Then and Now, the U.S. Merchant Marine Delivering the Goods

It's not that Bob Bodine wanted to avoid the World War II draft in 1943. It's just that being an Army infantryman "didn't sound like a lot of fun."

He tried to join Army Air Corps but failed the vision test. He also talked to a recruiter about Navy aviation opportunities, but the Navy was bringing on 17-year-old youngsters at the time. Bodine was too old at 18.

"What else is there?" he asked the recruiter. "Well, there's the Merchant Marine, but they've got a helluva casualty rate," the recruiter answered. "What does a teenager care about casualty statistics?" Bodine, now 80, said from his home near St. Louis. "I always liked boats, so the Merchant Marine sounded pretty good to me."

He promptly secured a slot at the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy at Kings Point, New York. In his second year at the Academy, Bodine sailed off on a required nine-month cruise to the Mediterranean. It didn't take the teenager long to realize that if he really was trying to avoid the draft, he could have taken an easier route. Bodine was a crewmember aboard the SS Fleming, which was hauling a dozen P-51 aircraft and a huge load of vehicle and aviation fuel to the troops. The Fleming was part of a 110-ship convoy. While it managed to escape unscathed, 50 of her sister ships were sunk by German U-boats and floating mines.

Bob Bodine was just one of the more than 243,000 civilian volunteer mariners who served aboard ships that provided the greatest sealift in history. The U.S. merchant fleet was critical to the war effort; delivering troops, supplies, ammunition and equipment all over the world.

They took part in every invasion from Normandy to Okinawa, often sitting duck targets for enemy submarines, mines, bombers and kamikaze pilots. Fighting was especially fierce in the Atlantic, where "wolf packs" of German submarines and deadly U-boats prowled the ocean destroying Merchant Marine ships in an attempt to isolate Great Britain. Much closer to home, enemy submarines sank hundreds of ships off the U.S. east coast.

In the first six months of 1942, German U-boats alone sank more than 400 U.S. merchant ships. Because there is no official history of the Merchant Marine in World War II, casualty numbers vary from source to source. It is believed, however, that about 9,300 mariners were killed during the war and more than 1,500 of their ships were sunk. Fortunately, because most Merchant Marine ships traveled in convoys, many of the mariners aboard the wounded vessels were fished from the sea by nearby ships. About 600 mariners were prisoners of war and another 11,000 were injured.

Susan Clark, public affairs officer for the U.S. Maritime Administration, the federal agency most involved with the Merchant Marine, said that other than the U.S. Marines, mariners had a higher death rate than any other branch of the service during the war. (Some mariners may take exception to that statistic. A Web site for Merchant Marine veterans says their death rate was 1 in 26 and the Marines were 1 in 34.)

President Franklin Roosevelt summed up the contributions of the U.S. Merchant Marine. "The [mariners] have written one of its most brilliant chapters. They have delivered the goods when and where needed in every theater of operations, and across every ocean in the biggest, the most difficult and most dangerous job ever taken."

Despite their losses and their importance to the war effort, surviving mariners weren't met with parades and flags when they returned home. They weren't considered veterans. There was no GI Bill, small business loans or medical care for disabilities. Officially, they were civilians. If they were lucky, they received a "thank you" letter and a lapel pin from the president. After years of fighting the system and a long court battle, some World War II mariners finally received limited veteran status on January 19, 1988.

Sixty years after he last hung up his Merchant Marine uniform (yes, they wore uniforms), Bob Bodine said that he and many of his Academy classmates believed they were members of the armed forces during the war. "I felt like we were members of the service like everybody else. I didn't know otherwise until I realized that I wasn't eligible for the GI Bill or any other veterans' benefits."

Although there is still some bitterness about the lack of recognition, the Merchant Marine sails on today. After the 9-11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center, 29 Merchant Marine Academy students operated a fleet of boats in New York harbor, transporting firefighters and other emergency workers along with food and medical supplies.

Today, more than 8,000 mariners serve in the Military Sealift Command, most of them working in support of the Iraqi war. U.S. flagships still transport critical cargo to the fighting troops, including rocket systems, Apache attack helicopters, HUMVEES and ammunition. To put this massive sealift into perspective, Susan Clark pointed out that an average vessel moves the equivalent of about 300 C-17 cargo aircraft, which frees up aircraft for other critical missions.

From the Revolutionary War to Operation Iraqi Freedom, the U.S. Merchant Marine have delivered the goods.