THE NAUTICAL WARRIOR INEQUITY

National Archives at College Park, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

No one should gainsay the sacrifices and contributions made by those who served in the US Army, Navy, Marine Corps, and Coast Guard during WWII. The monuments to them and the benefits available to them for education, health care, and subsidized home loans are far less than deserved and constitute grossly inadequate compensation for what most of them endured during that conflict.

What about the Merchant Marine? Sailors who manned Liberty ships and other vessels carrying troops and materials in the war effort bled, burned, and drowned just as easily as Navy personnel when their ships were torpedoed. However, until the issue was litigated in 1988, mariners were not entitled to any of the basic veterans' benefits.

This attitude was summarized by Terry Vance, state adjutant and quartermaster for the Illinois VFW (Veterans of Foreign Wars), who explained to the Belleville News-Democrat why the Merchant Marine is not considered by the VFW to be a branch of the armed services, why mariners cannot join the VFW, and why mariners are not included in military monuments sponsored by the VFW: "Memorials are built for the warriors. So people need to understand that it's warriors we're remembering, not necessarily the wars."

Does putting yourself in harm's way to support your country's military objectives make you a warrior? If so, then the mariners on the more than 400 cargo ships sunk by German subs in just the first three months of 1942 should be considered warriors--even if knowledge of their losses was kept secret from the American public by President Roosevelt in order to avoid injuring national morale.

About 243,000 men served in the Merchant Marine during the conflict and 9,497 died as a result, for a mortality rate of 3.90%. The death rates for the official American armed forces were "only" 2.94% for the Marine Corps, 2.08% for the Army, 0.88% for the Navy, and 0.24% for the Coast Guard.

"Non-warriors" my butt.