National Maritime Day

Floor Speech

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Mr. GARAMENDI. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in memory of an extraordinary group of people.

Yesterday was National Maritime Day, and I rise to bring attention to the House legislation that I recently introduced, H.R. 5879, the World War II Merchant Marine Congressional Gold Medal. I hear the cheers from all of my colleagues here on the floor as they line up to support this piece of legislation.

Last year, my colleague, Susan Brooks, my good Republican friend, introduced this legislation. I am grateful to her and to Congressman Don Young of Alaska for their support of this legislation this year. This bill has obvious bipartisan support and bicameral support. Senator Murkowski of Alaska is leading this bill in what some call the upper Chamber; we simply call it the Senate.

During World War II, our Armed Forces relied upon the Merchant Marine to ferry supplies, cargo, manpower and womanpower into both theaters of operation: the Pacific and the Atlantic. They paid a heavy price for their service.

The Merchant Marine casualty rate was the highest among all branches of the U.S. Armed Forces. An estimated 8,300 merchant mariners lost their life during the war, and around 12,000 were wounded. But these brave men and women, who put their lives on the line to sustain our Armed Forces, were not even given veteran status until 1988, much less public recognition for their invaluable service.

Today, I am going to meet with a group of World War II Merchant Marine veterans: Charles Mills from Texas, age 97; Eugene Barner from Kansas, age 92; and Robert Weagant from Illinois, age 92. I will also be meeting with families of other veterans who are no longer with us. I am meeting them to hear firsthand their stories of bravery and peril in the service of our Armed Forces. They deserve the recognition of a Congressional Gold Medal, and that is precisely what this legislation will do.

I urge all of the Members of this House and the Senate to give our Merchant Marine veterans and their families the honor they deserve.

I will also be discussing with these gentlemen and their families a piece of legislation that we introduced the day before yesterday, we call it the Energizing the American Shipbuilding Industry--taking a small percentage of the oil and natural gas that we are now exporting and requiring that that be on American-built ships with American mariners, so that we can maintain the extraordinary tradition of bravery and service that the World War II mariners showed this Nation.

If we are successful in passing this legislation, we will be building some 50 ships, or more, in our shipyards all across America, providing jobs in the upper Midwest, where they build the great engines for these ships: the pumps, the pipes, and the electronic systems. We would also be providing some 1,800 jobs for the next generation of mariners.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues not only to support the Congressional Gold Medal for the World War II mariners, but support our effort to create mariners for the next generation, which, hopefully, will not be a war but, if it is, we know that we can rely on them, just as we did in World War II.

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