MILITARY SEALIFT COMMAND INCREASES READINESS ON ITS VESSELS

MILITARY SEALIFT COMMAND INCREASES READINESS ON ITS VESSELS    Vice Adm. Gordon S. Holder, commander of the Military Sealift Command, speaking Wednesday in New York, said the terrorist attack on the USS Cole on Oct. 12, “has changed the way I look at doing business.'
   'We want crews on our MSC vessels to be able to defend themselves to the lifelines of their vessels,” he told trustees of the United Seamen’s Service.
   “It’s a dilemma for me that our cargo ships regularly go in and out of ports where Navy warships will not go,” Holder said. “That is always on my mind.”
   Holder predicted the MSC’s complement of 3,479 civil service mariners will increase to 5,000 in the next two years.
   The MSC operates 120 deepsea vessels to meet the needs of the Navy, Army, and other federal entities.