United States Merchant Marine Academy - Midships Yearbook (Kings Point, NY)

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THE SEVEN SEAS FOR A CAMPUS our neighboring cities at home. While this panorama of the world was un- folding. the pages of our sea projects grew thicker and thicker. Until at last properly supplied with the practical background, we came ashore for the final wind-up, the nine months of advanced academic training at the Academy. Now the long haul is completed. With our licenses and commissions, and proud- ly displaying our diplomas, we go forth again. Older and wiser, with more ports to make, more things to learn, more ships to sail and vital cargoes to carry, ready to pit our training against the sea and the enemy who would drive us from it. The seven seas, our campus and ' proving ground, is now our domain. We Cadet-Midshipmen have been most for- tunate. While pursuing the studies and gaining the experience necessary for our chosen pro- fession. we saw many strange places, and the ways of many peoples, of which we had read and heard. We saw them against the vivid background of a world at war . . . The Persian Gulf, Casablanca, London, Murmansk, the Solomons, and many others, large and snjall. Some ports were blackened by bombs, some the battlegrounds of bitterly-locked armies. Some ports were untouched, seemingly far removed from the violence of war. To these places we came, delivered our cargoes, A and sailed on. Places on the map we never knew existed became as familiar as

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«VERBA Cadet-Midshipman Frederick R. Zito saved the life of a seaman who became entangled in the boat falls in aban- doning their fast sinking ship. In doing this he climbed hand over hand from an awaiting lifeboat to extricate this man who was hanging head down. Both fell in the water and were rescued. Cadet-Midshipman Elmer C. Donnelly while on the same ship as Cadet-Midshipman Vannais volunteered to enter the hold of the flaming vessel and until ordered to leave due to the numerous explosions labored to bring the fire under control. Shown with Cadet-Midshipman Don- nelly at the presentation of the award are Captain Giles C. Sledman. LSNR. Superintendent and Captain P. C. Mahady, USNR. Commandant of Cadet-Midshipmen. iii Cadet-Midshipman Phil C. Vannais’ ship was subjected to a bombing attack by enemy planes. Bomb fragments pierced the hull, and the cargo of high octane gasoline exploded. With flames 200 to 300 feet high, Vannais volunteered to go aboard with a handful of others and combat the inferno, bringing the fire under control. Cadet-Midshipman William L. Thomas returned to a torpedoed engine room to rescue a blind and mangled shipmate. He then lowered this man over the side, strapped to a small liferaft. and swam along side this raft for 20 hours in shark infested waters until picked up. Cadet-Midshipman Walter G. Sittmann volunteered to go aft with the radio operator and cut the mooring lines when a blazing ammunition ship tied next to them at a dock was hit during an air-raid. This courageous act resulted in saving the lives of many others and valuable supplies. 17