navy’s future destroyers as well as the Coast Guard’s new National Security and Offshore Security cutters. Those ships will all have multiple crews that will rotate duty.
For example, for every three LCSs the Navy puts in the water, there will be four separate qualified crews. But no one crew will be assigned to a specific ship for more than six months. In essence, the ships will become more like gear — checked out for the deployment and turned back in at the end.
Under the proposed Sea Pay changes, simply being assigned to a rotating crew will now qualify. The goal is to prevent sailors or Coast Guardsmen from losing out on Sea Duty pay because of the unique rotational schedules they will likely have to maintain.
The Navy and Coast Guard expect to operate individual ships longer — possibly continuously — while the crews work on a set rotational schedule.
Ellie