So who ever thought that the army had this many ships and boats

Oh yea, no surprise here, I live 5 minutes away from Fort Eustis, VA(JBLE). They have a reserve dead fleet of ships in the James River

A tour in Hawaii was educational. They had quite the job shuttling our crap between islands. Best detail ever was ride-along. Nothing for you to do but fish

To be honest LTC Bink Romanick, I was not tracking this until I was stationed in Hawaii. I learned about "Army boats" when we moved from Schofield Barracks to the Big Island for PTA rotations. I had no idea we had boats...

I believe the water transportation MOS is 88N. I did not know the Army even had water craft until recently. I think it's pretty amazing. So basically we are Sailors too.

Sir,
I found out during Transportation Basic Officer Leaders Course (T-BOLC). Ironically, I didn't pay attention to the class on Marine Operations, and I ended up as a boat PL as soon as I got in the AGR program.

The Living Quarters are also bigger than on a Navy ship. The USMC, USCG and USN personnel get a little envious of the bigger quarters when they tour our boats.

When I was in Ft Hunter-Liggett in 2010 getting ready to go to Afghanistan, there was a unit of Transportation Specialists, the crew of an Army boat, training alongside us during AWT and Battle Drills. It was apparent immediately that this was not a unit that did tactical training, and they collectively struggled with Soldier skills. They became known in the SPC Mafia as the "Boat People" - a moniker I discouraged but had to admit was funny.

I am sure that they were adept at operating their vessel, but counter IED, convoy ops, shooting at the range (one Soldier, a cook I think, had a straight anxiety attack when she had to shoot on the range!), all were anathema to them. It was an interesting group, to say the least.

Way back yesteryear... one of my young specialists was up for enlistment.. off he went to speak to retention..
He came back in a few hours giddy as can be....announcing he was to be reenlistment as a boat operator, and would likely be a boat captain within a few months or AIT..

I called retention and asked him WTF BS was this and why was he playing games with my Soldier...

Ah,,, no really, we have boats, there is an INCALL and umm, he is eligible to be boat driver.. I was thinking like a F470 Combat Rubber Raiding Craft (CRRC), "Zodiac" ?

No, an actual ship.... with crew, and stuff.

I'll be darned...

Prior to my assignment as the Battalion Maintenance Tech for both the 24th and 53rd Trans Battalions, I had no clue. I managed maintenance and logistics for many JLOTS exercises incorporating all aspects of the water transportation corps to include a very unique resupply mission to Antartica as part of Operation Deep Freeze. We constructed the modular causeway pier and established resupply operations for the McMurdo Station. I would not trade that assignment and all of its experiences for anything.

I knew we had some in Va but I did not know we had that many.

1SG Jerry Healy, "The boat people"...classic! I can see them relating and liking the name.