SCOTT AIR FORCE BASE, Ill. – Defense, government, and maritime industry representatives held a table top exercise (TTX) to activate commercial ships to support the Department of Defense (DOD) during a national emergency.

More than 80 representatives from DOD, the Department of Transportation’s Maritime Administration (MARAD), commercial sealift carriers, and maritime labor gathered virtually last month for the TTX to talk through an activation of the Voluntary Intermodal Sealift Agreement (VISA). The agreement, which has never been activated, is an emergency resource designed to provide the department with sealift capacity necessary during a crisis or contingency.

Sealift plays a critical role in almost every large scale deployment of U.S. military equipment. U.S. Army General Stephen R. Lyons, United States Transportation Command (USTRANSCOM) commander, recently highlighted this in his address to the American Bureau of Shipping Annual Member and Advisory Council Meeting last November.

“When our Nation goes to war, so does the maritime industry,” he said, “With 85 percent of military forces based in the continental United States, nearly 90 percent of our military equipment is expected to deploy via sealift in a major conflict.”

Sealift is essential not only in crisis, but in everyday operations, with approximately 30 commercial and military ships on any given day moving freight around the world in support of DOD.

USTRANSCOM, along with its sea and land components, Military Sealift Command (MSC) and Military Surface Deployment and Distribution Command (SDDC), and in coordination with MARAD, manages a strategic sealift portfolio of commercial and government owned ships. These ships are operated by U.S. Merchant Mariners, ensuring preparedness for any scenario to move DOD resources anywhere around the world. The privately-owned U.S. merchant ships enrolled in VISA are one element of the broader portfolio. The Maritime Security Program (MSP), a government retainer program for internationally trading ships, is another element of the commercial fleet, as the ships included in MSP commit 100 percent of their capacity and supporting intermodal capabilities to VISA.

>>12952005

All told, VISA represents almost all of the U.S. flag commercial dry cargo fleet,” said Tim Boemecke, Commercial Sealift Program manager, USTRANSCOM Intermodal Division in the Strategic Plans, Policy and Logistics Directorate. “Many of these ships already provide day to day freight movement for the Department through either the Universal Services Contract operated by SDDC or through full ship charter contracts executed by MSC.”

When the need for large-scale, contingency sealift develops, DOD will generally first turn to its fleet of prepositioned vessels in place around the world and then rely on organic surge capacity provided by both MSC and MARAD. As the organic fleet is activated and mobilized, the enterprise also seeks voluntary U.S. and foreign flag commercial capacity to meet increased contingency demand. If sufficient capacity is not generated through these volunteers, VISA activation is the next option available.

“In the event of a contingency, VISA provides assured access through pre-established contracts for ship capacity and supporting intermodal capabilities that industry partners provide,” said Boemecke. “In most cases, the immediacy of the contingency response often requires ships operating in global trade to immediately discharge commercial cargoes and pick up military cargo.”

Should the USTRANSCOM commander, with approval from the Secretary of Defense, activate VISA, the ships would incrementally come under the operational control of MSC, through three stages. Each stage increases the percentage of total ship capacity enrolled in VISA that must be made available, starting at 15 percent in stage I, 40 percent in stage II, and 50 percent in stage III or 100 percent of capacity enrolled in MSP, whichever is greater. In an instance where stage III is reached and there is still more demand, the Department of Transportation would move to requisition the capacity required from additional U.S.-owned or flagged ships.

“Our partners at MARAD are involved throughout the entire process,” said Boemecke. “Especially so at stage III, where they take on the role of allocating sealift capacity to USTRANSCOM, in an effort to minimize the disruption to the national economy as many of the ships committed to stage III provide domestic service between U.S. ports.”

Northern District of Iowa

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Tuesday, February 16, 2021

Dubuque Woman to Spend 30 Years in Prison for Sexually Exploiting Children and Possessing Child Pornography

A woman who created sexually explicit images of two children was sentenced on February 12, 2021, to 30 years in federal prison

Gina Christa Urbain, age 37, from Dubuque, Iowa, received the prison term after an August 18, 2020 guilty plea to sexually exploiting children and possessing child pornography.

At the guilty plea, Urbain admitted that she sexually exploited two minors, a 7 year-old female and 5 year-old male, by creating visual depictions of sexually explicit material involving both children. Urbain also admitted possessing visual depictions of child pornography.

Urbain was sentenced in Cedar Rapids by United States District Court Judge C.J. Williams. Urbain was sentenced to 360 months’ imprisonment. She must also serve a five-year term of supervised release after the prison term. There is no parole in the federal system.

https://www.justice.gov/usao-ndia/pr/dubuque-woman-spend-30-years-prison-sexually-exploiting-children-and-possessing-child