Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, April 19, 1995 TAG: 9504200045
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: ALICE CANTWELL JOURNAL OF COMMERCE
DATELINE: NEW YORK LENGTH: Medium
Fifty years late, some World War II sailors finally will get their medals.
Some of the men still are alive to receive them; in other cases, widows or other survivors will accept medals issued to merchant mariners who were pressed into service.
And even now there is controversy over whether the government, which at last has agreed to issue the medals, will pay for them. There are hopes that the maritime industry will step in.
Credit that some 300 medals will be awarded at all goes to Ray Pettersen, 39, a Vietnam War veteran who said he was embarrassed when he learned that merchant mariners were denied wartime medals.
Pettersen, liaison officer for veterans' affairs at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Northport, N.Y., decided to use his knowledge of ``how the system works'' to help the merchant mariners.
Petterson said ``there's been a lot of confusion'' at the U.S. Department of Transportation over whether the government will cover the cost of minting the medals, which amounts to about $6 apiece. However, Pettersen has found sponsors to cover the cost of the medals.
Thousands of civilian seafarers crewed the lightly armed U.S.-flag cargo ships that carried essential supplies to U.S. troops and the Allies during World War II, and some 7,000 were lost at sea in enemy action, said Martin Skrocki of the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy at Kings Point, N.Y.
Merchant mariners shipped out of the Port of New York and New Jersey and elsewhere to bring supplies to every theater of the war. Although they were classified as civilians, they were under military orders. Their ships were engaged in battle, and they had a higher casualty rate than any of the uniformed services except the Marine Corps.
by CNB