There are not enough Merchant Marines for the U.S. Navy to fully man 17 vessels, reportedly causing officials to plan to take them out of regular operation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Merchant Marines organization, made up of civilian mariners managed by a combination of federal government and the private sector, has lost<\/a> too much manpower to \u201cproperly crew and operate ships across the fleet,\u201d Fox News reported. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe problem, of course, is the ships are at sea, away from home port 12 months of the year,\u201d Rear Admiral (Ret.) Mark Montgomery, senior director of the Center on Cyber and Technology Innovation for the Foundation for Defense of Democracy, said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n While they are not officially members of the U.S. military, Merchant Marines are operators of commercial ships who also serve as an auxiliary during wartime or in a national emergency, according to the Department of Transportation\u2019s (DOT) Maritime Administration<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n According to Montgomery, \u201cWe\u2019re desperately short of the number of people.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThere\u2019s a lack of experienced merchant mariners to crew the ships, and this is really a clear danger to national security,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n