I noticed during Veterans Day ceremonies the Merchant Marine veterans were not mentioned.
The Merchant Marine had the highest casualty rate of all services during World War II. The honored Marines had a 2.94 percent casualty rate. The Merchant Marine had casualty rate of 3.9 percent and records are not as complete as those of the other services. During the Murmansk runs, convoy P-17 had as high as 70 percent casualties of the vessels. They were not considered veterans at the end of WWII.
Congress demanded a procedure for any group to apply for veteran status. Jurisdiction was given to the Secretary of Defense, who in turn, appointed the Secretary of the Air Force as the administrator.
Mariners who served in the Normandy invasion were the first seamen granted veteran status in 1977. In 1988, under orders from Federal Court Judge Oberdorfer “ORDERED: that plaintiffs’ motion for summary judgment should be, and hereby is, GRANTED, Merchant Mariners of WWII were the 15th group.” The WWII Merchant Marine seamen were finally given veteran status. Stanley Willner, a POW at River Kwai, was one of the plaintiffs in the action.
However, the secretary of the Air Force set the end of the war over a year earlier than the President; August 1945 versus December 1946. This can be found on the internet by searching ”Merchant Marine WWII veterans.”
As a note of interest, during the Revolutionary War, the Merchant Marine had the honor to sink the first British vessel.
The Battle Standard may only be displayed by academies which have had students in the war zone. The U.S. Merchant Marine Academy is the only federal academy allowed to display the Battle Standard since during WWII the USMMA sent students to sea for required training and had approximately 200 midshipmen casualties. I am a proud alumni of the academy.
Byron Anderson
Mountlake Terrace
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