Gree said:
many Texas aligned politicians who ensured our Maritime Academy was not treated as a step child compared to the NE states who were assigned similar ships.
Not so sure about this. All 3 NE academies (NY, Mass, Maine) received their ships before we (the only Gulf Coast academy) received ours. Why did we need to cluster the first 3 in the northeast? Does their enrollment justify it (I honestly don't know)? California is still waiting on theirs (the last of the 5).
Nevertheless, glad she made it. She will be a great asset to A&M-Galveston and the US.
New edit: Looked it up and it seems we have far fewer students enrolled than all the other state maritime academies other than Michigan so the assignment seems to make some sense (although I do not believe enrollment nor need was the deciding factor in allocation of the new ships).
Yet another (and final) edit: Been digging further and it is apparently more complicated. It is about requiring sea training to reach student requirements. Not all students pursuing degrees at A&M Galveston (even in maritime programs) require sea training - only those pursuing a USCG license option do. And apparently some of the other maritime academies do not report this clearly and so it is difficult or impossible to compare them.
