USCG civilian Marine Safety Inspectors...have any actually been hired?

[c.captain]

This article was in Professional Mariner in late 2007:

Coast Guard plans to hire civilians to boost its troubled Marine Safety role


and this one from September last year:

Coast Guard plans to greatly expand ranks of safety inspectors, casualty investigators


These all sound very promising but I went to the US Federal Government Jobs website and only found three postings for Marine Inspectors...all of which required you to be in government service already or be a retiree.

Wasn't that what the whole program of hiring civilian inspectors trying to fix? Bringing in industry experience and knowledge to replace the military focus by USCG uniforms? Wouldn't replacing active duty inspectors with retirees just perpetuate the status quo?

Is this civilian inspector program really just a way for more Federal Employee triple dipping? Is the USCG really going to hire experienced Marine Safety Inspectors from outside its own turf? Is there any chance for any real change in vessel inspections as was promised?

Questions, questions, questions........

[Captmad]

It is certainly good to know someone else has noticed this problem. The same people we had to teach their jobs during inspections are now in a civilian capacity and experts.
Yeah experts and do not have ANY SEATIME!!! They have no concept of what we do but they are experts. The reason job requirements are written as such cause they do not want peope that know what they are doing.
Face it our CG is afraid of people with any real knowledge.

What used to take 5 years to complete certification as MSO now takes 8 months. Do you think something is missing?

While I got everyones attention how bout their new broken cutters. Yeah these same experts certified their cutters as seaworthy and these cutters sustained broken backs soon after commissioning. Millions upon millions of taxpayer dollars wasted due to these experts.