THE MEN WHO "SHIPPED OUT" IN THE MERCHANT
MARINE...
The men who
sailed as merchant seamen during W.W.II were not then
considered members of the Armed Forces, neither Army,
Navy, Marine Corps, nor Air Force, so when the war
ended, they simply went about their business as merchant
seamen, or returned home to civilian life once again,
and in spite of being on every action front, they were
not given the status or designation of Veterans of World
WarII.
The men in the Merchant Marine were seamen, every
single one of them. They had to go to sea, and
they had no civilians or state-side
duty. It was all sea-duty and once you left port,
you were in enemy waters. No one was called a Merchant
Seaman who was not signing on and shipping out
and working aboard one type of vessel or another. The
men and women who worked in the company offices or on
the docks were not seamen, and did not earn a Discharge
from a shipo; only those who actually sailed and worked
aboard the merchant ships were seamen.
Only the seamen who worked the ships and the U.S.
Naval Armed Guard were 100% active and in the war zones
from the minute the ship left port until it returned
home. The Army, the Air Force, the Navy and the Marine
Corps had a large percentage of their men and women
continuously in the United States or in support teams
well behind the enemy lines abroad. This is not in
criticism of those who served to suipport the troops on
the front line, a ration of about seven men and women to
support each man in action. This is a fact too
often overlooked by people today.
The merchant ships, as long as they were at sea, were
in danger 24 hours a day in every ocean in the world.
While some World's seas were relatively free of enemy
activity, none could be considered 100% safe.
No seaman or member of the Armed Guard went to sleep
in his bunk at night without being aware of the danger
of a torpedo crashing through the bulkheads and sinking
his ship. I can truthfully say that I never knew a man
aboard who seemed overly concerned about such fears, and
I personally never gave it more than a passing thought
to it at any time in any war zone; it is something that
one just gets accustomed to, accepts, and it becomes
part of the job. Yes, we talked about it on occassion,
or discussed the German battle cruiser known to be in a
Norwegian fjord, but again, we were alert to this
danger, but not spoooked by it.
Today, in retrospect, I cannot believe that we were
that naieve, or possibly just that innocent or perhaps
just plain dumb. Ahhh, the innocense of youth! Yet, the
Captain, Chief Mate and Chief Engineer were at least men
in their thirties to sixties, so they had more since
than us younger fellows.
Even the men who had been on ships that had been hit
and sunk by torpedoes seemed as carefree as us younger
guys. Hell, most of us were between 18 and 23, except
for DeLuca, a member of the Armed Guard, whom I believe
was only 17. We were serious while at work; we were
carefree in our off hours. There were no complaints, no
signs of fear, no lost appetites (even directly after
action), and no bravado either. We even had a cook
aboard, a skinny little guy from Belguim, who was 70.
Imagine, going into a war zone at that age when you
don't have to do so! Our Captain was 56, other officers,
like Johnny Olson, 67, if I remember right.
We were the only major service without color bars,
and we had men of every hue and nationality among our
crews. While the U.S.N. Armed Guard was exclusively
white, they sailed aboard ships with negroes, as they
were known then. Northerner and southerner alike worked
with and accepted it. I heard men from the deep south
express pretty strong feelings against negroes, but we
never had a racial incident, that I can remember. (It
was not until after the war that one black man, from
Philadelphia, showed hatred towards me and other white
crew members.)
My reason for these statements concerns the on-going
attitude of the VFW towards admitting the Merchant
Marine into their sacred organization, as if in some
manner we will besmirch it. Millions of overseas
veterans in the Armed Forces never saw action, never
were in danger from the enemy, yet they're accepted as
members. Merchant seamen risked their lives every single
day they were at sea. Every day. I had one shipmate, who
signed aboard the S.S. U.S.O. without a second thought,
even though he knew full well (as most of us did) that
we were heading across the North Atlantic for Scotland
And then for Murmansk, USSR, known as the toughest run
of them all. On his previous trip to Murmansk his ship
had been torpedoed and he was rescued from the
water, and the rescue ship was sunk on the return
voyage.
AN ACT OF CONGRESS IN 1985 ACKNOWLEDGED THE MEN OF THE
MERCHANT MARINE AS MEMBERS OF THE ARMED FORCES DURING
THE WAR. MY U.S. COAST GUARD HONORABLE DISCHARGE STATES
THAT IN THOSE WORDS.
I THINK THAT THE V.F.W. HAS AN ATTITUDE
PROBLEM.
During wartime, most new seamen were
formally trained by the U.S. Government at U.S. Maritime
schools and academies, and we were paid by the U.S.
treasury. The Maritime Service issued their own combat
bars, but some few exceptions were made and some
merchant seamen who were wounded or killed in action,
receive the Purple Heart. If some received this medal,
then all wounded, MIA or KIA should have been entitled
to the same honor!
We were later (1985) granted official U.S. Coast
Guard discharges and granted Veteran's status. That
should entitle us to wear the same combat ribbons as
other Veterans.
Not only this, but after the Merchant ships were
armed, technically they were warships and able to fight
back. One lone man on one merchant ship, manning the big
gun aft, hit a German raider amidships and it exploded
and sank. He was a Cadet from the U.S. Maritime Academy
from King's Point, New York. I would argue that we
served aboard Auxillary Warships, and we were trained
and able to assist the U.S. Armed Guard at their battle
stations, and we often did. Merchant Seamen replaced
wounded or killed U.S. Navy Armed Guard at their battle
stations, fully taking part in fighting off enemy ships,
subs, torpedo boats and planes.
Now, tell me, tell me why men who served in Scotland
or other places out of harms way are welcome and men who
were veterans of many actions are not? Give me an
answer? Just once, give me an answer? If there is
something in your Articles that stands between us and
membership, then it can be changed in the same manner
that Congress voted and granted us the status of
VETERANS! All it takes is a little understanding and a
bit of work.
The sole reason for a lot of animosity used to be the
difference in compensation, the claim that the merchant
seamen earned a lot more for taking the same risks as
the U.S. Navy Armed Guard. The history of this and I
know full well, the reasoning behind it I am familiar
with, perhaps one of those still alive who does. The man
who stirred up the most trouble over it I met in the
early sixties, Westbrook Pegler, a Hearst columnist who
hated Joe Curran, president of the National Maritime
(Seaman's) Union. He was a great writer and had three
hates, Joe Curran, Eleanor Roosevelt and Harry Bridges.
He wrote some scathing columns about our earnings versus
the men in the military, the differential, and it was at
a boiling point during the war.
First of all, U.S. merchant ships were at risk and
being attacked and sunk before Pearl Harbor. At the
outset of the war, merchant ships were as yet unarmed,
often too aged and slow, and unable to defend themselves
even if attacked by a sub on the surface using only
their deck gun. Every newspaper in the country referred
to them as sitting ducks when they went to sea,
even the faster Liberty ships when they joined the war
effort. The old, slow freighters from WWI were still
being used at first, but they were most vunerable and
one by one, fell victim to the subs and German raider
ships. U.S. Navy destroyers sat in harbors up and down
the coast while merchant ships sailed out to sea alone
and were sunk directly out of the mouth of New York
harbor, along the coast, and off-shore near Florida and
in sight of tourists in their hotel rooms in Miami. To
encourage more men to sign on the new Liberty
ships rapidly being launched on both east and west
coasts by the Kaiser Shipyards, the U.S. government
offered bonuses. In fact, Joe Curran fought for them
because of the huge risks his seamen were taking, while
Admiral King did nothing in those early days to protect
them. Again, Merchant ships at the time were running
alone, without escorts and without armor and without
guns! In fact, my friends were telling me, "Howard, pick
the Navy. You'll have guns, armor and speed. Those
Liberty ships are sitting ducks. But by the time
I was old enough to return to sea (yes, I had sailed at
16, during the previous summer vacation) we had a convoy
system and escort vessels. But, the bonus system, once
in place, was allowed to continue in order to keep the
flow of young men into the Maritime schools
uninterrupted. It also served to keep the older, more
experienced seamen aboard ships when they could have
retired. They were not drafting men over 34 years of
age, if I recall correctly, but seamen had no
limitations. Two children could earn you a pass on doing
time in the service, but seamen with five and six kids
were signing on merchant ships and keeping up the flow
of supplies to the men overseas.
If the pay differential is another reason for the
intransignance of the V.F.W. to make changes, then
that's total bull-crap (pardon an old sailor's language)
and they know it. If they went overseas, then, they'll
understand that language a bit easier and quicker.
TO THE BIGOTED MEMBERS OF THE V.F.W. I
SAY...
Open the doors, while there are still a
few merchant seamen around who earned those Coast Guard
discharges and bring them into your ranks. You're not
that much a Sacred Cow that we're going to soil
your ranks or reputation. Our men earned it just as much
as you did. Our men took you there, brought all your
equipment there, fought to get it there, and then
carried you home again. Most of the guys I knew are gone
now, but they were proud of the job they did during
WWII, and if for no other reason, this is written in
their memory and dedicated to them. The few pictures I
have, in spite of cameras being forbidden aboard ship,
bring back memories of thosE days and those men I sailed
with. They look the same to me as the pictures of your
buddies and comrades do to you, young guys who risked
the most important thing they had to bring you and your
buddies those supplies so that you could move forward
and win your battles, they risked their lives every day
they were at sea. WE WERE YOUR COMRADES ALL THE
WAY, FROM START TO FINISH. YOU'VE IGNORED OUR HELP AND
OUR SACRIFICES FOR TOO LONG. WE DESERVE THE SAME RIGHTS,
THE SAME PRIVILEGES, AND THE SAME GLORY...AS YOU!!!
WHAT GENERAL PAUL TIBBETS SAYS:
I have an
email in my files, to me, personally, from General Paul
Tibbets, and he says, "The Merchant Marine were the
unsung heroes of WWII." Well, I truly believe that he's
right and that they were.
Even the Russians, to this day, honor those of us who
brought cargos to them via Murmansk. They honored us
with a medal in 1985. Then, they issued a Fifty Year
medal honoring the English, Norwegian and American
merchant seamen who made the Murmansk Run. Now, tell
me that the V.F.W. cannot see the light in view of what
the Russian government has done? DISCHARGED FROM THE
ARMED FORCES: I know this, that my Discharge says that
during WWII, I was a Member of the Armed Forces. I
know this too, that as a Member of the Armed Forces, I
am entitled to wear the Campaign Ribbons the same as any
other man or woman who served during WWII. I am going to
buy a set and wear them on every holiday dedicated to
the Armed Forces. I will dare anyone to say I am not
permitted to do so, or to order me arrested for doing
so. It is not that I am not proud of the Ribbons
awarded by the U.S. Maritime Service. It is simply that
I will no longer be denied full credit for serving in
WWII, proudly, with my shipmates. While many men in the
VFW never were in a combat zone, merely serving
overseas, every seaman was in such a war zone the moment
we cleared port ande dropped off the pilot. Wear your
floppy caps cocked over your right eye with the VFW
emblem, boys, but without the men of the Merchant Marine
to bring you the bombs and ammunition, the gas and oil,
and the rations, there would have been no Victory! In
most cases, we took you there and we brought you home,
as well as the supplies we carried. There wasn't a place
in the World that the Merchant Marine did not go, if our
men were there. Howard E. Morseburg |
