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

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Perhaps, the most famous cadet, lost during the war, was the Acade- my's second winner of the Distin- guished Service Medal, and the first to give his life in winning it. Edwin J. O'Hara, an engine cadet from Cali- fornia, had completed his basic training at San Mateo before being assigned to the Liberty Stephen Hopkins. He was never to return for his advance license training. His ship was westbound alone in the South Atlantic September 27, 1942, when she sighted what ap- peared to be two stopped cargo ves- sels but were actually the German commerce raider Stier and her blockade running supply ship Tan- nenfels. The latter was lightly armed, but the Stier's firepower included a battery of six 5.9 inch guns plus nu- merous smaller weapons, and two torpedo tubes. Stephen Hopkins had a 4 inch gun at the stern, an anti- aircraft mount, and five machine guns. Predictablly, Stephen Hopkins was smashed and sinking in twenty min- utes. But astonishingly, the raider too was mortally wounded thanks to the seamanship of the master. Paul Buck, the marksmanship of Ensign Kenneth Willett and the courage of O'Hara. When the ship's magazine had been blown up and Willett, seri- ously wounded at the start of the action, finally collapsed dead among his crew, the 18-year old engineer- ing student ran to the shattered gun tub and singlehandedly fired the five remaining shells, hitting both Nazi ships. O'Hara's medal was posthu- mously presented to his mother, March 15, 1943. Each cadet was required to send a detailed factual report to his Super- visor describing the action as he ob- served it, with particular attention to the time and places, enemy craft ob- served, casualties, damage sustained, lifeboat voyages, rescue, and acts of bravery. He was also encouraged to voice his opinion of the effective- ness of standard and ad hoc operat- ing procedures. The surviving files, though disorganized and certainly incomplete, contain reports of at- tacks on 250 ships, including 220 losses by 450 cadets. All of which were recently declassified and re- leased to the public. Since somewhat more than 700 large American mer- chant vessels were destroyed during the war, many not under War Ship- ping Control, or lost with all hands, it may be presumed that these letters contained most of the stories of ca- det-midshipmen who lost their ships, and lived to tell about it. 14 Opening

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Facing page top to bottom: Cadets leaving New Orleans District Office, Artists con- ception of the United Stats Coast Guard Merchant Marine Academy. The Walter Chrysler estate, on Long Island's gold coast. This page clockwise from below: The haz- ards of war at sea. An example of the mini- mal fire power which armed merchant ves- sels possesed. The present day War Memorial. A classroom in the basement of the Chrysler mansion shortly after its acquisition. TO COMMEMORATE cadet midshipmen AND GRADUATES OF THE U S MERCHANT MARINE ACADEMY LOST IN WORLD WAR II General Order 28, which superseded 23, provided that the eligible list should henceforth be base on a National Com- petitive Examination. The first examina- tion was held on April 17, 1939. Pre- pared by the American Council of Education, it covered six subjects: Grammar, Literature, History, Algebra, Geometry, and Physics. The examina- tion was taken by 450 applicants, 166 passed. Later examinations were held January 29 and November 16 1940, and June 7, 1941, with 740 applicants sur- viving. The fifth examination was taken by 395 candidates on a December Sat- urday when Japanese carriers were manuvering into launching formation a few hundred miles north of Oahu. There was never time to correct it. From the moment Congress declared war on December 8, 1941, there were cadets at sea, and imminently under at- tack. Of the 445 then in training at least two-thirds were aboard ship, since the original four year (ship-ship-shore- ship) training plan had run as yet barely three years. In subsequent months, this floating component steadily increased. War conditions often intervened to disrupt the orderly rotation of students from Basic to Ship to Advanced, cadets were unavoidably kept at sea beyond their scheduled return, and it became necessary to make alternate curricular provisions whereby the requirements of the second and even first class year might be fufilled on board ship. At the peak of its training operations, be- tween 3500 and 4000 cadet-midship- men were waterborne at one time. Despite the increasingly lethal po- tential of going to sea, the Cadet Corps' luck held. No cadet lives were lost from war causes before December 7, 1941, or for more than three months after that infamous date. Though the subma- rine offensive against American ship- ping broke in full fury almost at once, they almost lasted out the whole winter intact. On March 19 the blow finally fell. On that day the old shipping board freighter Liberator of Lykes Brothers Steamship company was lost by enemy action, and with her Cadet Howard Payne Conway, Jr. The Battle Standard count had begun. + 71

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No story about Kings Pointers at war would be complete without mention that about the time they ceased to re- ceive DSMs, Cadet Corpsmen who died in service began to be honored in a different way. This was the assign- ment of their names to Liberty Ships, which by rule could only be name for deceased persons important in this country's history. Five cadet-midship- men and at least two graduates were so commemerated. The fabled Liberty Ships of World War II, are remembrances of an era that has passed. Today these memorial Lib- erty Ships have all gone to join the namesake Kings Pointers who gave their lives on other Liberty Ships. Like the Battle Standard, however, the ship registers of the forties and fifties still bear silent witness that they served and died. In the history of human institutions, changes of direction have a way of coming about very quietly, almost sur- eptitiously. It is doubtful whether any cadet-midshipmen at Kings Point, or for that matter, any officer noticed any differences between the Academy of October 1 and the Academy of Sep- tember 29, 1943. Nothing had really changed by the official announcements of the Dedication on the 30th. Yet, a virtual 180° course change was taking place. All effort had gone into making Kings Point a sea college to create what the Academy has become today. Em- ' phasis was placed exclusively on devis- ing and perfecting a stripped-down, high speed instructional machine. The Sea Project, which was intro- duced in late 1942, was a self study course, deck or engine as appropiate, which supplanted the correspondence courses of prior years. It replaced the theoretical approach and treated the ship to which the student was assigned like a laboratory in which he could truely learn by doing. Clockwise from left: Cadet Edwin J. O'Hara. Capatin J.H. Tomb, Superinten- dent, addresses guests at USMMA Dedi- cation Day ceremony. Getting help with the Sea Project. Cadet with blue print traces out lines. The American Mariner enroute to Kings Point for live storage; the only liberty ship completed for use as a training ship. Battle scene from Ac- tion in the North Atlantic; the story of Cadet Edwin J. O'Hara. Survivors flee a sinking ship.