A good number of Merchant Marine WW II combat veterans have poured out their memories in this book. They tell about what they did on their ships for their country to supply the needs of our fighting men and those of our allies all over the earth. We WW 2 Merchant Marines are all now in our upper 80's & 90's and dealing with medical problems. No one knows how many of us are still alive. Every day we hear that one or more of our WW II sailor comrades have "Crossed the Bar" (passed away).
There have been more than 50 Merchant Marine wartime books written over the years since that war. This one may be the last and we will tell our story up to the present. Very few people have heard of these Merchant Mariners or the struggle to obtain recognition and benefits from" two generations of forgetful Washington politicians." Ian Allison and this author were very close to that struggle and you can read about it here - "unvarnished."
We are very proud to have stories about Stanley Willner in "Death's Railway" and Perry Adam in "Little Ships" which were written by Gerald Reminick and published by the Glencannon Press, Mr. Walter Jafffe, Publisher, El Cerritto, CA. These gentlemen have wished us well with this book. The Forgotten Heroes, by the well-known author, "Mr. Brian Herbert," is the third book we used for expertise on total information about the Merchant Marine. We met Mr. Herbert at the April 18, 2007 "House Committee on VA Affairs." He spoke strongly about the treatment and neglect the country had given us. When his verbal time ran out, he continued with a five-page written testimony. This volume's publishing would not be possible without the collection of WW II Merchant Marine information provided by Captain Dave Swan of the "St. Johns River Chapter of the AMMV" from the Maritime Museum in Jacksonville, FL 32260.
The subject of this book is "not" the U.S. in WW II. Those accounts almost never mention the Merchant Mariners. Our stories are told by these old men who were out there on every ocean before, during and after the US entered the war, 1940-1946. We most certainly acknowledge the contribution of their stories.