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Sent: Thursday, February 12, 2009 9:06
AM Subject: US Merchant Marine Support To the
American GI Forum of the
These seamen worked on obsolete
barges with below standard living conditions and low pay. These barges have long been replaced with
more modern and larger ships placing them out of services as well as the
companies owning them and with records lost to history. Nevertheless they served and should be
recognized. Research had identified Agency
actions that have placed these seamen at high risk of receiving their due
recognition. Public Laws 95-202 and
105-368 gave these seamen US Veterans status for those serving between 07
Dec., 1941 and 31 Dec., 1946 provided they met certain service criteria. Trip discharges and entries in ship’s
logbooks were the primary criteria for proof of service. On Mar. 20 of
1944, The CMDT, USCG issued an order to the Masters of tugs, towboats, and
seagoing barges that relieved them of the responsibility of issuing shipping
and discharge papers to seamen shipping.
Additional research from the National Archives and Records
Administration brought forth this report: “After WW II, the deck and
engineering logbooks of vessels operated by the WSA were turned over to that
agency by the ship owners, and were later destroyed, by the Maritime
administration, in the 1970s on the grounds that they were voluminous, costly
to house and service, and very seldom used for research”. Without discharges
and ship’s logbooks makes applying for a Form DD 214 next to impossible. Efforts to gain recognition as
veterans are repeatedly rejected by the Will your organization commit
to assisting in offering to congress a proposal (at no cost) that will
recognize these seamen as veterans of the US Merchant Marine?
Respectfully, James D. Horton |