Friday, Dec. 7, is Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day, the anniversary of the attack that drew the United States into World War II. Many are unaware that Americans were injured and killed by enemy fire while serving in support of operations related to the war before then. They were mariners serving in the United States Merchant Marine.
“You’re looking at a bunch of heroes,” said Larry Wapnick. “You’re looking at unsung heroes.”
Wapnick is the president of the soon-to-open U.S. Navy Armed Guard/Merchant Marine National Headquarters and Museum.
The museum and national headquarters at 32 N. Broadway St. in Fellsmere will open Saturday, Dec. 8, with a dedication ceremony scheduled to start at 10 a.m. The museum will be one of only a couple dedicated to honoring what some call “the sixth branch of the military,” although mariners have always been counted as civilians.
“Unknown to many people is the U.S. Navy Armed Guard and Merchant Marine saved the world from Nazi tyranny and Japanese tyranny,” he said.
Wapnick said that’s because without the Merchant Marine shipping supplies through German-patrolled waters, Great Britain would have almost certainly fallen and changed the global dynamics that eventually led to the Allie’s victory.
“Britain found herself alone against the Nazis,” he said. “The transports from the U.S. were deveining food and supplies, and guns and armaments. England had less than two weeks of provisions when Germany was across the (English Channel).”
Wapnick, by the way, never served in either the Merchant Marine or Navy Armed Guard, which accompanied Merchant Marine ships to defend them as they convoyed to carry supplies and troops. He is a Vietnam-era Army veteran. But, Wapnick said as he learned about the mariners’ heroism, it felt important to help preserve a record of it with a museum.
Most have heard about the U.S. Merchant Marine, but details about it are not commonly known. While the mariners – “merchant marines” is not the proper term – are strongly associated with World War II, they were largely unpopular at the time. Despite the dangers they faced at sea, and dismissiveness they faced at home, a few hundred thousand joined and received the Merchant Marine Atlantic War Zone and Pacific War Zone medals Congress approved in 1944 to recognized their service between Dec. 7, 1941, and Nov. 8, 1945. Wayne Teegardin, manager of the St. Lucie County Veterans Services, said his office still sees some.
“I have one I’m helping right now,” Teegardin said. “He started as a deck boy and ended up a captain on a vessel,” he said. “He was World War II.”
Teegardin said the former mariner, who now lives in Port St. Lucie, faced dangers no less than those of other veterans his office helps.
“He said the threat was always there when they were out,” offered Teegardin.
While forerunners of the modern Merchant Marine existed throughout American history, Congress established the academy in 1936. Officers train at the United States Merchant Marine Academy in Kings Port, N.Y.
As the academy’s website explains: “In time of war or national emergency, the U.S. Merchant Marine becomes vital to national security as a ‘fourth arm of defense.’ Our merchant ships bear the brunt of delivering military troops, supplies and equipment overseas to our forces and allies operating as an auxiliary unit to the Navy.”
The Merchant Marine fleet is made up of civilian ships.
During World War II, the Merchant Marine employed about 250,000 mariners on thousands of ships at any time. Depending on the accounting method used, almost 10,000 mariners died due to enemy fire. About 12,000 were seriously wounded by enemy fire, and another 600 were taken as prisoners of war. According to War Shipping Administration reports, about 1,600 ships sailing for the Merchant Marine sank under attack.
Some of those were attacked and destroyed while sailing missions for the military before and after the Lend-Lease program that started in March 1941. By the time the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, 17 Merchant Marine ships were sunk by enemy fire killing about 200 mariners.
The Florida-built SS City of Rayville was the first. In November 1940 the Rayville hit a German mine in the Bass Strait, off Cape Otway, Australia. All but one of the almost 40 mariners got of the ship, but some historians hold that engineer Mac B. Bryan was the first American to die while serving in support of a U.S. mission during World War II.
Ralph Oko, assistant to the president of the museum, said there were literal insults to injuries for mariners. “They were not able to get the military benefits the Navy did,” he said.
In other words, no Department of Defense medical care. No Veterans Administration (later Department of Veteran Affairs) care or benefits. In 1988 a federal judge made a decision based on a 1977 law that forced the federal government to recognize the mariners who served during World War II as veterans.
Even during the war the adage “leave no man behind” didn’t apply to mariners. “If a merchant mariner was captured, it was a private thing,” Oko said.
Added Wapnick: “If they were killed in action, the family would have to pay for the body to be sent home.”
Oko said the dedication ceremony will be “a regular military program.” Local luminaries attending will include the director of the West Palm Beach VA Medical Center – Donna Katen-Bahensky. The museum will stay open after the ceremony until about 5 p.m. Its regular hours are still getting worked out at press time.
To learn more, donate, or volunteer, contact Wapnick at leicalarry@aol.com.
