Reflections On A Challenging Period

摘要

As I end my two-year term, I want to say what an honor it has been to serve you, our membership, as your President. It has been a tremendously rewarding and educational experience, filled with people who are friends, professionals, all committed to serving our maritime forces. I must say, it has not been the easiest time for our Society. It has been a period of tremendous turmoil for the U.S. Navy and Coast Guard as well. And since there is such a strong link between ASNE and our maritime forces, we follow the good times as well as the bad. During the last two years, we saw a massive hurricane severely damage and shut down Gulf Coast shipyards and make thousands of shipyard workers homeless. We saw a warship severely damaged in one of these yards resulting in tens of millions dollars worth of repairs and contract adjustments. We saw continued mergers and acquisitions, resulting in fewer and fewer companies that regularly sponsor ASNE. We saw two shipbuilding programs (both USN and USCG) get into severe distress resulting in very significant changes in government oversight and an industry searching for better answers.