Maine Maritime Academy

Along with my classmates, John Chapman and Joel Fuller (’64), we arrived in Vietnam 3 months after graduation. Many MMA grads along with all other maritime academies, went on to serve in the Viet War for its duration. MMA mariners were on the first ships to call at Cam Ranh Bay in 1965 carrying essential equipment to build the US base there. Cam Ranh became the first port that the US Army used containerized cargo to supply their fighting troops, men at war able to receive frozen ice cream in the field!

Unfortunately, graduates serving under their license and USNR commissions, aren’t veterans or able to join the VFW. Several merchant ships had casualties and deaths from combat, 2 ships sunk by mines in the Saigon River.

It took WWII seamen 40 years to receive veteran status. MMA mariners serving in Vietnam with commissions were fulfilling their military obligation. All merchant mariners who supported the military in WWII, Korea, Vietnam and Iraq, deserve honorary veteran status.