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Coast Guard’s Mariner Missions on the Front Burner Again DHS OIG Reports provide a shallow victory for USCG as another medical competency hearing kicks off. MERPAC’s fate is still unknown as SOCP steps up to fill the void. American mariners might ask: Is this progress? The final quarter of 2010 promises to be a busy one for the U.S. Coast Guard’s National Maritime Center (NMC), its policy group in Washington and their overarching mis- sion of handling the documentation and credentialing of more than 200,000 domestic mariners. Just one day short of commencing autumn, the ink is barely dry on two DHS reports that address (a) the Coast Guard's sys- tem for adjudicating suspension and revocation matters and (b) allegations of misconduct within the Coast Guard’s Administrative Law Judge Program. Meanwhile, the fate of maritime industry’s Merchant Marine Personnel Advisory Committee (MERPAC) is still up in the air at a time when it is most sorely needed. How both situa- tions are navigated by the Coast Guard — and the reaction that effort elicits from their domestic mariner con- stituents — will likely determine the tenor of the relationship between the two in the coming months and years. An excerpt of a post on MaritimeProfessional.com by Joseph Keefe on 9/22/2010
