Merchant Marine veterans fight for recognition

While my husband's father and uncles were all in WWII, one of them was a Merchant Marine.

Merchant Marine veterans fight for recognition
Members of the Merchant Marine, a civilian organization that fought the Japanese in World War II, are now in their 80s and 90s. But now their battle wages on for recognition from the U.S. government, which recently passed a bill that would provide a monthly stipend for mariners, in lieu of benefits they didn't receive after the war.

By Erik Lacitis

Seattle Times staff reporter


In this World War II photograph, Peter Chelemedos, also a Merchant Marine veteran, is shown with his crew after his ship was sunk by the Japanese.

Some had tattoos on their forearms. Some had brought along pictures of themselves from more than six decades ago.

That would have been during World War II. The pictures showed skinny guys, heads full of hair, with unlined faces looking to the future.

They had been Merchant mariners, young and sailing the world in their cargo ships that ferried troops and war cargo.

Now all that exploring is done.

Now they're in their 80s — some past 90 — and along with the tattoos a good portion wear hearings aids. They sport white hair — if hair at all — and walk stooped.

Now what matters to them is a battle they've been fighting since the end of World War II.

It is simply, they say, to be recognized for the war veterans they are, even if Merchant Marine members are civilians.

During a war, by federal law, the Merchant Marine becomes an auxiliary to the Navy. That is what happened during World War II, when 250,000 of the sailors manned some 5,000 ships, says the American Merchant Marine Veterans. It says 1,554 of their ships were sunk, with a total of 9,497 war dead, a higher casualty rate — 1 in 26 — than any of the military services.

"The Army, the Navy gave us our orders. They put us amongst torpedoes and kamikaze pilots. We were hauling the troops and keeping them supplied," says Bob Barbee, 84, of Sequim.

"But if our ship got sunk, our pay stopped. No medical benefits. If two men were in the water, and one was a Navy man, and the other a Merchant Marine, the Navy man would always get picked up. The Merchant Marine might get picked up, taken to India and he had to find his own way home."
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