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NEWS
MARK YOUR CALENDAR!
The date for the 2010
Officers Training Conference is September 12 – 17th.
PGM adds new vessel to their fleet.
(Courtesy of AMO Union)
In July 2010, Pacific-Gulf Marine (PGM) added a new heavy-lift vessel to its managed fleet of U.S.-flagged ships, increasing the total number of commercial and U.S. government vessels operated by PGM to ten and opening new jobs for American Maritime Officers members.
The Ocean Crescent is a sister ship to the heavy lift/project-cargo ships Ocean Charger, Ocean Atlas and Ocean Titan operated by PGM for Intermarine Inc.
"We're excited by the continued growth of the U.S.-flag fleet under the management of Pacific-Gulf Marine," said the AMO national president. "The continued success of PGM's U.S.-flag operations with Intermarine reflects in a very positive way on U.S.-flag commercial shipping and establishes an expanding source of new work for AMO officers."
The Ocean Crescent was re-flagged in July in Houston, Texas. The ship will be engaged in the international trades, moving commercial, U.S. military and government-impelled cargoes.
The Ocean Atlas and Ocean Titan are operated by PGM in the Maritime Security Program fleet. The Ocean Charger operates in international trades, moving project cargoes for commercial and government clients. Each of the 8,000 DWT heavy lift sister ships is 393 feet long and equipped with two 200-ton electro-hydraulic deck cranes, bringing valuable capabilities to the U.S.-flag fleet.
Ready Reserve Force Ship S/S Keystone State provides training platform for the U.S. Navy
(Courtesy of AMO Union)
On board the PGM managed RRF ship S/S Keystone State, Naval Cargo Handling Battalion # 3 trained onboard for two consecutive weeks in July 2010. The U.S. Navy has combat Battalions that are tasked to be able to handle cargo operations in a war zone. These units must train on a regular basis to ensure our troops have working knowledge of cargo systems and remain ready and mission capable. During cargo evolutions, a special visit was made by Admiral Wolfe and Commodore Daniel Pionk. In a moment that exemplifies strong team work and patriotism, both the U.S. Navy and crew members from the PGM managed RRF vessels the S/S Grand Canyon State, S/S Gem State and S/S Keystone State stopped to take this group photo just before Admiral Wolfe addressed all hands on a job well done! PGM crew members are proud to support our troops in any way they can.
Another Successful Training Conference
PGM hosted the 2009 Officer’s Training Conference the first
week of May (May 04 – May 08). The Training Conference
was held at the St. Louis Hotel in the historic French Quarter. This
year’s theme was “Effective Planning: Without it…Everything
is a Priority.” More than 20 senior officers and RRF
Group Managers attended the conference.
The
conference kicked off Monday with a Welcome Theme Presentation
by Dale Sirois, followed by a session on Continual Improvement
by Dan Smith. A Roundtable discussion focused on PGM’s
Quality Objectives and involved all the attending vessel officers. The
annual awards presentation was made by Todd Johnson.
Following are the recipients of 2008 Awards:
2008 Green Ship Award was presented to the M/V OCEAN ATLAS. Captain
Josh Osborne accepted the award on behalf of his fellow officers and crewmembers.
2008 Performance Award was presented to the
S/S KEYSTONE STATE. Chief Mate Andrew Diamond accepted the award
on behalf of his fellow officers and crewmembers.
2008 Safety Award was presented to the S/S
GRAND CANYON STATE. Chief Engineer Ross Shimel accepted the award
on behalf of his fellow officers and crewmembers.
The
awards ceremony was followed by Ethics Training, conducted by Todd
Johnson. At
1700, the officers adjourned to Monday Night Social Hour. This
informal gathering allowed conference attendees and PGM personnel
to meet and visit in the courtyard of the St. Louis Hotel.
The
next two days consisted of various training sessions, including:
NS5 with Mike Johnson (NS5 Consultant); Root Cause Analysis by Dale
Sirois; Contract Monitoring: Safety, Environmental and Safety Concerns
by Dave Coleman (RRF Group 16 Manager); and Green Procurement (Barbara
Hotard & C/M Mark Jahn). The officers
also had an opportunity to meet with AMO Plan’s Executive
Director Steve Nickerson and AMO Vice President Robert Kiefer.
Thursday’s
session focused on Environmental Training. The
instructor was Scott Glover of Maritime Institute of Training and
Graduate Studies (MITAGS). He covered a wide variety of topics
from Environmental Aspects of Ship Operations to Environmental Criminal
and Civil Liabilities. The training ended with a Vessel General
Permit presentation by Muj Asdulla, an open board discussion of
the new VGP Regulations and its impact on PGM. At 1800, officers
adjourned to Embers Restaurant on Bourbon St where attendees were
able to mingle with the shoreside staff and their families. All
attendees had an enjoyable time with bead throwing, mingling and
dining.
Social
Awareness Training was given on the last day of the conference by
local labor attorney Tommy McGoey. After this, commercial
officers met with Intermarine’s
attending representative, while RRF Officers were trained by Phil
Rapp on Marad’s
Security Clearance. The 2009 Officer’s Training Conference
ended with a picture ceremony for some, while others reminisced
about the productive sessions and the enjoyable setting for our
conference.
PGM’s First
Edition Newsletter (click here to download)
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