Merchant Seaman, U.S. Merchant Marine (MESSMAN) Service# Z-358474
MERCHANT SHIP – SS ROBERT GRAY (STEAM MERCHANT)
Home or Place of Enlistment: Wilder, Idaho Lost at Sea: April 19, 1943
At 03.13 hours on 19 April 1943 the surfaced U-108 fired a spread of four torpedoes at a Liberty ship and heard two detonations. The U-boat had to dive because the ship fired with guns and fired at 04.43 hours a coup de grâce that missed, but a second coup de grâce at 05.59 hours hit in the stern. The vessel caught fire after ammunition exploded and sank rapidly by the stern. This was likely the Robert Gray (Master Alfred Rasmussen Lyngby), which was reported missing after straggling from convoy HX-234 during the night of 13/14 April. All eight officers, 31 crewmen and 23 armed guards (the ship was armed with one 4in, one 3in and eight 20mm guns) were lost.
Because the Merchant Marine was not considered a branch of the U.S. Armed Forces, the Purple Heart was not available to Merchant Mariners; as such, the Merchant Marine Mariner's Medal was established by an Act of Congress on 10 May 1943.
Awarded only to members of the United States Merchant Marine, the Mariner’s Medal recognizes seamen who were killed or wounded as a direct result of conflict against an opposing armed force; in specific, it was awarded to any seaman who while serving in a ship during a war period is wounded, suffers physical injury, or suffers through dangerous exposure as a result of an act of enemy of the United States. In the event any such seaman dies from the wounds or injuries before the award can be made to him, the medal may be presented to the person named in the War Risk Policy as his beneficiary. 6,635 Mariner's Medals were awarded for service in the Second World War; all further awards of the Mariner's Medal were suspended on 30 June 1956 and has not been awarded in subsequent U.S. theaters of conflict.
The merchant marine is collectively those non-naval ships that carry cargo or passengers or provide maritime services, and the civilian crewmen and officers who sail those ships. During World War II the ships and men of the United States merchant marine transported across the oceans of the world the vast quantities of war materiel, supplies, equipment, and troops needed to fight and win that war. The men of the U.S. merchant marine were civilian volunteers who nonetheless died proportionally in numbers that rivaled or exceeded any branch of the uniformed military.
On March 13, 2020, the Congressional Gold Medal was awarded collectively to the United States Merchant Mariners of World War II, in recognition of their dedicated and vital service during the war.