On January 3rd, Representative All Green (D-TX-9) introduced a bill to establish the Merchant Mariner Equity Compensation Fund to provide benefits to certain individuals who served in the United States merchant marine (including the Army Transport Service and the Naval Transport Service) during World War II.
For those that are not familiar with Merchant Marines, it is not part of the military. Those who are part of the Merchant Marines are civilians who operate commercial ships during peacetime, but they also have a wartime role to transport military personnel and supplies.
Per We Are the Mighty, “Counting the waters around the American Philippines, Alaska, and the Gulf of Mexico, the Merchant Marine lost approximately 196 ships in U.S. waters. Meanwhile in the Caribbean, our backyard, we lost another 180 ships. Officially, the U.S. lost 1,554 ships in the war. Approximately 8,000 to 12,000 Merchant Marine sailors were killed.”
So, this bill would establish a wartime compensation for these civilians that risked their lives to transport troops during World War II. The funding allocated for this compensation fund would be $125,000,000.
