[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 107 (Monday, August 3, 1998)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1517-E1518]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


               IN HONOR OF U.S. MERCHANT MARINE VETERANS

                                 ______
                                 

                         HON. MICHAEL F. DOYLE

                            of pennsylvania

                    in the house of representatives

                         Friday, July 31, 1998

  Mr. DOYLE. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to give tribute to all those who 
served in the U.S. Merchant Marines during World War II and to draw 
greater attention to Maritime Day.
  The 18th Congressional District of Pennsylvania, which I have the 
privilege to represent, has a long and proud tradition of military 
service to our nation, and contains one of the highest concentrations 
of veterans in America. In this region of western Pennsylvania, there 
once was also the greatest concentration of steel mills and coke ovens 
in the world. As these industries provided the tools and materials 
necessary to defeat our enemies during World War II, so did our 
communities send their sons and daughters to fight in our defense. 
While service to our country is commemorated throughout my district, 
the town of Elizabeth does a particularly outstanding job in 
recognizing the merits of military service. I am including with my 
statement an article that appeared in The Pittsburgh Post Gazette which 
details this year's service.
  Elizabeth, Pennsylvania is typical of the river mill towns that 
populate the Mon Valley. The residents of Elizabeth hold their ethnic 
values close in face of the demands of our modern society. Perhaps it 
is this steadfast attention to, and respect for, the traditions and 
accomplishments of those who came before them that accounts for their 
ever expanding reverence of our nation's veterans. Every year on 
Memorial Day, people from near and far travel to Elizabeth for the 
Veterans' Parade. It is always a distinct honor to participate in these 
ceremonies which are coordinated by local Veterans' of Foreign Wars 
chapters.
  A few years ago, Elizabeth began recognizing Maritime Day. The 
celebration occurs on May 22 and honors the contributions the men and 
women of the maritime industry made to our nation. In fact, the service 
held in Elizabeth, which is sponsored by the American Merchant Marine 
Veterans of World War II, is the only one to occur throughout Allegheny 
County. It is a great honor to have a member of the American Merchant 
Marine Veterans of World War II, Mark Gleason, sit on my Veterans' 
Advisory Committee.
  Maritime Day is a holiday of great significance to the residents of 
my district for a number of reasons. During World War II, the 
Pittsburgh area was one of the most heavily recruited areas of the 
country by the Merchant Marines. Those who answered the call for 
service from eastern Ohio, northern West Virginia, and the Pittsburgh 
area all departed for training camp through the Pittsburgh recruiting 
center. From steel communities and rural regions alike, young men went 
to sea as crew members of merchant ships. Sadly to say, many of these 
young men never returned home. Between December of 1941 and December of 
1946 over 830 ships were sunk killing 7,000 seamen and wounding 11,000 
others. Without question, the actions of these sailors contributed to 
the outcome of World War II.
  In a 1943 address to Congress, President Roosevelt reviewed the 
results of the war activities from the previous year. In this message 
President Roosevelt said:

       Any review of the year 1942 must emphasize the magnitude 
     and diversity of the military activities which this nation 
     has become engaged. As I speak to you, approximately one and 
     a half million of our soldiers, sailors, marines, and fliers 
     are in service outside our continental limits, all through 
     the world. Our merchant seamen are carrying supplies to them 
     and to our allies over every sea lane.

  Clearly, President Roosevelt did not differentiate between the 
actions of the different branches of the service. He later went on to 
express that Merchant Marines should not be discriminated against when 
it came to benefits. Unfortunately, this equality never came to 
fruition.
  For years, Merchant Seamen have been working to have their service 
properly recognized by the United States. As a cosponsor of H.R. 1126, 
the Merchant Marine Fairness Act, I am hopeful that this goal of 
equality will soon be reached. I am pleased to report there is 
significant bipartisan support for this bill. Currently, there are 307 
members of Congress who have lent their support to this measure. 
Together, we will not allow the events of 50 years to be forgotten.
  I want to share with you some words that were spoken at the Elizabeth 
Maritime Day services in 1995:


     Men from this area served in the Revolutionary War and helped 
         a young country become a new nation.
     They served in France and added names to the Crosses where 
         poppies now grow row upon row in Flanders Field.
     Our men served our country well in all the services in the 
         war fifty years ago and gave us folk heroes such as 
         Commando Kelly.
     But thousands of other men also heard the call of the sea and 
         served their country in the Merchant Marines. Their 
         service helped win the war and save the world.
     These valleys are more quiet and if we listen in the evening, 
         we can sometimes hear the voices of those who went to sea 
         and did not return.
     We answer their call to us when they say, ``Tell us 
         shipmates, who tolls the bell for us?''
     We do, here today in Elizabeth. We do.

  Mr. Speaker, we handle many issues of great import within the halls 
of Congress and

[[Page E1518]]

the recognition of, and equity for, the Merchant Marines of World War 
II should be one of them.

                   [From the Pittsburgh Post Gazette]

                         WW II's UNSUNG HEROES

                           (By Dave Budinger)

       When troop ships came home at the close of World War II, 
     disgorging thousands of GI's onto docks and quays of 
     America's seaports, they were met with fireboat whistles, 
     cheering crowds, bands and victory parades.
       When scruffy, lightly armed cargo ships of the U.S. 
     Merchant Marine would steam into harbor at war's end, they 
     were greeted by indifferent work tugs and nudged up against 
     empty piers. No whistles, no cheers, no ``Johnny Comes 
     Marching Home'' for their war-weary crews.
       And it's sort of been that way ever since, say the almost-
     ancient mariners who today spice retirement by gathering at 
     restaurants to swap war stories and take potshots at a 
     government that still regards them as second-class.
       Their thoughts are particularly poignant during Memorial 
     Day week when flags fly and the country takes special note of 
     its war heroes.
       ``Our destiny seems to be to let people know we weren't a 
     bunch of draft dodgers,'' said Henry Huminski of Carrick, a 
     retired ship's master and member of the 90-member McKeesport-
     based Mon Valley Chapter of the U.S. Merchant Marine 
     Veterans.
       Memorial Day observances honor the soldiers, sailors, 
     Marines and airmen who gave their lives for their country. 
     Homage has been slight, however, for the merchant mariners 
     who died by the thousands in the South Pacific and on the 
     infamous North Atlantic convoy routes that fed U.S. 
     industrial might into the war against Germany.
       After the war, GI veterans had the VFW and American Legion. 
     They got the GI Bill, bonuses, insurance, help with housing, 
     access to veterans hospitals and many other benefits. The 
     200,000 returning mariners got nothing--not even a free drink 
     at the veterans clubs.
       ``We felt the deep division, compared to how the GIs were 
     treated,'' Huminski said.
       Left out of Memorial Day, the merchant sailors adopted 
     little-known Maritime Day as their day of remembrance. 
     Proclaimed by Congress in 1933, Maritime Day was set aside to 
     commemorate the first transoceanic crossing by an American 
     steam-powered vessel.
       President Franklin Roosevelt, in one of his final 
     proclamations, called upon the country to recognize the 
     Merchant Marine war effort on Maritime Day, May 22, 1945. 
     Since then, May 22 has become a traditional day to honor 
     sailors from all the maritime services who were lost at sea.
       As it has for several years, the Mon Valley Chapter 
     organized a memorial service held Friday at Riverfront Park 
     in Elizabeth.
       It wasn't until 1988 that Congress granted veteran status 
     and GI Bill rights to World War II mariners. ``Too late for a 
     lot of guys,'' Huminski huffed.
       And even that measure fell short, the mariners say. Veteran 
     status was applied to those who served in the Merchant Marine 
     between Dec. 7, 1941, and Aug. 15, 1945. But veterans say 
     civilian sailors were killed even in the waning weeks of the 
     war, and want the cutoff point extended to Dec. 31, 1946.
       Still, it was a step toward recognition as a bona fide arm 
     of military service that the Merchant Marine seeks.
       The reason for the Merchant Marine's unsettled status is 
     that it was not quite military, but not entirely civilian. A 
     merchant mariner in wartime was a hybrid. Although recruited 
     by the U.S. War Shipping Administration and trained by the 
     Coast Guard at government-funded installations, they sailed 
     on privately owned ships under contract to the government, 
     and were paid by the ships' owners.
       They were in most respects civilians, except for the fact 
     they bled and died just like the people who wore the 
     uniforms.
       Under attack, they would often struggle side-by-side with 
     Naval Armed Guard crews that manned the light armament aboard 
     most of the merchant vessels. Mariners passed ammunition and 
     sometimes took over gunposts when a Navy man fell.
       When the war ended in 1945, 733 American cargo ships had 
     been sunk in the European and Pacific theaters. More than 
     6,000 civilian sailors perished, including 57 from Western 
     Pennsylvania. Another 11,000 were wounded and 604 were 
     prisoners of war.
       Early in the war, German U-boats sank two of every 12 ships 
     that left U.S. ports. One convoy on a run from New York to 
     England was hit by a U-boat wolfpack off Greenland and lost 
     22 of its 63 ships. Only a fog that blew in saved the rest of 
     the convoy.
       Huminski, 79, who sailed all the North Atlantic convoy 
     routes including the treacherous Murmansk Run to Russia, was 
     one of the lucky ones.
       ``I was never torpedoed. A lot of my friends were, but none 
     of my ships were hit,'' he said.
       Early in the war, German U-boats were ravaging the East 
     Coast, sinking large numbers of unprotected vessels within 
     sight of land. When his ship would set out from New York, 
     ``there was oil everywhere. You could see the flares on the 
     horizon from ships burning at night,'' Huminski said.
       ``In the first four months, we lost more shipping tonnage 
     than we lost at Pearl Harbor.''
       The average seaman was unaware of the heavy losses at sea.
       ``Everything was censored; complete secrecy. We didn't know 
     what was going on, that so many ships were being sunk.''
       Huminski, a Depression era product and oldest son of a 
     German-Polish family of 13 brothers and sisters, was in most 
     respects typical of Pittsburgh recruits who signed up with 
     the Merchant Marine.
       He wanted to flee a crowded Hill District home and a 
     stultifying job at Mesta Machine. He tried the Army but was 
     rejected because of a jaw problem. ``They called it 
     malocclusion. I had a bad bite. I don't think they paid much 
     attention to that kind of thing later in the war.''
       The day after Pearl Harbor, he signed on with the Merchant 
     Marine. He left home Christmas Eve bound for the U.S. 
     Maritime Training Center at Sheepshead Bay, N.Y. Except for 
     one trip to Lake Erie when he was a youngster, Huminski had 
     never seen a body of water larger than the three rivers. But 
     he was excited about sailoring.
       ``We were all so gung-ho back then. We were young. We 
     didn't know what was ahead.''
       Unlike most of his Western Pennsylvania companions, 
     Huminski stayed at sea after the war. He made the Merchant 
     Marine a career, sailing 44 different ships, visiting 124 
     seaports and rising to ship's master, or captain, before 
     retiring in 1981. The ships he crewed hauled ``everything 
     from ammo to horses and cows,'' and he served during the 
     Korean and Vietnam wars. He estimates he spent 23\1/2\ years 
     of his 40-year career on water.
       More typical of Pittsburgh area Merchant Marine veterans is 
     Henry Kazmierski of Clairton, who returned home after the 
     war, married a local lass and raised a family while working 
     at USSteel's Clairton Works. Retiring in 1981 after 42 years 
     in the mill, he's a regular at the monthly luncheon 
     gatherings of the Mon Valley Chapter at the Old Country Inn 
     Buffet in the Southland Shopping Center.
       Not as lucky as Huminski in the North Atlantic, he can 
     describe vividly the day his ship was torpedoed and sunk in 
     the Barents Sea off the coast of Norway on the Murmansk Run.
       It was a bitterly cold January day in 1944 aboard one of 
     the new Liberty ships, the SS Penelope Barker. Kazmierski was 
     standing his watch in the wheelhouse about 8:15 p.m. One of 
     the 20 ships in the convoy had already been sunk, and the 
     convoy had been under air attack during the day. Penelope's 
     crew of 46 was on edge. Still, there was no warning when two 
     torpedoes slammed into the side of the ship.
       ``I heard something hit, and I grabbed the wheelpost to 
     stay up. The ship heeled to starboard.''
       He struggled out of the wheelhouse to the port side. 
     ``There was a tangled mess of lifeboats. I knew that wasn't 
     going to work. I went to starboard. The water was coming up 
     fast. I jumped over the side.''
       He gauged his jump to land close to a lifeboat already in 
     the water.
       ``I went under. The water was icy cold. . . . I knew I 
     couldn't last long.''
       His lifejacket popped him up just yards from the boat, and 
     his shipmates quickly hauled him in.
       The Penelope sank in less than 10 minutes. Had it been 
     carrying ammunition instead of general cargo, it would have 
     blown apart with the torpedoes' impact. As it was, 10 men 
     went down with the ship.
       Despite the close call, he was eager to get back to sea 
     after 30 days ``survivor's leave'' at home.
       ``I never really saw anybody afraid out there. You get used 
     to it.'' said Kazmierski, 78 who survived 11 crossings on the 
     Murmansk Run.
       ``We'd just tell [the new guys] to `Stand on your tiptoes 
     and wait for somebody to pick you up' if you got sunk. You 
     had to have some humor out there.''

     

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