Posted:
July 30, 2013
American Maritime Officers, the nation's largest union of licensed seagoing professionals, urges timely enactment of H.R. 1288, the World War II Merchant Mariner Service Act.
This legislation, sponsored principally by Rep. G.K. Butterfield of North Carolina, would ease access to veterans' benefits for civilian American merchant mariners who worked heroically at sea aboard U.S. cargo ships and troop transports and on coastwise vessels during World War II. These mariners defied enemy submarines, surface warships and aircraft to sustain the war effort on all fronts, and they suffered a casualty rate exceeded only by that of the U.S. Marine Corps. Mariners who survived enemy attacks at sea signed up routinely for additional service on U.S. merchant ships crossing the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.
Our World War II merchant mariners were recognized officially as veterans in 1988. Despite this just if belated acknowledgment, many of these extraordinary individuals are without the few benefits available to them because they cannot document their wartime sea service - records required of them either cannot be found, were destroyed years ago or never existed. H.R. 1288 would address this persistent problem by allowing alternative proof of merchant vessel employment between December 1941 and December 1946.
The mariners most in need of this legislation are the officers and crews who served not overseas, but along the U.S. coasts on tugs and barges carrying military fuels and supplies for transshipment overseas aboard oceangoing vessels. These specific services were critical to the war effort, and they were not without real risk - German U-Boats were known to prowl along the U.S. coastline, and many Americans saw the flash of enemy fire at U.S. merchant vessels on the near horizon.
AMO, which was founded by World War II merchant marine veterans in May 1949, calls upon the House to advance this legislation quickly. It is the least the federal government can do to honor the continuing American merchant mariner tradition of wartime service without question.
Thomas J. Bethel
National President
American Maritime Officers
AMO urges timely enactment of World War II Merchant Mariner Service Act
American Maritime Officers, the nation's largest union of licensed seagoing professionals, urges timely enactment of H.R. 1288, the World War II Merchant Mariner Service Act.
This legislation, sponsored principally by Rep. G.K. Butterfield of North Carolina, would ease access to veterans' benefits for civilian American merchant mariners who worked heroically at sea aboard U.S. cargo ships and troop transports and on coastwise vessels during World War II. These mariners defied enemy submarines, surface warships and aircraft to sustain the war effort on all fronts, and they suffered a casualty rate exceeded only by that of the U.S. Marine Corps. Mariners who survived enemy attacks at sea signed up routinely for additional service on U.S. merchant ships crossing the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.
Our World War II merchant mariners were recognized officially as veterans in 1988. Despite this just if belated acknowledgment, many of these extraordinary individuals are without the few benefits available to them because they cannot document their wartime sea service - records required of them either cannot be found, were destroyed years ago or never existed. H.R. 1288 would address this persistent problem by allowing alternative proof of merchant vessel employment between December 1941 and December 1946.
The mariners most in need of this legislation are the officers and crews who served not overseas, but along the U.S. coasts on tugs and barges carrying military fuels and supplies for transshipment overseas aboard oceangoing vessels. These specific services were critical to the war effort, and they were not without real risk - German U-Boats were known to prowl along the U.S. coastline, and many Americans saw the flash of enemy fire at U.S. merchant vessels on the near horizon.
AMO, which was founded by World War II merchant marine veterans in May 1949, calls upon the House to advance this legislation quickly. It is the least the federal government can do to honor the continuing American merchant mariner tradition of wartime service without question.
Thomas J. Bethel
National President
American Maritime Officers