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Saturday, 29 December 2007 07:34 |
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Well other than the $132.50 the TWIC process was pretty painless. About 2 weeks ago I went online and pre-registered and set my appointment up for the opening day here in Jacksonville. I had a 1300 time slot so I got there about 1230 to people watch and see if it was running smoothly or not. The office was in a run down old warehouse with weeds as high as my truck, so we know the millions that Lockheed got must have went somewhere other than real estate and landscaping. It was the typical civil servant type crowd manning the place--very formal manuscript-ed lines, do you have ID, payment -we take MC or Visa with a point to the two logos over her head. Yes,Yes. Then I filled out a piece off paper that I had no idea what the hell they were asking me to check yes or no about, because it all referenced a CFR so I assumed it was criminal record stuff and I checked no. The pre-register paper work I got gave me a 20 minute time slot for the process. They called my name and led me back to guy in a curtan cubical he took my money, finger prints and picture then had me confirm the info I provided online and sent me on my way it took about ten minutes from the time my name was called till I walked out the door. I already feel safer:)
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ACL Inc. Announces Approval of Accelerated USCG-Approved MATE Training Program |
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Thursday, 13 December 2007 23:16 |
JEFFERSONVILLE, Ind.,
Dec. 13 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ --
American Commercial Lines Inc. (Nasdaq: ACLI) ('ACL'or the 'Company') announced today that it has received United States Coast Guard approval of the nation's first inland river accelerated pilot license training program in partnership with Northeast Maritime Institute of Fairhaven, Massachusetts.
click READ MORE to read more |
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Read more... [ACL Inc. Announces Approval of Accelerated USCG-Approved MATE Training Program]
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Navigating a lucrative career |
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Monday, 19 November 2007 07:40 |
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BALTIMORE - The Maritime Institute of Technology and Graduate Studies in Linthicum launched the Workboat Mate Program this year to train people with little or no maritime experience to work as mates on tugboats, which pull barges that transport millions of dollars worth of goods around the world. Training director Walt Megonigal, program manager Vic Tufts, executive director Glen Paine and academic business development manager Capt. Bob Becker talk about their new school and its advantages over a traditional four-year college.
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Read more... [Navigating a lucrative career]
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Wednesday, 14 November 2007 14:20 |
So I will first say that in 1998 I sat and passed my 1600 ton Mates license and let it expire due to a change in careers and for just being a dumb ass. Please feel free to leave me all the comments you would like about the expiration of my license because I have not allready listened to enough. To make matters reflect even worse on this problem I decided last April to rejoin the force of harbor tugs and my fellow companions that I left about ten years ago. Everything had expired my AB, FCC license, Captian license, Radar, you name it, it was now gone, not just a little gone but my file had been removed from the Boston REC, and was in a storage unit somewhere.
Starting over, with my file gone and a bunch of new regulations and to many bad rumors of the REC's here in the South I got on a plane and flew back to Boston to resurrect my file from years past.
Disapointed with myself and going into this with the worst expectations I was rather excited about my first Boston trip, yeah sure there was a lot to do, but a simple plan was put together with my evaluator and off I went.
Starting back as an ordinary was refreshing to say the least, my wallet was hurt the most, working back on deck at 35 is a reminder of what the new folks in this business have to do and learn, to make the grade or not.
School, study, another school, study, STCW (what is this?), study, fly back to Boston test, oooops didn't study for the Near Coastal Terrestrial test ( I never had to do this before ), four days of tutoring, study, flashing light (whatever!), study.
I am happy to say that I have been working on this license scince April 2007 and November 5th of this year I have it all back.
I have learned a few things the first would be that the USCG in Boston and there REC is the best around, direct answers with immediate feedback, helpfull employees and some great evaluators to help me along the way. They also printed my license right there the day I passed my test, no waiting in the mail.
Second thing is that this license thing is a lot harder and only getting worse to do this on my own took a lot of hard work. I feel for those going to attempt this task.
Third I have determined there are great schools in this day and age that teach you well and make you earn a certificate, i.e. MPT in Ft. Laderdale and Quality Martime Training in Tampa I would have not been able to do this without the tutoring help of George Townsbridge. Then there is the other school that is a discrace to mariners and the USCG for even allowing them to give certificates.
Fourth NEVER EVER WILL I LET MY LICENSE EXPIRE AGAIN!!!!!!!!
PLEASE LEARN FROM ME
Keep all your documents weather it be a sea service letter or an expired certificate from a school. KEEP IT ALL!
NEVER LET ANYTHING EXPIRE EVER!
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