Page 77 - Senior Link Magazine Fall 2022 - Online Magazine

mercHAnt mArineS
WWii

to attend Maritime Officer my wife has only been married percentage of war-related deaths
Candidate School. I completed 37 years!’ After pastoring in than all other branches of the
the course work on November 28, Littlefield and Petersburg, I now service. Then-President Franklin
1945, and was assigned the rank lead the ecumenical church here D. Roosevelt promised the
of Ensign.” According to Schaap, at The Isle at Raider Ranch.” mariners veteran status, but his
“We pretty much had the sea to promise died with him in April
ourselves by the end of 1944 until While young Schaap was “never 1945. A 1988 act of Congress
the end of the war. Most of the really scared” during his time finally recognized Merchant
German submarines had been as a Mariner, a quick review of Mariners as veterans. While
eliminated by that time. In March the losses the Maritime Service Schaap never signed up for the
of 1945, I joined up with the suffered during benefits,
Liberty Ship, SS William Cushing. WWII reveals he is still
On our second trip in May of ’45, tremendous proud of his
we took a load of German POWs sacrifice. service to
back to Germany with armed The ships his country.
Naval Guards on board, just in faced danger Looking
case.” from enemy back on his
submarines, long life,
Mariner Schaap’s time in the mines, armed Louis said,
Merchant Marine was not over at destroyers, “The Lord’s
the end of WWII. Aboard the SS aircraft, and been good to
Makua and the SS Oberlin Victory, the elements. us.” And the
“We made trips up and down the According Merchant
U.S. West Coast. I was discharged to the War Marine
for the last time on January 27, Shipping motto is an
1947.” Administration, accurate
1554 merchant description
“I went home to St. Paul and ships were sunk of his life of
worked for Minnesota Mining during WWII. service. Acta
and Manufacturing (3M) for One in 26 non Verba,
seven years as Boiler Room mariners (8,241 “Deeds Not
Fireman. I met my wife Fern in seamen) serving Words.”
church, and we married in 1947. aboard the
We had five sons. I felt a calling to ships in WWII
go into the ministry and received died in the line
my certificate of ministry into of duty,
the Church of the Nazarene in suffering
1954. My first churches were a higher
in Minnesota, but we moved
to Abernathy, Texas in 1969 to
pastor.

“Fern passed away in 1983 after INDEPENDENT LIVING,
36 years of marriage. Later, I got ASSISTED LIVING &
to know Alma Ruth, while at the MEMORY CARE
Abernathy church. We married
in 1985. Since she had never
been married. I like to say that
‘I’ve been married 73 years, but

(877) 271-5617 www.RaiderRanch.com

Lubbock Senior Link 77