Unless things change dramatically, I am writing as the last Deputy Administrator of the Maritime Administration (MarAd). At least the MarAd we have known, sometimes loved, but always needed for the last 50 years. As I look at the Administration's budget proposals to transfer management of the Maritime Security Program (MSP) to the Department of Defense (DOD) and eliminate funding for the Title XI shipbuilding loan guarantee program, I cannot help but conclude that MarAd's days are numbered as a freestanding federal agency. This is not simply melodramatic doom saying from a former bureaucrat whose first credo in life is perpetuation of the species (or in this case the agency).