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From a book review: This is one of the few books that exposed the reality and incredible sacrifice of the United States Merchant Mariners during WWII. Only the United States Marine Corp, had a higher percentage of casualties during the war. They received basically no veterans benefits, although they were trained in gunnery, and were on armed ships, and were used as auxiliary gunners, and hot shellmen, during attack. Many went down with ships, were lost as sea, or taken prisoner. It took 40 years for them to finally get veterans status. Locations of convoys and sunk ships, tonnage lost, and the transportation of troops was of course kept secret, but you can read about it here. It was surprising how many ships were sunk right off of our coast!!! These guys were all Volunteers, and many were denied service in other branches for minor health issues like flat feet, some were too old, some were already in service prior to the war. They were hunted by aircraft, surface raiders, wolf packs of submarines, and were constantly threatened by mines, collisions, mechanical failure and the weather. Every student should know about these sailors and the U.S. Merchant Marine. My father was an electrician and Asst. Engineer on many ships during the war and went basically everywhere. He transported troops, equipment, and fuel worldwide. Sadly he rarely spoke about it, except for seeing ships on fire, luckily not his. This book gave me great insight on what he must have been thinking during the war years. I really appreciate the authors effort in making this book a reality.