U.S. Armed Guard and Merchant Marine

U.S. Armed Guard and Merchant Marine. . Little recognized in popular histories of the Second World War, the U.S. Navy Armed Guard (USNAG) and U.S. Merchant Marine (USMM) played a central role in transporting the personnel and material the Allies needed to achieve victory. In the process of doing that, those merchant seaman sustained the severest losses, per capita, of any U.S. Military or naval service during the Second World War. Attacked en route to Honolulu, SS Cynthia Olson became the first U.S. flag vessel sunk by a Japanese submarine. The 250 x 44 and 20-foot steam schooner sank with her 33-man crew, two U.S. Army passengers, and cargo a thousand miles east of Diamond Head on 7 December 1941, Pearl Harbor Day. , , Though separate entities with different responsibilities, the USNAG and USMM sailed, labored, and fought as one. A service branch of the United States Navy, the USNAG helped defend U.S. and Allied cargo ships, tankers, troop ships and other merchant vessels from aerial, submarine, and surface attack by serving aboard them as gunners, signal men, and radio operators. The USMM comprised the civilian crew and officers who sailed the various non-naval vessels that carried cargo, transported passengers, and provided maritime services worldwide. , , Throughout the early 1940s, the Allies' merchant services endured years of peril and suffering on the treacherous Murmansk Run above Norway to northwestern Russia. Among the supplies and equipment transported from the United States by the USMM were 15,000 aircraft, 1,000 tanks, 350,000 tons of explosives, and 15 million pairs of boots. That infusion cost the United States some fifty vessels sunk with their cargo and thousands of combat and cold-weather casualties, but the sustained effort, complemented by British and Canadian merchant navies transporting similar cargo at comparable costs in vessels and lives, provided the material Stalin needed to resist then counterattack Hitler on the eastern front while the planning, preparation, and launching of D-Day proceeded in the west. , , Beneath a 10 June 1944 New York Times story headlined "Merchant Seamen Are D-Day Heroes," this noteworthy summary appears. "The American merchant marine has reached a new peak of glory, and into this latest venture it has brought all the hard-earned experience of such historic episodes as the African landings and the bitterly fought Arctic runs to Russia... For D-Day, the USMM fleet included refitted luxury liners as well as tugs, barges, concrete ships, freighters, and scores of Liberty ships. Forty-six merchant vessels were sunk or damaged in Operation Neptune, among them sixteen deliberate sinkings on 8 June to create breakwaters for an artificial harbor off Omaha Beach. , , Emplaced in grateful tribute to the men and women of the U.S. Navy Armed Guard and U.S. Merchant Marine. Valor, fidelity, and sacrifice are the hallmarks of their wartime service at sea and at home. Given by the veterans and friends of the USNAG and USMM. Dedicated on the 66th anniversary of D-Day, 6 June 2010.