Coast Guard Recognizes WW II Veteran.
Sure took ’em long enough! I guess they had to wait til almost all of these poor guys died??! They should have been eligible from the very beginning for all the honors and perks the military got.
I might piss off some military people by saying that, but they probably don’t know the history of the Merchant Marine. They should! The US Merchant Marine has served in every war since before this country was even formed, in fact, without their service in the time of the Revolution, we never would have been able to do squat against Britain!
The Merchant Marine has lost more men in these wars then every other branch of the military. Easy to figure out why when you realize that we were not ever allowed to defend ourselves. Oh yeah, occasionally they would stick a few marines on board with some guns as a half- assed measure of protection, but only during the major wars- WWI and WWII pretty much.
To this day, the Merchant Marine is out there supplying the troops overseas while trying to get around the pirates and they STILL get no recognition from anyone. I hope the new movie with Tom Hanks playing Captain Phillips on the Maersk Alabama gets some attention. Maybe people will appreciate what the sailors go through to get them the everyday things they need.
Here’s a link to the story of the Maersk Alabama…
www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maersk_Alabama_hijacking
Here’s a link to the movie trailer, it looks pretty good…