Merchant mariners respond to letter
A Berkeley man's note to Dear Abby, urging the service's WWII veterans to sign up for benefits, brought a flood of mail
West County Times [Richmond, California]
Tuesday, May 8, 2001
By Tony Hicks, Times Staff WriterBerkeley -- A box full of letters on Dan Horodysky's coffee table sat perilously close to falling Monday. The rest of the table was buried under at least a foot of rubber-banded envelope stacks.
"This is just today's mail," Horodysky said, pointing to the weighty box. "We're trying to find some volunteers to help us open them."
The sudden rush of correspondence is traceable to a letter Horodysky, 73, sent to advice columnist Dear Abby that was published last week.
Horodysky is the communications director for the American Merchant Marine Veterans organization, and if his coffee table is any indication, the former merchant mariner is a real professional at communicating.
"I want to attest to the fact that Dear Abby works," he said.
His letter to Abby said that many former merchant mariners don't realize they're entitled to veterans benefits. A 1987 court decision gave members of the Merchant Marine during World War II the same benefits as those serving in other service branches.
Printed nationally with his contact address, the letter struck a chord. Old sailors who faced German and Japanese submarines, floating mines and other hazards to get wartime supplies overseas, want to know more.
"After the war was over, we were forgotten," Horodysky said. "Nobody ever told them about (the benefits). This is a way of bringing closure for people who put their lives on the line."
For three years, Horodysky and his wife Toni have run a Web site for old merchant seamen, doling out information and telling the stories they believe important. Years before the United States entered World War II, German U-boats were sinking U.S. merchant ships bringing supplies to Europe.
"The merchant marine had the highest casualty rate of any branch of the service," Toni said. "(President Franklin D.) Roosevelt called it the lifeline to our forces -- and all the Allied forces. He wanted a bridge of ships."
Horodysky, who grew up in New Jersey and joined the Merchant Marine at 17, said that part of the perception that mariners weren't fighters was due to their policy of taking people regardless of health or age.
There was another perception that draft dodgers became merchant sailors, a notion at which the Horodyskys laughed.
"We read about a fella who was torpedoed seven times," Toni said. "When he went back, he was called a draft dodger."
[Photo by Eddie Ledesma, West County Times: Dan and Toni Horodysky open letters from former merchant mariners sharing tales of life in the "bridge of ships" that supplied anti-Nazi Europe. Dan Horodysky joined up when he was 17. ]
Once the war started in December 1941, merchant mariners went through the same basic training as Navy sailors. They manned guns and fought the enemy, often in poorly armed old ships that were more or less sitting ducks.
When it came time to decide who got benefits, the government decided that merchant mariners were technically civilians, despite the dangers they faced. Horodysky said the enemy sank at least 800 merchant ships and damaged another 600. About 7,200 merchant sailors died in the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.
"When those ships came in after the war, there were no bands playing for them when they pulled in," said retired Adm. Tom Patterson, who joined the Merchant Marine in 1943 and later served in the Navy. "I never saw anybody as dedicated as Dan and his wife. He's always so giving of his time."
The couple's prime motivator has been helping families of those killed.
"Widows got telegrams saying their husbands had died, details to follow," Toni said. "But the details never came."Horodysky has a new quest: getting compensation for World War II merchant marine veterans for benefits not received and getting the veteran's status conferred on merchant seamen who served in Korea and Vietnam.
"It keeps your mind alive, doing all this research," he said.
He and Toni, who have been married for 25 years, are going to a conference of the mariners association next week in Dallas to get the ball rolling on the new issues.
They plan to go once they finish opening the mail.CONTACTS
Information for World War II merchant mariners registering for veterans benefits can be found on Dan and Toni Horodysky's Web site www.usmm.org.Tony Hicks covers Berkeley. Reach him at 510-262-2713 or thicks@cctimes.com.
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5/8/01