No Landing Zone.

* The Maritime Administration, or MARAD, usually doesn't get much love at defense conferences, despite the administration's national security role as keeper of the National Defense Reserve Fleet and Ready Reserve Force.

But Undersecretary of the Navy Erik Raven is a big fan, as he recounted at the Navy League's Sea-Air-Space exposition.

"I've been familiar with MARAD since well before I became undersecretary of the Navy," he said. "In the 1990s, I learned to fly in Northern California at Concord Airport. And I remember very well that the check-in point for runway 3-2 right was the Ghost Fleet in Suisun Bay."

Looking down from his Cessna 150, he could see a "big deck" ship in the bay, he said.

He recalled thinking, "I bet...