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Reviews by Thomas E. Sofranko

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The Greatest Generation
by Tom Brokaw
Merchant Marine Comments (11/17/2008)
Concerning The Merchant Marine in WWII
The only mention was one Para on Page 18 and it was an uneducated derogatory one at at that.

You should not even comment about them without some intelligent research. The AMM had the greatest per capita losses than any of the branches of service. One of every twenty six never survived. Accurate research will show that their pay for comparable rank was equal to or less than any of the service members. We were all volunteers and especially on the East coast we were in enemy waters as soon as we left port. In the first six months after Pearl Harbor we lost over 200 ships and over 2000 men along the east coast to German submarines. I was Chief Radio Officer on the SS Edward H Crockett and was Torpedoed by U-310 in the Barents Sea on Sept 29, 1944. My pay stopped that same day. I had a shipmate on that run that was sunk on the previous run and still volunteered to sail again on my ship and was my mentor saying he would help me when we would get torpedoed. He shared my lifeboat without which would be certain death.

As you stated in your book "The AMM was the safest of all services." I wish you would have been on our ship, it would have been very enlightening for you.
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