U.S. Merchant Marine Academy Kings Pointers in WW II
A Tribute to the Cadets and Graduates of
the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy and
Cadet Corps Who Died during World War II.
Welcome
The majority of the information on this web site was originally published in Braving the Wartime Seas by the American Maritime History Project in 2014. Additional information is the result of research undertaken after Braving the Wartime Seas was published.
Sailing in Harm's Way
Sailing in Harm's Way
While this web site specifically honors the Kings Pointers who died, we
will never forget nor minimize the estimated 243,000 men and women
who served in the merchant marine during WWII and the estimated
8,421 who were killed at sea, killed as prisoners of war, and those who
died from wounds later ashore. Post-war analysis of casualty ratios found that the Merchant Marine was second only to the U.S. Marine Corps in casualties. Kings Point records indicate that the average age of the deceased Cadet-Midshipmen was less than 21 years of age. Kings Point is the only federal Academy that sends its students into “harms way” during their training.
The Battle Standard
The Battle Standard
Because of their supreme sacrifice, the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy is the only one of the nation’s five federal academies authorized to carry a Battle Standard flag as part of its color guard. The proud and colorful Battle Standard perpetuates the memory of 142 Kings Point Cadet-Midshipmen who died during World War II.
The 142
The 142
The number 142 is enshrined at the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy. Every plebe learns within days of reporting to Kings Point that 142 Cadet-Midshipmen died during World War II. Their names, along with the names of graduates who died, are cast in bronze on the memorial facing Long Island Sound.
Yet the history of that hallowed number was hard to pin down in regard to the circumstances and other details of their death. Several of the 142 died while in training—by accident or illness in the United States, far from the enemy’s torpedoes or bombs. Others, even while overseas in combat areas, died of disease, shipboard accidents, or in a traffic accident while ashore seeing the sights of exotic foreign lands. The same is also true for the Academy’s alumni who died during the war. There is some confusion about how the number 142 came about. A New York Times article on March 16, 1946, mentions, “War memorial services for the 132 Cadet-Midshipmen who lost their lives in training at sea with the Cadet Corps.” Other accounts indicate that Vice Admiral Gordon McClintock, the Academy’s longest serving Superintendent, simply decreed that 142 was the number and ordered his staff to make the number work.
Research into the Academy’s historical documents, both at the Academy and in the National Archives, shows that the end of World War II was a chaotic period in many ways. One of the methods of determining which of the thousands of wartime U.S. Maritime Commission Cadets, Cadet Officers, Cadet-Midshipmen, and Academy’s graduates had died was by sending letters to their last known address—on the assumption that the Post Office would forward the letters and the recipient would respond. This method worked very well, but not perfectly.
Thus, the name of one alumnus who did not actually die until 1997 is on the War Memorial. Nothing is perfect, especially when dealing with human beings during wartime. However, the importance of 142 to Kings Point and Kings Pointers is not whether the number is factually correct. The actual number is irrelevant; 142 is the symbol that defines Kings Point as a unique institution, the only federal Academy that routinely sends its students into combat. Only Kings Point has the honor of having a Regimental Battle Standard. The Academy would still have its Regimental Battle Standard if only fourteen Cadet-Midshipmen had died in World War II combat.
Should the War Memorial be “corrected” or 142 changed?
No.
The names of Kings Pointers on the memorial who didn’t die in World War II represents all the thousands of Kings Pointers who volunteered to go into combat, came back, graduated, and moved on with their lives. The names on the War Memorial include the 142, Maritime Commission Cadet Officers, and Kings Point graduates; every one of them, whoever they might be, represents the ultimate expression of the Academy’s motto, “Acta Non Verba—Deeds not words.”
Every Kings Pointer is a volunteer, just like the 142. No one can force a person to go to Kings Point, let alone graduate; just like no one could force the 142 to go where they would ultimately die. This is the real message of the 142 to the generations of Kings Pointers who made the Academy what it is today and for those that will shape its future.
