Donald P. Garrido, 33°, Grand Cross
13722 Ridge River, San Antonio, Texas 78230-5851
DPGarrido@aol.com

National Maritime Day, May 22, is a fitting time to remember
and celebrate the U.S. Merchant Marine.

Ill. Garrido U.S. Navy uniform with Merchant Marine insignia

On November 11th, we celebrate Veterans Day. All the Armed Forces-Navy, Army, Air Force, Marines, and Coast Guard-are generally recognized and honored, as they should be, for their service to our country. Little is usually said, however, about the other veterans groups that also have contributed significantly to America's victories. In 1987, the U.S. Congress passed Public Law 95-202, recognizing and honoring 28 groups who provided active military-related services to the United States in times of war and granted them Veteran Status. Because of personal knowledge of one of the 28, the American Merchant Marine, I wish to detail a few of the accomplishments of the members of that group and so remind our nation of their courage and fortitude in World War II.

The United States was a member of a fighting team of United Nations that won the greatest war in history. There were three major players who represented the United States on that team: our fighting forces overseas, the production army here at home, and the link between them-the United States Merchant Marine. Each of the three was dependent upon the other, a winning combination that smashed the Axis powers beyond all recovery. Never before has the maritime power of the United States been so effectively utilized. Its naval and merchant fleets became the difference between victory and defeat.

Just as our Merchant Marine linked American overseas forces with American production, so did it aid in cementing our nation into one fighting unit by meeting its two assignments: First: to join together the ocean-separated United Nations into a single wartime organization, and Second: to place our armies and their equipment on hostile territory and maintain them there.

In carrying out the latter assignment, we can say that our fighting forces were never knocked off an important beachhead, nor, thanks to the merchant fleet, did we in any instance fail to develop our landings with a steadily increased flow of supplies that enabled our armies to meet their objectives.

Ill. Garrido on the US Army Transport Becket Bend

For the United States, action in World War II began on September 3, 1939, in the waters of the North Atlantic, 200 miles southwest of Scotland. On that date, the westbound British passenger vessel Athenia with 1,400 passengers, of which 128 were U.S. citizens and many of them women and children, was torpedoed by the German Submarine U-30. On receiving the distress call of the sinking Athenia, the American Vessel City of Flint altered course to the disaster scene and arrived in 12 hours. All total, 1,059 oil-soaked, shocked victims survived the sinking. From the survivors, the Americans learned more details about the sinking of vessels by enemy submarines. Ironically, on January 25, 1943, the City of Flint was itself torpedoed and sunk with the loss of 17 passengers and crew.

Our American Merchant Marine first felt the direct impact of the war with the loss of the United States line's 9,000 ton motorship City of Rayville on November 8, 1940, that either struck a mine or was torpedoed off the Australian coast with the loss of one life. In May 1941, we lost a second unarmed cargo vessel when a German U-boat torpedoed the Robin Moor off the west coast of Africa.

On December 7, 1941, the day that Pearl Harbor was deliberately attacked by the Naval and Air Forces of the Empire of Japan, over 300 defenseless American merchant vessels with full crews were at sea when they picked up the shocking news of Pearl Harbor. On December 11, Germany declared war against the United States of America, and on that same date, the United States declared war on Germany, Italy, and Japan.

A U.S. Navy blimp over Los Angeles welcomes American troops home at the end of World War II.

In the early months of the war and as the German Armies made their advance in Russia, it became obvious and necessary that supplies and equipment, under the lend-lease program, be shipped to Murmansk and Archangel, two ports on the northern coast of Russia. The Murmansk run would long remain a nightmare to those lucky enough to survive it, for during the last half of 1942, this cargo haul became a life-and-death struggle against the most relentless onslaughts ever devised by man. To the combined fury of air, sea, and submarine attack was added a weather condition more severe than in any other theater of war.

Russian lend-lease shipments began moving from Philadelphia, New York, and Boston in specially protected convoys that crept up to the Canadian ports of Halifax and Sydney. The skippers of merchant ships stepped ashore at Halifax to attend confusing conferences. These masters, many of them from the days of sail, were an independent lot who were used to absolute command; they did not take kindly to naval regulations, constant signaling, and endless paper-work. Convoys going into Murmansk were designated PQ and were numbered; homeward bound they became QP. The average number of ships that traveled across the Atlantic together was 33, and close to 48,000 of them were moved in 1,134 convoys.

A typical convoy was PQ-17, which consisted of 36 merchant vessels. After leaving Halifax, the convoy was held in Reykjavick, Iceland, waiting for weather forecasts that would often promise snow or fog along the route to Murmansk. Finally, orders to depart were given, and after passing through the minefields north of Iceland into the Arctic Ocean, above the Shetland Islands, past the North Cape of Norway, and into the Barents Sea, the convoy was attacked night and day by German U-boats, by surface ships including pocket battleships, and no less than 108 successive waves of Norway-based German bombers. Out of the 36 merchant ships in PQ 17, only 13 made it in to Murmansk. The 23 that went to the bottom carried with them 125,000 tons of cargo, not counting scores of lives.

The problems for the merchant mariners did not stop with the sinking of their vessels. There were many stories during the war of lifeboat survivors being machine-gunned. During the years of the war, over 16 1/2 million tons of cargo were delivered by American merchant ships to Murmansk and Archangel, enabling the Russians to stop Hitler's invasion and finally defeating the German Army.

Fleet Admiral Ernest J. King Commander in Chief of the U.S. Navy and Chief of the Naval Operations Photo: Official U.S. Navy Photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives

America's first major step to head off the complete destruction of the ships and merchant seamen was taken in February of 1942 with the creation of the War Shipping Administration (WSA) which was in the Executive Office of the President. Through the establishment of this extraordinary power, the United States Merchant Marine immediately ceased to function as a commercial industry. The WSA took control of the Maritime Commission and was given command of all sea-borne transportation, an authority unmatched in government.

Rear Admiral Emory Scott Land was the naval officer selected to head this organization. Six months after the end of hostilities, Admiral Land made his final report to the President. Under the date January 15, 1946, his concluding remarks were: "I feel that the officers and men of the Merchant Marine, the operators serving as agents for our Government, and the men and women of the WSA-all these citizens have served their country well. Any industry that can accomplish what this one has done in wartime can justify its great promise in peace."

On November 2, 1945, Fleet Admiral Ernest J. King, Commander in Chief of the United States Navy and Chief of the Naval Operations, wrote the following to Admiral Land: "During the past three and a half years, the Navy has been dependent upon the Merchant Marine to supply our far-flung fleet and bases. Without this support, the Navy could not have accomplished its mission. Consequently, it is fitting that the Merchant Marine share in our success as it shared in our trials."

Field Commanders knew the value of the Merchant Marine lifeline to their operations. Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower said: "Every man in this allied command is quick to express his admiration for the loyalty, courage, and fortitude of the officers and men of the Merchant Marine. We count upon their efficiency and their utter devotion to duty as we do our own; they have never failed us yet and in all the struggles yet to come we know that they will never be deterred by any danger, hardship, or privation. When final victory is ours there is no organization that will share its credit more deservedly than the Merchant Marine."

The War losses of the American Merchant Marine between September 3, 1939, and August 15, 1945, were 733 American merchant vessels of over 1000 gross tons sunk during the war, victims of torpedoes, bombs, mines, and marine disasters largely caused by war conditions. Seven of these vessels were sunk before Pearl Harbor. This was more than half the tonnage of our prewar Merchant Marine.

A total of 6,638 merchant seamen and officers are dead and missing; 581 were made prisoners of war. Through the first part of 1943, casualties among the seagoing force were greater proportionately than in all the Armed Services combined. During the entire war the Merchant Seamen had a death rate of 2.8% which was second only to the U.S. Marine Corps death rate of 2.9%.

Almost 200,000 men came ashore from the wartime merchant ship to find that they were very much on their own. There was no G.I. Bill of Rights to provide loans, no free education such as was given to 7,800,000 veterans. However, the heroism of the merchant seamen did not go unrewarded. The U.S. Congress enacted legislation authorizing award medals for outstanding conduct and service insignias for public identification of the contribution made to victory by these men.

The Distinguished Service Medal (right) is the highest award for the men of the Merchant Marine. A total of 141 have been awarded. Next is the Meritorious Service Medal. A total of 362 have been awarded. The Merchant Marine Unit Award, also known as the "Gallant Ship Citation" was awarded to only two merchant ships throughout the war.

Similar to the Armed Service's Purple Heart is the Mariner's Medal. A total of 5,099 have been awarded. The Victory Medal was awarded at the end of World War II to those seamen that had served during that four-year period aboard merchant vessels. Although more than 200,000 were eligible for the medal, only 31,269 were awarded. The Merchant Marine decorations and medals board issued War Zone Bars, Combat Bars, and Merchant Marine Service Emblems. On May 22, 1935, Congress established National Maritime Day. This special day was to honor merchant shipping and seamen because on that date in 1819, the S.S. Savannah sailed from that Georgia seaport on the first successful transatlantic voyage under steam propulsion.

It was not until 1987 with Public Law 202, that members of the Merchant Marine were granted Veterans Status and became eligible for care at VA hospitals and burials in a national cemetery. Less than 40 percent of the men who sailed the merchant fleet during these four years of World War II were alive to take advantage of these benefits.

It is important to remember the many contributions made by the Merchant Marine sailors. They delivered the goods and made final victory possible.

Note: The above article is adapted from a presentation by Illustrious Donald P. Garrido, Grand Cross, to the monthly meeting of Fort Sam Houston Chapter No. 17, National Sojourners, Inc., at the Fort Sam Houston Officers' Club, San Antonio, Texas, on November 13, 2002.

Donald P. Garrido started his seagoing career as a Messman aboard the S.S. Potomac in June 1943, sailed as Master of the USNS Dutton and USNS Comet, and retired as the Chief Pilot of the Panama Canal Commission in June 1994. He is a Merchant Marine Veteran of World War II. He received his Ensign Commission in the U.S. Naval Reserve in March 1950 and retired as Captain, USNR, on October 1987. Captain Garrido was raised as a Master Mason in Zeredatha Lodge No. 131 of Jersey City, N.J., in May 1952, elected Worshipful Master of Sojourners Lodge of Cristobal, Republic of Panama, in December 1974, and appointed Right Worshipful District Grand Master at the Panama Canal in 1990 thru 1992. He is the recipient of the Joseph Warren and Henry Price Medals from the M.W. Grand Lodge of Massachusetts. He was the Presiding Officer over all four Scottish Rite Bodies, Valley of Balboa, Orient of the Panama Canal. Ill. Garrido received the 33rd Degree October 1983 and was elected to the rank of the Grand Cross of the Court of Honor by the Supreme Council, S.J., October 1999. He was also the Presiding Officer over all three York Rite Bodies and was decorated with the Knights York Grand Cross of Honor with two Quadrants in February 1994. Ill. Garrido and his wife Lydia I. Garrido now reside in San Antonio, Texas, and they have two children, Lydia Denise and Ronald Joseph.