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Letters to the Editor

August 2002

Bosun Moore Commends Apprentice’s Great Start This is to congratulate and recognize the extraordinary accomplishment of a first-trip apprentice, Angelina Willoughby. I’ve been a bosun for more than 40 years. With the tools and knowledge you gain at the Paul Hall Center, a first-trip apprentice has a great shot to qualify as an able-bodied seaman. It has been my pleasure knowing Angelina Willoughby in my department. I request that this letter be put in the Seafarers LOG to encourage other students from the Paul Hall Center that if they apply themselves while in school, it really works. Ralph Moore Recertified Bosun SeaLand Florida Merchant Mariners Deserve Recognition Why is it that on Veterans Day and during ceremonies honoring veterans that I never hear anything about the U.S. Merchant Marine? I hear about each branch of service, including the U.S. Coast Guard, but never the merchant marine. My dad sailed as a merchant mariner from 1920 until 1965. He was an SIU member from the time the union formed in the late 1930s. He sailed the entire World War II in enemy waters, often without any antiaircraft guns or any defense from the German U-boats. He often told me stories of the convoys that he sailed in. All of those men were volunteers. The ships my father sailed on carried ammunition and supplies and (sometimes) troops into battle. The U.S. Merchant Marine lost more men than any branch of service, percentage-wise. Without the merchant seaman, the U.S. would have lost a lot of battles and a lot more men. In the late 1960s I also joined the U.S. Merchant Marine. Somewhere in my papers I have a card showing me as a graduate of Piney Point—Class No. 2, I think it was. The ships I sailed took supplies and ammunition to every port in Vietnam. In the early 1970s I volunteered for the U.S. Marine Corps to do my part for my country. People have said “thank you” for being a Marine, but have never said anything about being a merchant mariner. Something is wrong with this scenario and we need to change it. My dad is no longer alive; before all of the World War II merchant seamen are gone, they deserve a thank you. Walter Cook Petal, Miss. p.s. To pour salt in the wound, whenever a merchant ship was sunk during World War II, the crew’s pay was stopped immediately.