My name is Harold Frank Schmidt Sr., I was born on July 23, 1927 in Jersey City, NJ, but was orphaned in May 1929 after the deaths of my father and mother. I was placed into an orphanage in Jersey City, where I spent the next 13 years. At age 14, I was placed into a foster home and worked for the people who took me in, never going back to school.
In June 1944, at the age of 16, I was accepted for service into the Merchant Marine, due to the fact that the other services wouldn't accept me because I lost an eye as a baby, and because I was too young. The Merchant Marine service accepted many young boys my age and men too old to be drafted into the military. I was trained at the Maritime Training School at Sheeps Head Bay, NY, and in early 1945 was assigned to my first ship. I served through to the end of 1949 on the following Merchant ships:
Logans Fort (4/13/45 - 6/2/45) Wolverine (8/15/45 - 4/5/46)
Pontus Ross (5/17/46 - 8/7/46) Bastes Victory (1/18/47 - 4/5/47)
Logans Fort (6/5/47 - 8/9/47) Henry Hadley (8/20/47 - 10/1/47)
Harriet Tubman (10/10/47 - 1/11/48) Thomas Bullfinch (3/19/48 - 4/27/48)
Martin Berman (5/11/48 - 7/27/48) Redstone (8/3/48 - 11/24/48)
Coalings Hills (12/28/48 - 9/17/49)
In World War II, ALL merchant ships and their crews were placed under military control by virtue of the Merchant Marine Act of 1936, which designated them as "SHIPS OF WAR", and each merchant ship had a U.S. Navy Armed Guard Gun crew assigned to each to help defend the ship from the enemy.
By the end on 1949, there were few jobs left for merchant seaman as many ships were flying foreign flags as part of the U.S. government's Lend/Lease program, since our allies had lost their merchant fleets during the war. leaving very few for American seamen to obtain jobs.
I then returned to civilian life and worked in any job that I could find, but finally found work with the Borough of Fair Lawn, NJ, then retiring and moving to Sequim, WA in 1989.
During World War II, 1 out of 25 merchant seaman lost his life, this is with only about 250,000 serving as merchant seaman, but this doesn't cover those who received injuries that prevented them from returning to sea. On January19, 1988, those men who served on ocean-going merchant ships from December 7, 1941 to August 15, 1945 were granted veteran status under Public Law 95-202, however, 10 years later on November 11, 1998, the termination date was corrected to cover service to December 31, 1946, those men can now apply for a new DD-214 certificate reflecting the new date.
This web site is put together in order to educate the public on what the merchant seamen did as their part to win World War II, all the merchant seaman were volunteers and were not drafted.
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I HIGHLY RECOMMEND THESE BOOKS FOR MORE INFORMATION:
A Careless Word - A Needless Sinking,by Arthur Moore
Chanel Firing, by Nigel Lewis
Operation Drumbeat, by Michael Gannon
Merchantmen? or Ship of War, by Charles Dana Gibson
The U.S. Merchant Marine at War 1775-1945, edited by Bruce L. Felknor
On Watch, by Admiral Elmo R. Zumwalt, Jr.
Dirty Little Secrets of World War II, by James F. Dunnigan & Albert A. Nofi
The Voyage of the SS JEREMIAH O'BRIEN (1994), by C. "Coke" Scheider
Militant Mariner, by Arthur Patterson
Ships of the U.S. Merchant Fleet, by John Culver (USN RET)
The Watery Hell, by Ray Thompson
It Didn';t Happen on My Watch, by George C. Murphy
Convoy (Merchant Sailors at War 1939 - 1945), by Philip Kaplan & Jack Currie
They couldn't Have Won the War Without Us!, editied by Pete Peterson
Sea Logs of WWII, The Ship that Saved Africa, by Capt A.J. Shutsy, WO I.J. Schutsy & SN H.J. Michalowski
Patriots and Heroes, by Gerald Reminick
Torpedo Junction, by Homer H. Hickman, Jr.
Should Veteran Status be dependent on a Kangaroo Court?, by Burt Young (about Merchant Marine Vets status)
The Seas that Mourn, A Novel by Patrick D. Smith
The Forgotten Heroes, The Heroic Story of the United States Merchant Marine, by Brian Herbert
Harold F. "Bud" Schmidt passed over the bar on October 14, 2005, he has found his safe harbor.
Merchant Marine DD-214 Information
Washington St. Dept. of Veterans Affairs
Phonies & Wannabe Veterans Exposed
Library of Congress Vets Oral History Project
Shipwrecks & Other Maritime Disasters
When We Were Kids...We Went to War (WWII)
The Voices of WWII in Washington State
Merchant Marine Outreach Assistance Program
GI Memories - Veterans Infomation Interchange
WWII Navajo Codetalkers
117Th Helicopter Co. - Vietnam War Years
The POW Network
Justin Naval Oral History Center
Dustoff Assoc. - U.S. Army Medivac
National WWII Memorial in Washington, D.C.
The Transportation Insitute
Maritime Links
NJ Dept. of Military and Veterans Affairs
Another Information Site
Juan de Fuca Chapter, AMMV
Navy Ships/Subs Listing
Capt Fred Bock Memorial Site
www.homestead.com/usmerchantmarinevets/
www.usmm.org
World War II Websites
Asbetos-related Cancers
U.S. Air Force Museum, Dayton, OH
American Veterans Search Home Page
Military Sealift Command
United States Transportation Command
Merchants War
Merchant Marine/Navy Armed Guard Videos
Merchant Marine Service Act-1945
World War II Oral History Links
U.S. Coast Guard Information Center
Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships
Korean War Veterans
Korean War History
Federal Consumer Information Page
U.S. Government TTY Directory
Desert Storm Journal & Photo Gallery
Gulf War Links
National Liberty Ship Memorial
WWII Letters Home from Veterans
Liberty Ship Memorial Park, Portland, OR
