United States Merchant Mariners suffered the highest rate of casualities of any service in World War II. According to one estimate, one of every 26 mariners died and as many as 8,000 perished in total — while more than 600 became prisoners of war without the protection of prisoner-of-war status.
In long overdue recognition, President Trump has now signed into law a bill to award the Congressional Gold Medal to those United States Merchant Mariners who served as the fourth arm of our national defense during World War II.
These valiant civilian mariners provided the unbroken pipelines that got America’s domestic production to its fighting forces and allies overseas, providing equipment, fuel, food, assorted commodities and raw materials to every corner of the globe and every theater of war.
Statistics alone don’t capture the sufferings of our merchant mariners, who struggled to survive in crowded lifeboats or on flimsy rafts among flotsam in thick oil slicks. During the war, more than 800 vessels were sunk.
Nor do mere numbers capture the parched lips and swollen tongues from lack of fresh water in the burning tropical sun or the frozen limbs of those adrift in the North Atlantic and Barents Sea.
While the brutality of Nazi Germany’s U-boat attacks left many abandoned at sea to their gloomy and lonely fates, these doomed mariners may have been lucky compared to those trapped in the engine rooms of their sinking ships. In the chaos and fog of war, men faced scalding steam from ruptured boilers and steam lines as damaged hulls raced to inevitable crashes with the seabed.
These brutalities on the high seas claimed not just seasoned mariners but also our very youngest. Over the course of the war, 142 United States Merchant Marine Academy students were lost at sea while training aboard ships, giving it the sobering distinction among the nation’s five service academies as the only one to have a battle standard.
One of those lost was young engineer cadet Edwin O’Hara. On Sept. 27, 1942, O’Hara’s ship, the SS Stephen Hopkins, came under attack from two German commerce raiders. Despite being massively outgunned, the United States Merchant Mariners chose to fight these surface vessels. A vicious bombardment left the Hopkins dead in the water and aflame, with the crew manning its lone 4-inch gun dead.
To help save lives, O’Hara rushed to man the gun alone, fired its remaining five shells, and scored hits on both German vessels. As his crewmembers escaped on life rafts, O’Hara went down with the ship.
For his bravery, he was posthumously awarded the Merchant Marine Distinguished Service Medal, the highest award for Merchant Marine personnel, while his name also adorns the United States Merchant Marine Academy’s main athletic building.
The awarding of the Congressional Gold Medal, so richly deserved and so long overdue, must not just celebrate the heroism of a branch of service too often lost in the shadows of the Army, Navy, Marines, Coast Guard and Air Force.
This Gold Medal should also serve the greater purpose of bringing attention to a branch of service that continues to be largely neglected.
Today, as the United States military continues to rely on its merchant-marine fleet to move its supplies around the world, fewer than 200 of the world’s 40,000-plus large, oceangoing commercial vessels fly the American flag. A declining number of US commercial vessels means fewer US-flagged ships and possibly fewer US-credentialed mariners available for sealift in times of emergencies.
Foreign competitors know full well that one way to impair the US armed forces is to attrit in contested waters the number of US-flagged merchant ships and crews.
Let this Congressional Gold Medal not only celebrate some of the most unsung heroes of World War II; let it also reawaken our interest in promoting US-flagged ships and credentialed merchant seamen and strengthening our shipyards and broader defense industrial base.
In long overdue recognition, President Trump has now signed into law a bill to award the Congressional Gold Medal to those United States Merchant Mariners who served as the fourth arm of our national defense during World War II.
These valiant civilian mariners provided the unbroken pipelines that got America’s domestic production to its fighting forces and allies overseas, providing equipment, fuel, food, assorted commodities and raw materials to every corner of the globe and every theater of war.
Statistics alone don’t capture the sufferings of our merchant mariners, who struggled to survive in crowded lifeboats or on flimsy rafts among flotsam in thick oil slicks. During the war, more than 800 vessels were sunk.
Nor do mere numbers capture the parched lips and swollen tongues from lack of fresh water in the burning tropical sun or the frozen limbs of those adrift in the North Atlantic and Barents Sea.
While the brutality of Nazi Germany’s U-boat attacks left many abandoned at sea to their gloomy and lonely fates, these doomed mariners may have been lucky compared to those trapped in the engine rooms of their sinking ships. In the chaos and fog of war, men faced scalding steam from ruptured boilers and steam lines as damaged hulls raced to inevitable crashes with the seabed.
These brutalities on the high seas claimed not just seasoned mariners but also our very youngest. Over the course of the war, 142 United States Merchant Marine Academy students were lost at sea while training aboard ships, giving it the sobering distinction among the nation’s five service academies as the only one to have a battle standard.
One of those lost was young engineer cadet Edwin O’Hara. On Sept. 27, 1942, O’Hara’s ship, the SS Stephen Hopkins, came under attack from two German commerce raiders. Despite being massively outgunned, the United States Merchant Mariners chose to fight these surface vessels. A vicious bombardment left the Hopkins dead in the water and aflame, with the crew manning its lone 4-inch gun dead.
To help save lives, O’Hara rushed to man the gun alone, fired its remaining five shells, and scored hits on both German vessels. As his crewmembers escaped on life rafts, O’Hara went down with the ship.
For his bravery, he was posthumously awarded the Merchant Marine Distinguished Service Medal, the highest award for Merchant Marine personnel, while his name also adorns the United States Merchant Marine Academy’s main athletic building.
The awarding of the Congressional Gold Medal, so richly deserved and so long overdue, must not just celebrate the heroism of a branch of service too often lost in the shadows of the Army, Navy, Marines, Coast Guard and Air Force.
This Gold Medal should also serve the greater purpose of bringing attention to a branch of service that continues to be largely neglected.
Today, as the United States military continues to rely on its merchant-marine fleet to move its supplies around the world, fewer than 200 of the world’s 40,000-plus large, oceangoing commercial vessels fly the American flag. A declining number of US commercial vessels means fewer US-flagged ships and possibly fewer US-credentialed mariners available for sealift in times of emergencies.
Foreign competitors know full well that one way to impair the US armed forces is to attrit in contested waters the number of US-flagged merchant ships and crews.
Let this Congressional Gold Medal not only celebrate some of the most unsung heroes of World War II; let it also reawaken our interest in promoting US-flagged ships and credentialed merchant seamen and strengthening our shipyards and broader defense industrial base.
See this thread for details:
WWII ended 75 years ago. The war-torn countries have been rebuilt. So the time has come to rebuild the American merchant fleet with American steel. Then crew those ships with American born seamen. If President Trump and the members of Congress are serious about an economy that works for the American people a revitalized maritime industry is staring them right in the face.
https://www.justplainpolitics.com/showthread.php?117739-Trump%92s-Waiver&p=3012452#post3012452
Such a result would be a truly lasting tribute to those World War II merchant mariners who defended freedom then and a broad salute to our future merchant mariners who will defend us in the tomorrows to come.
Doing right by forgotten American heroes of the Merchant Marines
By Peter Navarro
March 13, 2020 | 9:34pm
https://nypost.com/2020/03/13/doing-right-by-forgotten-american-heroes-of-the-merchant-marines/
The heroism of merchant seamen who voluntarily sailed ships knowing they were sitting ducks for enemy submarines shows the contempt the Clintons have for men and women who fought and died for this country.
How many Americans remember the good old days when ten million-plus could buy a “liberal patriot” a spot in Arlington Cemetery? It happened when Clinton co-presidents buried one of their pals, M. Larry Lawrence, in Arlington Cemetery. When the truth about his ineligibility was discovered, the wealthy widow, Shelia Lawrence, had to move Larry to different digs so to speak.
In 1998, she was subpoenaed to testify in the Paula Jones case and denied having an affair with Bill Clinton.
A year earlier, she was forced to dig up her late husband after it was discovered he had concocted his “glorious” war record. Larry Lawrence had been buried as a war hero in Arlington in 1996. He was the first person ever to be disinterred from the storied cemetery.
A year earlier, she was forced to dig up her late husband after it was discovered he had concocted his “glorious” war record. Larry Lawrence had been buried as a war hero in Arlington in 1996. He was the first person ever to be disinterred from the storied cemetery.
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The leggy looker, who last year donated $25,000 to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, prefers to play down her blue collar past.
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Larry Lawrence – who gave more that $10 million to the Democrats – introduced his mistress to Democratic Party movers and shakers.
WIDOW OF PHONY WAR HERO FIGHTS TO KEEP THE BABY SHE HAD WITH CARTOONIST EX-LOVER
By Brad Hunter
February 2, 2001 | 5:00am
http://nypost.com/2001/02/02/widow-...ep-the-baby-she-had-with-cartoonist-ex-lover/
It seems that Larry Lawrence was buried at Arlington because he had survived being torpedoed on a merchant ship during WWII. After the Larry Lawrence Fraud was exposed, Bill Clinton was forced to order an investigation —— but only after Larry was resting comfortably among the nation’s heroes. It turned out that M. Larry was never on the ship.
I know a little about shipping articles. Merchant seamen sign articles at the beginning of every voyage. They sign their names below their typewritten names. There is a space below the first signature for a second signature when a seaman signs off at the end of a voyage. The two signatures are easily compared. Signing on, and signing off, used to be done in the presence of a shipping commissioner.
Articles used by merchant ships are on very long, and wide, sheets of paper containing carbon copies. If memory serves, the original went to the company office. One copy of articles stayed with the ship in the event a man signs off, or on, in a foreign country. The government gets a copy. Eventually, the original and surviving copies come together for storage in a Washington-based facility.
In any event, each ship during its lifetime makes many voyages. Those voyages are numbered. When the FBI was doing an eligibility check on good ol’ Larry before he was planted, why did not someone walk over to where those articles were stored and simply look up the ship and voyage number? If Lawrence’s name was not on the articles there is no way in hell he was aboard when the SS Horace Bushnell was torpedoed.
It is possible for a man to sign articles in a foreign country. Then his name would only appear on the ship’s copy. That could not have happened in M. Larry’s case because the Bushnell was torpedoed on its maiden voyage. It never made it to a foreign port. At the time, I still had some respect for the FBI, but something was out of whack with the entire M. Larry Lawrence Saga. One thing was clear: The Clintons so despise America’s military people they had no trouble burying a fraud in Arlington Cemetery.
Finally, I wonder if Mueller and/or Comey did the Clintons a favor planting Larry in Arlington under false pretenses?
