MARINE ENGINEERS' BENEFICIAL ASSOCIATION (AFL-CIO)
         "On Watch in Peace and War Since 1875"

MEBA TELEX TIMES       FEBRUARY 29, 2008

The Official Union Newsletter

NUMBER 9

In this issue...
M.E.B.A. ship to the rescue...CAA Reunion is set...Other M.E.B.A./MSC ships in the news...With a lot on our plate, we get fed up and go back for yet another helping of industry items in an overindulgent, voracious maritime feeding frenzy. Don't spoil your appetite on meager, indigestible newsletters that are hard to stomach. Tell them to get stuffed! Come gorge yourself to excess on a ravenous glut of news that will feed your insatiable hunger for knowledge. You too can be a compulsive over-reader - you just can't get enough of the Telex Times!

M.E.B.A.-CREWED MSC SHIP INVOLVED IN RESCUE
Military Sealift Command dry cargo/ammunition ship USNS SACAGAWEA rescued 10 Iraqi citizens from a sinking 250-foot coastal tanker in the Central Arabian Gulf last Friday.

The Bahrain-based Maritime Liaison Office issued an alert that the North Korean-flagged vessel MV NADI was sinking and that her crew needed assistance. NADI, which was actively flooding, had been operating without power for a week and its crew members were suffering from dehydration and exhaustion. SACAGAWEA, which was conducting logistics operations in the area, arrived on-scene to help shortly after the distress call was issued.

Aircraft from USS TRUMAN's Helicopter Anti-Submarine Squadron 7 picked up the seamen and delivered them to SACAGAWEA where they were examined by medical officers.

"SACAGAWEA's crew provided shower facilities, laundered the rescued crew's clothing and provided meals," said Sacagawea's master Capt. George McCarthy. "Many crew members also generously donated clothing, outerwear and shoes."

"MV NADI's captain thanked SACAGAWEA's crew for 'giving us back our lives,'" said Capt. McCarthy.

On Feb. 23 they transferred the Iraqi mariners to the UK's Royal Fleet Auxiliary landing dock ship CARDIGAN BAY. On Feb. 24 the mariners were transferred to the Iraqi Navy for further transport to their country of origin.

CAA TO HOST REUNION AT THE SCHOOL IN LATE JUNE
The Calhoon Alumni Association has announced that it has scheduled its Reunion for this summer to take place at the Calhoon M.E.B.A. Engineering School from June 27-29. Newly elected CAA President Mike Fanning put the plan in place and all systems are go for a weekend of fun where members and retirees reunite and swap sea stories. It kicks off on Friday, June 27th with the showdown on the golf course. Dazzling prizes await the winners so sign up right away. The all-day picnic takes place on Saturday, June 28th. Events and activities are still being shored up but be assured - it's gonna be great! Mark your calendar now. You'll need a place to stay and the School can help make your arrangements. Further details will be imparted in future editions of the Telex Times as well as on the School's website and the CAA link you can find there. Registration forms will be available online soon enough and will likely be forwarded to the Union halls as well. Also, Mike Fanning or his designee will be able to communicate with you through this brand new e-mail address: caa@mebaschool.org.  Mark your calendars now!

SS UNITED STATES MEMORABILIA AT CALHOON SCHOOL
As reported on the Calhoon M.E.B.A. Engineering School's website (www.mebaschool.org), the CMES is now displaying some important relics from one of this country's classic ocean liners.

Through the generosity of Al & Paulette Lawing -- a couple local to the area - the School now has memorabilia from the SS UNITED STATES on display. Items include: the builders and designers plates, china, silverware, copper serving pans and bowls, log books, deck plans, the gangway sign, luggage tags and stickers, souvenirs for passengers, and many more. Their collection is on loan to the School for one year and is on display, along with other SS UNITED STATES memorabilia, in the Admin Building. A web page containing photos of the exhibit will become available in the near future. Many thanks to Al and Paulette for thinking of CMES as a temporary home for their treasures!

M.E.B.A. SHIP HAD PART IN NAVY'S SATELLITE 'INTERCEPTION'
Last week's news that the Navy successfully shot down a secret satellite that was hurtling towards the earth had an M.E.B.A. tie-in.

The National Reconnaissance Office's unresponsive satellite became a target in part to negate the stores of hydrazine fuel onboard that could potentially be harmful upon impact with earth. The Navy modified three SM-3 missiles to strike the satellite and the Guided Missile Cruiser USS LAKE ERIE struck the knock-out blow to the satellite over the Pacific Ocean in one shot. Sources declared the mission a success.

The fleet replenishment oiler USNS GUADALUPE, an M.E.B.A.-crewed Military Sealift Command ship, sortied from San Diego to support the mission. Instead of conducting a two-week repair period, the ship was given short-notice tasking and got underway with enough fuel to replenish the other ships involved in the operation. Hours after the interception, GUADALUPE provided about 50,000 gallons of fuel to LAKE ERIE and 45,000 gallons to guided missile destroyer USS DECATUR. In addition, it was reported that three MSC fleet ocean tugs were involved in the operation recovering debris. MSC has four ocean tugs, each crewed by the M.E.B.A. The four in the fleet are USNS SIOUX USNS CATAWBA, USNS APACHE and USNS NAVAJO. The specific vessels that took part in the recovery were not specified.

"I'm proud that our MSC ships were able to support the intercept on such short notice," said Capt. David Kiehl, commander of MSC's Sealift Logistics Command Pacific.

M.E.B.A. SURVEY SHIP VISIT MARKS 30 YEARS OF COOPERATION WITH INDONESIA
The Military Sealift Command oceanographic survey ship USNS MARY SEARS (T-AGS 65), crewed with M.E.B.A. officers, pulled into Jakarta, Indonesia last week, marking 30 years of bilateral cooperation in hydrographic surveying between the U.S. and Indonesian navies. Since the first joint survey mission was conducted in 1978, it is estimated that the U.S. and Indonesia have engaged in over 200 survey mission around Indonesia-a vast archipelago of more than 17,000 islands in Southeast Asia.

MARY SEARS uses sophisticated technology to create three-dimensional maps of the sea floor which is used in military and commercial maritime navigation. The ship also uses sensors to measure water temperature, salinity, and currents in the ocean.

The visit also marks the return of MARY SEARS to Indonesian waters since the survey ship helped the Indonesian navy locate a commercial jet that crashed off the coast of Sulawesi in January 2007. MARY SEARS found the Adam Air airliners' black box voice recorder, as well as scattered wreckage in waters about 2,000 meters deep. USNS JOHN McDONNELL, one of six other MSC oceanographic survey ships also crewed by M.E.B.A. officers, also surveyed areas off Aceh, Indonesia, in early 2005 when a tsunami devastated the island of Sumatra.

"Indonesia and the United States have a long history of hydrographic and oceanographic cooperation," said Capt. John Cousins, commanding officer of the Naval Oceanographic Office, based at Stennis Space Center, Miss. "We hope our visit here to Jakarta will lead to even more cooperation between our offices in the future."

U.S. VESSEL CHIEF ADMITS GUILT AFTER PULLING MAGIC PIPE TRICK
The former Chief Engineer of a U.S.-flagged car-carrier pleaded guilty this week to criminal charges related to the deliberate discharge of oil-contaminated bilge waste through a "magic pipe."

Patrick Brown, the former Chief Engineer of the M/V FIDELIO, renamed the M/V PATRIOT, pleaded guilty to conspiracy and making a false statement in a ship's Oil Record Book. Brown was employed by Pacific Gulf Marine Inc. (PGM), a vessel operator based in Gretna, LA., that previously pleaded guilty to its role in deliberately discharging hundreds of thousands of gallons of oil-contaminated bilge waste from four of its giant car-carrier ships, including the FIDELIO. PGM is NOT an M.E.B.A. company.

PGM was sentenced on Jan. 24, 2007, to pay $1 million in criminal fines and $500,000 in community service, and serve three years of probation under the terms of an environmental compliance plan.

Brown admitted that he used a bypass pipe to make deliberate overboard discharges of oil-contaminated bilge waste from 1994, when he began working as a Chief Engineer on the FIDELIO under a prior management company, through March 2003, when the Coast Guard discovered the bypass pipe during an inspection of the ship in Baltimore. During the Coast Guard inspection on March 29, 2003, inspectors lifted a deck plate and found a permanently installed bypass pipe on the FIDELIO that was part of the ship's original construction.

MARAD REACHES DEAL TO RECYCLE THREE MORE GHOST FLEET SHIPS
The Maritime Administration has signed contracts totaling $1,136,106 for the recycling of three more obsolete ships from its reserve fleets. All three ships will be recycled at the Esco Marine facility in Brownsville, Texas. Two of the vessels, CAPE CATOCHE and CAPE CARTHAGE, are in the James River Reserve Fleet site at Fort Eustis in Virginia. When they depart the James River site for recycling, they will be the 68th and 69th ships to do so since January of 2001. The third ship, DEL VIENTO, is in the Beaumont Reserve Fleet in Texas.

"Each time we move an obsolete ship out, we make an important contribution to maintaining the local ecosystem," said Maritime Administrator Sean T. Connaughton. The CAPE CARTHAGE and the CAPE CATOCHE are both breakbulk freighters built at the Avondale shipyard in Alabama in 1963. The DEL VIENTO, also a breakbulk freighter, was built at the Ingalls Shipyard in Pascagoula, Mississippi, in 1968.

CALIFORNIA EMISSIONS LAW BARRED
A U.S. federal appeals court has stopped California going ahead with a law to limit sulphur emissions from oceangoing ships without the federal government's approval. The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that California needs the country's Environmental Protection Agency's permission to mandate the use of low sulphur fuel.

This is the latest round in a legal battle between California and shipping interests which argue that environmental legislation should be uniform around the U.S. coast and that it follow IMO regulations. The California Air Resources Board started enforcing the new ship regulations in January of last year. A federal court blocked them in August. Now, that decision has been upheld on appeal.

REGULAR MONTHLY MEETINGS
Monday, March 3 - Boston, Seattle;
Tuesday, March 4 - Baltimore, Houston, Jacksonville. San Francisco;
Wednesday, March 5 - Calhoon School, Charleston, New Orleans, Portland;
Thursday, March 6 - L.A., New York, Norfolk, Tampa;
Friday, March 7 - Honolulu.

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