United States Merchant Marine

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United States Merchant Marine Badge

The United States Merchant Marine ( USMS ) in 1939 under the provisions of the 1936 by the US Congress decided Merchant Marine Act as a US Merchant Marine established. The task of this organization was to prepare men to serve as officers and crew members in peacetime on civilian ships and in defense cases on warships of the United States Navy .

aims

The War Shipping Administration recruited seafarers to form the US Merchant Marine on posters and advertising posters . For sailors or seafarers with experience, the training period was three months, for so-called newbies six months. The young men had to be at least 19 years old. Their training was seen as crucial to winning the war. Thousands of young men signed up for the new American merchant fleet, who were trained under the watchful eyes of the appropriate personnel in order to be able to be deployed according to their skills. Their main area of ​​responsibility was to deliver war material (bombs, ammunition, weapons, vehicles, planes, petrol, but also food and other materials) to the troops by sea. So it was written into the Merchant Marine Act of 1936. National defense requires that the United States have a well-equipped merchant navy with the best and most suitable ships.

The organization's mission was to ensure the development and maintenance of an adequate and balanced American merchant navy to promote United States trade and thus contribute to national defense.

This organization, which was heavily used during the Second World War , has since been largely dissolved and / or integrated into other federal agencies; some of the NCOs were / are still as administrative officers and teachers in their function, which they held in the US Merchant Marine Academy , in other maritime academies active.

Oscar nomination

The United States Merchant Marine worked on the 1942 documentary A Ship Is Born and was nominated for an Oscar in the category "Best Documentary" for this production . The film was directed by Warner Bros. turned. The Oscar went to the following four documentaries:

The film is in the public domain and can be viewed in the Internet Archive.

See also

Web links

Commons : United States Merchant Marine  - Collection of images, videos, and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c World War II US Navy Armed Guardand World War II US Merchant Marine armed-guard.com (English). Retrieved February 19, 2015.
  2. ↑ a b c The US Merchant Marine armed-guard-com / about (English). Retrieved February 19, 2015.
  3. ↑ a b c United States Merchant Marine usmm.org (English). Retrieved February 19, 2015.
  4. ↑ A Ship Is Born - Film