The Merchant Marine

Donald Lanier Englett gets his passport to serve overseas in the Merchant Marine.

“In 1943 I quit West Fulton High School at the age of 15 to join the Merchant Marine by changing some paperwork to fudge my age a bit. My buddy and I were going in together. After I signed up, he changed his mind. Though still a kid, I was on my own.

“In essence, the Merchant Marine was the fleet of ships which become a naval auxiliary during wartime to deliver troops and war material. If not by plane, all cargo went by us. After my training I was all of 16 when they finally sent me overseas as a boiler stoker, meaning below deck shoveling coal. We headed to Italy as part of a Atlantic fleet in 1944. Our ships weren’t allowed to have guns. We had a handful of Navy gunmen, with a 20MM mounted to the bow and one mounted on the stern. Our group never had any problems with German subs because we were pretty much surrounded by our destroyers.

“Even though I sailed all over the world with the Merchant Marine without any problems; problems did exist. One hundred and twenty five Merchant Marine vessels left to go through the North Sea into Russia. The escort fleet felt no further aid was needed, thinking they were now in safe waters. The Seamen were on their own. Within days, every ship was sank thanks to the German U-boats. Every man and every ship was gone.

“Before the war ended, the Merchant Marine had lost over thirty thousand Seamen. Actually if I had signed up for the Marines, I would statistically had a better chance of survival. Records show most casualties per person were in the Merchant Marine, being one in every twenty five, against the next worst…the Marines, one in every thirty five killed.

After the Marchant Marine, Englett heads for the Army.

“My brother Bill though had a more dangerous job than me during the war. He was a ball turret gunner, that little guy crammed in the Plexiglass bubble under the belly of a B-17 bomber. They always picked the smallest guy for the job. Stuffed in there like a pig with two .50 caliber machine guns. Jimmy Mosteller here would have made a good one. (Jimmy was a one-time horse jockey.) Bill flew thirty seven missions. Atlanta racing star Jerry Wimbish did forty two, and my brother-in-law Ed flew thirty five. They all came home. They were lucky.”

Now Cometh The Army

“In 1949 I was drafted in the Armed Forces, even though I had spent many months in Europe during the war in the Merchant Marine. They didn’t consider us servicemen back in those days…just Seamen. Just Seamen who were still eligible for the draft.

“For thirteen months I went through basic training in the Army. When I got to Fort Jackson, SC, I found many of them were my old Merchant Marine buddies. From there we went to Fort Bragg, NC, then on to California at Fort Stoman. Then to Japan for another thirteen months as a medical assistant and back home.

“The Korean War would soon follow, but by then…thank goodness I had already started racing.