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MERCHANT MARINER, 81, STILL HOPES FOR COMPENSATION --

"How could we have been so totally ignored? All my friends came

home and got money to go to school, and I went to work."

For more about the Merchant Marine, use the VA Watchdog search engine...click here...
http://www.yourvabenefits.org/sessearch.php?q=merchant+marine&op=ph

Story here... http://www.sun-sentinel.com/features/colu
mnists/sfl-flmarci0525pnmay25,0,4307307.column

Story below:

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Merchant Marine, 81, still hopes for compensation

Marci Shatzman
Palm Beach County western communities

Bob Schulbaum keeps his World War II memorabilia on the wall of his home office in Vizcaya.

There's the photo of him in the merchant marines, his ribbons and medals, and a drawing of the Edwin Abbey, the first of seven ships he served on during the 32 months he spent shipping men and supplies to war zones all over the world.

"I was overwhelmed by patriotic fervor," said Bob, to explain why he signed up with the merchant marines at 16, against the wishes of his parents.

All his friends were being drafted after Pearl Harbor, but he was a year too young for any branch of the service, Bob said in an interview in what he kiddingly calls the "world headquarters of the Delray Alliance." He's the longtime president.

But Uncle Sam didn't consider Bob's war experience military service, even though he has still has the letter from the War Shipping Administration exempting him. They told him the law had been changed. So five years later, he was drafted and shipped off to Korea to serve in another conflict.

"When I got home, I had a 1-year-old son," he said.

Shirley Schulbaum said she didn't see or speak to her husband for 14 months.

Bob's not bitter about serving in two wars, but he is angry and frustrated about never receiving any pension or benefits for his service as a merchant mariner.

"There was not a whole lot of us, and we lost 6,000 men, a bigger percentage of casualties than the Army and the Navy," he said.

He said at the time, the merchant mariners were considered profiteers or shirkers trying to avoid military service. "But it wasn't true," he said. Their base pay was $87 a month and they got another buck a day in a war zone, $100 if their ship was attacked and $300 if it was sunk.

The headline on a yellowed editorial from the New York Daily Mirror he keeps, dated Sept. 1, 1944, reads: "Justice for our Forgotten Hero."

"Let us not forget the men of the American Merchant Marine … the men who manned these boats should have a GI Bill of Rights."

It recommends that 15,000 boys between the ages of 16 and 18 who had entered "this highly hazardous service since April 1," receive hospitalization, medical care, post-war education and employment allowances, disability pay and burial honors.

But the tide of sentiment was against them. It never happened. So Bob was thrilled to read an article in the paper about the Merchant Mariners Compensation Act. The bill proposes giving the men who are still alive $1,000 a month for life. The bill says 7,000 to 9,000 of them died in the war.

"The benefit is to compensate the mariners for not being included under the GI Bill, which gave money to returning World War II soldiers and sailors for home loans and college tuition," wrote the South Florida Sun-Sentinel's Diane Lade.

"How could we have been so totally ignored? All my friends came home and got money to go to school, and I went to work," Bob said.

The House passed the bill. Florida Sen. Bill Nelson is one of 60 sponsors of a companion bill in that chamber. But a few months later, Bob read a letter to the editor saying the bill was stuck in a Senate committee because of Hawaii Sen. Daniel Kahikina Akaka.

The senator's bio on his Web site says he was a civilian worker with the Army Corps of Engineers from 1943-47. He is also chairman of the Senate Veterans Affairs committee. Phone messages left at his office in Washington, D.C., were not returned in time for this article's deadline.

Bob will be 81 next month, and he feels time is running out to make it up to the merchant mariners. "There are not many of us around. Only the kids like me," he said.

He knows organized groups are pushing for the bill, but he wants to go to Washington himself and confront the senator. He doesn't need company, but he'd like to bring a list of names of some other World War II merchant mariners with him. If you're out there, e-mail him at rschulbaum@hotmail

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posted by Larry Scott
Founder and Editor
VA Watchdog dot Org

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