The U.S. Merchant Marine Academy

The U.S. Merchant Marine Academy (USMMA) at Kings Point, New York was dedicated by President Franklin D. Roosevelt on 30 September 1943, who said it "serves the Merchant Marine as West Point serves the Army and Annapolis the Navy." It sits under the Maritime Administration (Department of Transportation), not the Department of Defense. Its motto is "Acta Non Verba" ("Deeds Not Words").

Admission requires a congressional nomination. Uniquely, midshipmen spend a "Sea Year" aboard commercial and government ships, and graduates leave with three credentials: a Bachelor of Science, a U.S. Coast Guard Merchant Mariner license (Third Mate or Third Assistant Engineer), and a commission (often as a Navy Reserve ensign). They may serve in any branch — and enjoy a documented GI Bill advantage.

Kings Point is the only federal service academy whose cadets served in a combat zone during wartime. During World War II, midshipmen shipped out as part of their training — and 142 cadet-midshipmen died aboard torpedoed and bombed vessels.

Because of that sacrifice, USMMA is the only U.S. service academy authorized to carry a regimental battle standard, which bears the number "142" and ribbons for the combat zones in which its cadet-midshipmen served.

Merchant mariners kept the Allied war effort supplied across oceans hunted by U-boats, and they paid for it. Roughly 9,500 were killed — a casualty rate of about 1 in 26, the highest of any U.S. service in the war. More than 700 U.S. merchant ships were lost (some accounts cite well over 1,500). Yet because they were technically civilians, they were denied veteran status and GI Bill benefits for decades.

Recognition came only after a long fight. The GI Bill Improvement Act of 1977 (Public Law 95-202) created a process for civilian groups to be recognized as active military service. Merchant mariners were initially denied — until the lawsuit Schumacher v. Aldridge (1987) forced the government to reconsider. On 19 January 1988, the Secretary of the Air Force finally determined that the "American Merchant Marine in Oceangoing Service during… 7 December 1941 to 15 August 1945" constituted active military service for VA purposes — some 43 years after the war, too late for many who had already died.

Today, recognized WWII mariners (or their survivors) can obtain a DD-214 through the Coast Guard's National Maritime Center, and in 2020 Congress awarded WWII merchant mariners the Congressional Gold Medal (Public Law 116-125). Proposed one-time service payments have been introduced repeatedly but not enacted.