ats, nts, msts & msc

The United States Army’s experience in troop transport during the Spanish-American War was dismal at best.  The United States Navy could not help to move men and material since its function was limited to being seaborne gun platforms, and many of the contractors the Army relied upon turned tail at the last moment.  To control the logistics process, the Army embarked upon building and maintaining its own permanent fleet.  The Army Transport Service (ATS), which was later restyled as the Army Transportation Corps – Water Division (ATC-WD) in the middle of the Second World War, became the Military Sea Transportation Service (MSTS) when it merged with its analog, the Naval Trasport Service (NTS) immediately post-war.  In the 1970s it was rebranded as the Military Sealift Command (MSC). Through each of its iterations, civilians always manned these ships. Interestingly, there has always been continuity in the civilian mariners’ uniform insignia providing hints to the organization’s origin.  The following are some pages regarding “The Army’s Navy” and its successors.

The Ghost Fleet

A T S  &  A T C – W D

N T S

M S T S  &  M S C

Collection entries