On 11/11/11, our country’s 73rd Veterans Day (if you include the 16 years it was known as “Armistice Day”), you’ll probably hear a lot about the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, National Guard and Coast Guard.And for good reason.But you’re not likely to hear much about another group that toiled shoulder to shoulder with those folks.The correct answer, Alex, is: “What is the Merchant Marine?”If you didn’t buzz in, you’re in good company. Almost everyone forgot about the Merchant Marine after World War II, including the U.S. government, which waited until 1988 to finally declare that those who served during America’s biggest conflict would qualify for the same benefits as other veterans.For a lot of Mariners, that development was bittersweet. It came far too late for most of them to cash in on the GI Bill, which would have helped them go to college or buy their first house or take advantage of Veterans Affairs health care before they had already reached the age of Medicare.But at least the change provided some overdue recognition.“The war ended and nobody said, ‘Thank you.’ Nobody said, ‘Great job,’ ” says Bob Merchant — seriously, that’s his last name — a West Akron resident who served from 1944 to 1947.The Merchant Marine is a civilian organization that in peacetime transports private cargo and passengers. During wartime, it can become an arm of the Navy, traversing dangerous waters to deliver soldiers and critical supplies to distant battlegrounds.“If it wasn’t for the Merchant Marine, you’d be speaking Japanese now, or German,” says Merchant, still feisty at 85.“If the soldiers had no bullets or food, they couldn’t fight the war.”Those deliveries came at a high price. According to the Merchant Marine website, USMM.org, “one in 26 Mariners serving aboard merchant ships in World War II died in the line of duty, suffering a greater percentage of war-related deaths than all other U.S. services.”About 9,300 Mariners were killed. The biggest losses came early in the war, before the Navy had installed sufficient weaponry on ships that had not been designed for battle.Merchant was among the lucky ones, young enough to avoid the early years of the conflict and dispatched initially to the Pacific, rather than the North Atlantic, where nearly three-quarters of the fatalities occurred.Not that he had a walk in the park.“I didn’t even have a driver’s license,” he says, chuckling. “I was just a kid.” He joined at 17.Other than enemy subs, mines, destroyers, fighter planes and the seas themselves, he had nothing to worry about.Merchant is a retired graphic artist who spent his career in New York City before moving to Akron in 1995 so that he and his wife, an Akron native, could be closer to his aging mother-in-law.His wife, Marilyn, graduated from Firestone High and the University of Akron, then moved to Manhattan, where she, too, worked as a graphic artist. They met on a tennis court.He jokes about the four decades it took for the federal government to elevate the World War II Mariners to veteran status: “You’re too old to buy a house, you’re on Medicare, we’ll give you a flag, now shut up and go away.”He insists he really isn’t bitter, though. He talks at length about traveling the globe, seeing sights he otherwise never would have seen.“I would never trade the experiences I had, all the countries I visited. It was probably one of the most exciting things I have ever done.”So he’d do it all over again. He just wishes he could have heard a little more cheering.It’s not to late.Bob Dyer can be reached at 330-996-3580 or bdyer@thebeaconjournal.com.