World War II veterans — Jack Routson

BY ANDI BALLA

The noise from the engines stopped, and the rhythm interruption was enough to wake Jack Routson from his sleep.

“Something must be wrong,” he thought as he headed for the deck.

It was the first sea voyage for the 20-year-old from Nebraska, as he sailed on SS Whittier, an U.S. Merchant Marine vessel transporting fuel, food and ammunition for U.S. troops fighting in early 1943 in the Pacific Ocean.

“There are Japanese submarines in the area, and nobody is to say anything — not even a whisper,” the captain ordered the crew on the deck. “We are dead in the water until I get something that will tell me that it is safe to move. If we have to sit here all night — we will.”

Routson and the rest of the crew sat in silence, listening to the only sound coming out of the night — waves hitting the side of the ship.

“You do what you are told and shut up,” he thought to himself to fight back the fear.

Then a loud explosion less than a mile away sends another U.S. tanker ablaze. A Japanese torpedo had hit it.

“They are down there, that’s for damn sure,” Routson thought.

An hour later another nearby ship was hit, but after three hours of idle waiting, the SS Whittier and her crew escaped unharmed,

“The skipper saved us,” Routson thought with relief. “We got lucky.”

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Many weren’t as fortunate.

One in 26 mariners serving aboard merchant ships in World War II died in the line of duty.

The U.S. Merchant Marine suffered a greater percentage of war-related deaths than any other U.S. service, according to USMM.org.

Casualties were kept secret during the war to hide information from the enemy and to attract and keep mariners at sea. The average for 1942 was 33 allied ships sunk each week, according to USMM.org.

Routson’s ships would have at least two more close calls with destruction, but he survived, and contribution from people like him played a vital service in the war.

“The war could not have been won without the Merchant Marine,” Routson, now 82, said. “We couldn’t have gotten cargo to Europe and … there is no way that they could have kept Japan out of Australia without ammunition and airplanes.”

Despite their contribution, because of their civilian status during the war, U.S. Merchant Marine seamen were not recognized as war veterans following the conflict.

“Military bands would never recognize merchant mariners, which irritated me a little bit,” Routson said. “Many of the young people … do not know anything about the Merchant Marine — they don’t even know that it existed.”

Because of the vital role the U.S. Merchant Marine played during World War II, those who served under its flag were finally given veteran status in 1988, but Routson said he did not learn the veteran status applied to him until about two years ago.

Being the only merchant mariner in Laramie, he said he takes special pride when he looks at the blue Merchant Marine flag now raised in the War Memorial Stadium in the University of Wyoming campus.

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Life in the Merchant Marine vessels during World War II was hard.

“We traveled almost two months right on the equator —120 degree temperature,” Routson said as he started to describe a typical tour of duty.

The ships often transported ammunition, food, and fuel to U.S. soldiers dug up in Pacific islands as well as to Australia and New Zealand.

“Everything was done at night,” Routson said. “We discharged waterproof wood containers, using the incoming tide to get them to the beach.”

Code talkers were used to coordinate the droppings.

Although a civilian service, obedience to the ship’s captain was absolute and the mariners had their own discipline and rituals, including a fraternal initiation when a seaman first crossed the equator, according to Routson.

Conditions on the ships were generally confortable for the circumstances, Routson said, and the food was good.

Unarmed before the war started, Merchant Marine vessels were equipped to defend themselves after increased attacks against them by the Germans and Japanese.

They continued to be defenseless below deck, which made the ships vulnerable to submarine attacks, but above deck there were several antiaircraft guns, manned by military detachments.

The civilian crew also had rifles, Routson said.

“All the way through the war were just damn lucky,” Routson said. “It was thanks to the code takers, good captains and an awful lot of luck that we made it.”

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The United Stated entered World War II when Routson was attending the University of Colorado in Boulder.

He interrupted his studies and tried to join the U.S. Navy, but because of his poor eyesight, he could not join.

Routson then headed to San Francisco where he signed up with the Merchant Marine.

In that service he worked as a messenger, engine room cleaner and cook. All his travels kept him in the Pacific Ocean.

After the war, he returned to Colorado to finish his studies in management and marketing of transportation.

That was followed by a doctorate in business from the University of Illinois.

“International business was really neat for this lad, because that’s were my interests were. Having been in the Merchant Marine, I understood cargo,” he said.

Routson came to Laramie to teach for 38 years in the UW College of Business, before retiring in 1986.

From: http://www.laramieboomerang.com/news/more.asp?StoryID=101103

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