January 7, 2026 • 25 mins
Explore the history and significance of Liberty and Victory ships during and after World War II. Learn about the construction process, the vital role women played in shipbuilding, and how these ships influenced international trade and post-war recovery. The discussion also honors the contributions of Merchant Mariners and emphasizes the importance of remembering the sacrifices made by veterans.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:11):
And welcome back to our Veterans Hoys Radio show and Ralph.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
Dathan Oco and Patrick McAllister a dear friend, Patty. Patty,
I do want to remind everybody two things. One, the
word merchant mariners mariners goes back thousands of years, yeah
on the sea, and it's a very respectful and admired term.
Speaker 3 (00:35):
But I personally also want.
Speaker 2 (00:37):
To remind everybody that I was very honored to have
been part of a movement prior to COVID where we
started the Navy Armed Guard and Merchant Marine Museum originally
in Sebastian and then moved to Vero Beach to the mall,
(00:58):
and unfortunately COVID had shut down so many things, including
we had to shut down the museum.
Speaker 3 (01:05):
It is one of my.
Speaker 2 (01:06):
Legacy in my life that I'm extremely proud of. I've
made lifelong friends, and I certainly became a much more
educated American with a lot of pride and understanding and
respect for the Navy arm Guard and the merchant Mariners.
Speaker 3 (01:23):
God bless all of you and your families.
Speaker 4 (01:26):
Now, the merchant Mariners during the Second World War and
the years and arguably decades after, sadly they were actually despised.
People did not like them. They were seen they were
very often seen as having been too low brow to
(01:48):
be able to get into the military, and you know,
the merchant marine was, you know, by the public, was
seen as kind of a substandard way of pretending like
you did something in the war. But the National World
War Two Museum figures that somewhere between nine thousand, five
(02:13):
hundred to eleven thousand, three hundred merchant mariners lost their
lives as a direct result of wartime service, or just
about four percent or around one in twenty five one
and twenty six.
Speaker 3 (02:30):
Big.
Speaker 4 (02:31):
Now, that was actually a very high fatality rate. And
one of the reasons for the comparatively high mortality rate
for merchant mariners is how slow and exposed the venerable
liberty ships were. On a good day with a right wind,
(02:52):
they maxed out at eleven point five knot for just
over thirteen miles an hour door For a point of reference,
that's about how fast a bunch of neighborhood kids riding
their bikes are going, wow, right around twelve thirteen miles now. So,
(03:13):
in other words, a U boat crew having its worst
day could torpedo a liberty ship on its best day
with ease, okay, And that's something Roosevelt, who had been
the Assistant Secretary of the Navy during the First World War.
(03:34):
That was something Roosevelt absolutely new when he looked at
the blueprints inspecs for the Liberty Ship class, and I
imagine it broke his heart knowing that vulnerable American sailors
were going to die the hands of the U boat.
Now some perspective, marines had about a three percent casualty
(03:58):
rate during the war, so less than the merchant mariners.
The Army had a two point one percent, less the
Navy around zero point nine percent, and Coast Guard zero
point five percent. So in fairness, that's an overall look
at the different services, and soldiers, sailors and airmen doing
(04:20):
specific jobs such as the bomber crews were at much
much higher rate.
Speaker 2 (04:27):
Yeah, okay, Penny, Patty, I do want to add a
couple of footnotes. Number one, you mentioned at the beginning
of the report and show they had to give a
take about fifteen hundred ships were constricted to taking over
whatever you want to call it. And then you said
there were total number in the war about forty two hundred. Yes,
(04:48):
about over twenty seven hundred, over two thousand, seven hundred
liberty ships were planned and completed.
Speaker 4 (04:55):
Ahead, you're jumping ahead of sorry about that, and and
and the longer we go here, the more I'm thinking
we're gonna have to do a part two on those problem. Uh.
But let's jump into those liberty and victory ships. And
by the way, I want to say this, and I'm
gonna mention it again at the end of the show.
(05:20):
There are three surviving liberty ships, uh out there, and
all three of them are are museums, but they're you know,
like Baltimore and and San Diego, far far away. Uh.
There are two or three victory ships, and fortunately for
US Floridians, there is one that is parked over in
(05:46):
Tampa and it is the the American Victory Ship and Museum. Uh.
That is the s S United Victory. Yeah, it's the
SS United Victory and the SS United Victory is parked
(06:08):
over in Tampa. And I'm sorry, no, no, no, The
SS American Victory is the name of the ship and
it is parked in Tampa and it forms the American
Victory Ship and Museum. So we're talking about liberty ships
and a little less so victory ships. Floridians do have
(06:28):
a reasonable opportunity to go see one of the victory ships.
And that's over in Tampa. I'm going to mention that
again at the end of the show. And if you
haven't seen it yet, Ralph, you need to get your
tail end over there to go see that thing. So
in nineteen forty, the British approach is the US with
(06:49):
a design for a mass production cargo ship to try
to replace sixty ships of its war torn fleet. The
US the British were losing ships to German U boat
at a horrific rate. In nineteen forty alan the German
(07:12):
U boat had sunk about five hundred and sixty British
commercial vessels, and so the British were hurting right, So
the US Maritime Commission, which would be that's who owned
the Liberty and Victory ships, by and large, they modified
(07:32):
the design the British design to better fit existing US
manufacturing equipment and practices. The design changes also made the
new craft easier, thus cheaper to build, and the final
design the one that Roosevelt saw on his desk and
nodded and said, boy, that's an ugly Duckling that was
(07:54):
designated EC two s C one. Remember I said that
at the top of the show, circling back to it,
the EC two SC one, which means it's an emergency
cargo four hundred to four hundred and fifty foot range
with a steam engine designed C one. That's what those
(08:16):
letter the Alpha in America stands for. It would be
dubbed the Liberty Ship and made the official new merchant
marine design and Britain would end up with a whole
lot more than sixty American made liberty ships. The ship
was designed for ten thousand, two hundred tons of cargo,
(08:37):
but they routinely carried more. That contributed to early liberty
ships having a bad reputation for hull cracking. Three literally
cracked in two during voyages, and that was one of
the contributing factors to the high casualty rate among merchant mariners.
(09:00):
The Army Transport Service operated some liberty ships, mainly as
mobile maintenance aircraft repair units, but merchant mariners were board
those ships under Army supervision. Now they had this design
for a ship that they intended to make lots and
(09:22):
lots and lots of these, and as Ralph has already
pointed out more than twenty seven hundred were made. So
construction magnate Henry J. Kaiser, a man who had zero
shipbuilding experience, he won the contract to build the Liberty ships.
(09:42):
He'd never made a ship in the bottle, but he
did have the Hoover dam on his residence. So Kaiser
read and then he threw out the shipbuilding Bible and
reimagined the process as an assembly line, putting together prefabricated parts.
(10:04):
There were critics of plenty who insisted that's not how
you build ships. Kaiser did it anyway because the world
didn't need a few great ships tomorrow, it needed a
lot of adequate ships right now. So the first Liberty ship,
(10:25):
to Patrick Henry, was laid down on April thirty, nineteen
forty one, in Baltimore. It was launched with fanfare on
September twenty seventh, nineteen forty one. It was completed on
December thirty, nineteen forty one. President Roosevelt attended the launching
(10:47):
and gave a nice speech. He referenced Patrick Henry's famous quote,
give me liberty, or give.
Speaker 3 (10:54):
Me Dad, that's liberty, Roosevelt.
Speaker 4 (10:59):
Roosevelt declare that the new class of cargo ships would
bring liberty to Europe, and thereafter everybody called them liberty ships.
Speaker 1 (11:08):
It's brilliant. Yea.
Speaker 4 (11:11):
Now we're coming up on a break, aren't we a
minute or so?
Speaker 3 (11:15):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (11:16):
Okay, So very quickly eighteen shipyards, many of them brand new,
were building these Liberty ships. Construction time dropped quickly as
workers spotted and suggested time saving adjustments to the manufacturing process.
Construction time dropped from an average construction time dropped to
(11:41):
an average of less than fifty days forty two days.
Most estimate, at one point three liberty ships a day
were getting launched. And before we go to break, hats
off to the women. At the West Coast shipyards, thirty
to fifty of the Liberty ship workers were women. The
(12:03):
Et Coast Shipyard had a larger existing workforce, but even
there women made up about ten percent of the workforce
building the Liberty ships. So somewhere around twenty percent of
Liberty ship workers were women. Soer halfs off to the ways.
Speaker 2 (12:27):
We're going to take a short break. We'll come back
to the third quarter. I hope that you're enjoying what
we're trying to accomplish here. We're trying to give you
a good reason why we won the war and the
peace in what you think, maybe five years, but how
many years would it have been had it not been
the availability of liberty ships. We'll be right back to
(12:50):
We'll be read back our Veterans Voice Radio.
Speaker 5 (12:53):
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Speaker 1 (13:16):
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Speaker 4 (13:46):
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Speaker 2 (13:56):
Hey, did you hear the latest about our Florida High Woman? No?
What there's High Women Art Gallery and Vero Beach. Really
where eighteen seventy two Commerce Avenue?
Speaker 1 (14:06):
Wow?
Speaker 3 (14:06):
When's it open? Seven days a week?
Speaker 2 (14:08):
Called nine five four five five seven six two two
six for an appointment any time, No kidding, Just call
for your appointment ninety five four five five seven six
two to six and then go to eighteen seventy.
Speaker 3 (14:20):
Two Commerce Avenue. Wow, that's good news. Haha.
Speaker 1 (14:26):
That's our women, and welcome back to Arbin. And so
it's ready show tad light. But there's the applause.
Speaker 2 (14:32):
Never too late to say thank you God, bless you
vote the effort.
Speaker 3 (14:36):
Uh Rosie the Riveter, Yeah, you're alive.
Speaker 2 (14:39):
You always will be alive in my heart in the
American Arts, Patty.
Speaker 4 (14:47):
Yes, I was waiting for your pen zep All right,
let's rush through this so we get all this there.
Speaker 3 (14:52):
Yeah, we got two.
Speaker 4 (14:54):
Thousand seven and ten liberty ships were constructed. The last
ship laid down, the SS Albert bo. It was laid
down on July eleven and launched on September twenty sixth
nineteen forty five. Astute listeners would say, okay, that was
right after the Japanese surrender. Surrender it was delivered to
(15:15):
the Warshipping Administration on October thirty, nineteen forty five. So
they had built two thousand, seven hundred and ten liberty
ships and five hundred and thirty one of their successors,
the victory ships. So after the war, the liberty ships
were heavily involved in getting displaced Japanese soldiers from places
(15:39):
such as China and Korea back home to their family,
and then they kept Japan fed for a couple of years,
as that nation's agriculture and logistics were covered from the war.
The US had during the war devastated the Japanese merchant fleet,
(16:00):
so we gave that nation one hundred liberty ships to
help it get back to the international trade it depended
upon for survival. We gave wester Germany about ninety liberty
ships as and of course I think anyone who lived
(16:22):
through the nineteen seventies knows that the Japanese took full
advantage of that big help. The liberty ships got them
started with. They did a tremendous job of rebuilding their
international merchant fleet. As the US government sold off liberty ships,
(16:43):
they became the affordable backbone of international shipping after the
devastating losses of cargo and tankerships during the World War
So the international trade that became one of the most
important bricks in building a world of peace. Where the
(17:08):
liberty and Victory ships after the war. So not only
did they help us win the war, they ensured that
we would win the peace as well. And there are
two that's the number two surviving liberty ships, both our museums.
One is in Baltimore and the others in San Francisco.
I had said San Diego earlier, and of course I
(17:33):
want to repeat that the SS American Victory, one of
the victory ships is in Tampa. It is the American
Victory Ship and Museum. Uh, you know, for folks to
go visit and see a bit of this really important,
important history.
Speaker 2 (17:53):
I want to remind everybody by the way, you know,
you have to think about a few things here. Number one,
so you've got private companies owning ships. War starts. America
needs ships. America needs soldiers, so we draft the soldiers,
right so what do we do with the ships?
Speaker 3 (18:13):
We drafted the ships.
Speaker 2 (18:15):
Meaning the America the government, US government paid for those ships.
Speaker 3 (18:19):
Am I correct?
Speaker 4 (18:20):
So far, Patty, that is not something I specifically researched for.
Speaker 3 (18:28):
I understand.
Speaker 2 (18:30):
Okay, well that's pretty much. And then trying to just
simplify it. So now you've got the men and you've
got the ships. You win the war, You've cut down
your bullies. Now you help them up again. And now
these ships that helped enhance and speed up the end
(18:53):
of the war and enhance the peace prospects much quicker.
We helped Germany and Japan back on their feet, and
they have become literally, uh peaceful monsters in manufacturing and
in industry and in maritime. All this because of the bitter,
(19:18):
bitter lesson we learned from World War One. And you
see the word communication, we're back to it. We learned
our lesson.
Speaker 4 (19:29):
So and the Liberty ships literally kept Japan bed for
a few years after the war, like we we they
their agriculture was was devastating, and we we literally kept
them fed. And and I believe you know, I'm a
I was born in sixty seven. I'm a gen Xer.
(19:49):
He was one of those kids watching the Saturday afternoon
Monster Mania, you know shows on local independent television stations.
So I seen every Godzilla movie probably five or six
times because I thought I was watching different movies. I believe,
and I could be wrong, but I believe that the
(20:11):
Godzilla movies really very much told Japan's wartime story in
dealing with the United States. And here's what I mean.
In the movies, Godzilla is a very destructive force, you know,
and when he comes ashore, there ain't no stopping him, right,
But who always comes to defend Japan against bigger threats? Godzilla?
(20:38):
And I know I am dead serious. I think that
the Godzilla in the movies is a It is a
metaphor for the United States in how in how that
it was an unstoppable, destructive force that could come aboard
at any time. But when you really needed to be
(21:01):
saved from a from a you know, global threat, who
could you count on? That's right, Godzilla.
Speaker 2 (21:09):
Time interesting though, you know, talking about those times of
the sixties and seventies, you had similar philosophies and interpretations
of the music, like uh, where where that Soldier's gone?
Puff the Magic Dragon? Peter Paula Mari and so on,
(21:31):
and what was behind the motives behind those songs, whether
they were true or Nazi irrelevant. And going back to
Gulliver's travels Jonathan Swift book The Queen and the Liliputians.
The point is it's always somewhere an analogy that.
Speaker 3 (21:50):
Can be and can be interpreted.
Speaker 2 (21:54):
But then you've got current authors right now, Kyle Hyacon
and who's the other one, his buddy.
Speaker 3 (22:01):
From the Moundave Dave Barry.
Speaker 2 (22:04):
Yeah, they can take the same thing and make Godzilla
in their books, so to speak. So your interpretation merits
a lot of value, Patty, Just so.
Speaker 4 (22:15):
You know, and I want to and I want to
give listeners this as well. Those Liberty ships, I said,
there's only two left. A lot of those Liberty ships
are still out there in service doing good. For example,
forty of the Liberty ships were sunk off of Florida's
(22:38):
coast to help create breeding reaps inter sae. So those
Liberty ships are still out there serving us. Wow. What
an amazing little guy.
Speaker 1 (22:50):
Yeah eighty years later.
Speaker 3 (22:51):
Yeah, Patty, that was first of all, thank you for
part one.
Speaker 2 (22:55):
We'll be back within a few times, give it take
three or four weeks with Part two. But next week
I will also take a moment to reflect about one
of the honorable mentions next week, a soldier World War Two.
Speaker 3 (23:16):
What he went through.
Speaker 2 (23:18):
We will honor him because he just passed away, and
I learned a bitter lesson because I didn't realize why
he was what he was when he died. You have
no idea what I'm talking about, but you will, and
when I get through with it, you will have a
better understanding and respect for our veterans. So God bless
all of you, and all I can tell you is
(23:40):
I am proud to be an American.
Speaker 1 (23:47):
Doctor Hugh Gilmour, the Third Navy, First Responder.
Speaker 3 (23:51):
Wayne Kellen Messer.
Speaker 1 (23:53):
Navy, Stanley Flanders.
Speaker 3 (23:55):
Navy, Robert L.
Speaker 2 (23:57):
Stocker, Army Judge William Dane, Junior Navy.
Speaker 3 (24:01):
Allan Graham Greer Navy.
Speaker 1 (24:05):
William Winfield Cunningham, the Third Navy.
Speaker 3 (24:09):
Gerald Jerry F. Leffardy Navy, Vietnam.
Speaker 1 (24:13):
Doctor Harry ernestz Heinich, the Third Army, Special Forces.
Speaker 2 (24:20):
Doctor Mark Moran, first Responder, and all of our other
fallen heroes. God, I'd love to be able to share
with you our pride in what they have accomplished for
the peace of this not just country, but the world.
God bless all of our fallen heroes, our brothers and sisters.
Thank you for your service. I and we proudly salute you.
(24:45):
Rest in peace forever
Speaker 4 (25:01):
See wh
And welcome back to our Veterans Hoys Radio show and Ralph.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
Dathan Oco and Patrick McAllister a dear friend, Patty. Patty,
I do want to remind everybody two things. One, the
word merchant mariners mariners goes back thousands of years, yeah
on the sea, and it's a very respectful and admired term.
Speaker 3 (00:35):
But I personally also want.
Speaker 2 (00:37):
To remind everybody that I was very honored to have
been part of a movement prior to COVID where we
started the Navy Armed Guard and Merchant Marine Museum originally
in Sebastian and then moved to Vero Beach to the mall,
(00:58):
and unfortunately COVID had shut down so many things, including
we had to shut down the museum.
Speaker 3 (01:05):
It is one of my.
Speaker 2 (01:06):
Legacy in my life that I'm extremely proud of. I've
made lifelong friends, and I certainly became a much more
educated American with a lot of pride and understanding and
respect for the Navy arm Guard and the merchant Mariners.
Speaker 3 (01:23):
God bless all of you and your families.
Speaker 4 (01:26):
Now, the merchant Mariners during the Second World War and
the years and arguably decades after, sadly they were actually despised.
People did not like them. They were seen they were
very often seen as having been too low brow to
(01:48):
be able to get into the military, and you know,
the merchant marine was, you know, by the public, was
seen as kind of a substandard way of pretending like
you did something in the war. But the National World
War Two Museum figures that somewhere between nine thousand, five
(02:13):
hundred to eleven thousand, three hundred merchant mariners lost their
lives as a direct result of wartime service, or just
about four percent or around one in twenty five one
and twenty six.
Speaker 3 (02:30):
Big.
Speaker 4 (02:31):
Now, that was actually a very high fatality rate. And
one of the reasons for the comparatively high mortality rate
for merchant mariners is how slow and exposed the venerable
liberty ships were. On a good day with a right wind,
(02:52):
they maxed out at eleven point five knot for just
over thirteen miles an hour door For a point of reference,
that's about how fast a bunch of neighborhood kids riding
their bikes are going, wow, right around twelve thirteen miles now. So,
(03:13):
in other words, a U boat crew having its worst
day could torpedo a liberty ship on its best day
with ease, okay, And that's something Roosevelt, who had been
the Assistant Secretary of the Navy during the First World War.
(03:34):
That was something Roosevelt absolutely new when he looked at
the blueprints inspecs for the Liberty Ship class, and I
imagine it broke his heart knowing that vulnerable American sailors
were going to die the hands of the U boat.
Now some perspective, marines had about a three percent casualty
(03:58):
rate during the war, so less than the merchant mariners.
The Army had a two point one percent, less the
Navy around zero point nine percent, and Coast Guard zero
point five percent. So in fairness, that's an overall look
at the different services, and soldiers, sailors and airmen doing
(04:20):
specific jobs such as the bomber crews were at much
much higher rate.
Speaker 2 (04:27):
Yeah, okay, Penny, Patty, I do want to add a
couple of footnotes. Number one, you mentioned at the beginning
of the report and show they had to give a
take about fifteen hundred ships were constricted to taking over
whatever you want to call it. And then you said
there were total number in the war about forty two hundred. Yes,
(04:48):
about over twenty seven hundred, over two thousand, seven hundred
liberty ships were planned and completed.
Speaker 4 (04:55):
Ahead, you're jumping ahead of sorry about that, and and
and the longer we go here, the more I'm thinking
we're gonna have to do a part two on those problem. Uh.
But let's jump into those liberty and victory ships. And
by the way, I want to say this, and I'm
gonna mention it again at the end of the show.
(05:20):
There are three surviving liberty ships, uh out there, and
all three of them are are museums, but they're you know,
like Baltimore and and San Diego, far far away. Uh.
There are two or three victory ships, and fortunately for
US Floridians, there is one that is parked over in
(05:46):
Tampa and it is the the American Victory Ship and Museum. Uh.
That is the s S United Victory. Yeah, it's the
SS United Victory and the SS United Victory is parked
(06:08):
over in Tampa. And I'm sorry, no, no, no, The
SS American Victory is the name of the ship and
it is parked in Tampa and it forms the American
Victory Ship and Museum. So we're talking about liberty ships
and a little less so victory ships. Floridians do have
(06:28):
a reasonable opportunity to go see one of the victory ships.
And that's over in Tampa. I'm going to mention that
again at the end of the show. And if you
haven't seen it yet, Ralph, you need to get your
tail end over there to go see that thing. So
in nineteen forty, the British approach is the US with
(06:49):
a design for a mass production cargo ship to try
to replace sixty ships of its war torn fleet. The
US the British were losing ships to German U boat
at a horrific rate. In nineteen forty alan the German
(07:12):
U boat had sunk about five hundred and sixty British
commercial vessels, and so the British were hurting right, So
the US Maritime Commission, which would be that's who owned
the Liberty and Victory ships, by and large, they modified
(07:32):
the design the British design to better fit existing US
manufacturing equipment and practices. The design changes also made the
new craft easier, thus cheaper to build, and the final
design the one that Roosevelt saw on his desk and
nodded and said, boy, that's an ugly Duckling that was
(07:54):
designated EC two s C one. Remember I said that
at the top of the show, circling back to it,
the EC two SC one, which means it's an emergency
cargo four hundred to four hundred and fifty foot range
with a steam engine designed C one. That's what those
(08:16):
letter the Alpha in America stands for. It would be
dubbed the Liberty Ship and made the official new merchant
marine design and Britain would end up with a whole
lot more than sixty American made liberty ships. The ship
was designed for ten thousand, two hundred tons of cargo,
(08:37):
but they routinely carried more. That contributed to early liberty
ships having a bad reputation for hull cracking. Three literally
cracked in two during voyages, and that was one of
the contributing factors to the high casualty rate among merchant mariners.
(09:00):
The Army Transport Service operated some liberty ships, mainly as
mobile maintenance aircraft repair units, but merchant mariners were board
those ships under Army supervision. Now they had this design
for a ship that they intended to make lots and
(09:22):
lots and lots of these, and as Ralph has already
pointed out more than twenty seven hundred were made. So
construction magnate Henry J. Kaiser, a man who had zero
shipbuilding experience, he won the contract to build the Liberty ships.
(09:42):
He'd never made a ship in the bottle, but he
did have the Hoover dam on his residence. So Kaiser
read and then he threw out the shipbuilding Bible and
reimagined the process as an assembly line, putting together prefabricated parts.
(10:04):
There were critics of plenty who insisted that's not how
you build ships. Kaiser did it anyway because the world
didn't need a few great ships tomorrow, it needed a
lot of adequate ships right now. So the first Liberty ship,
(10:25):
to Patrick Henry, was laid down on April thirty, nineteen
forty one, in Baltimore. It was launched with fanfare on
September twenty seventh, nineteen forty one. It was completed on
December thirty, nineteen forty one. President Roosevelt attended the launching
(10:47):
and gave a nice speech. He referenced Patrick Henry's famous quote,
give me liberty, or give.
Speaker 3 (10:54):
Me Dad, that's liberty, Roosevelt.
Speaker 4 (10:59):
Roosevelt declare that the new class of cargo ships would
bring liberty to Europe, and thereafter everybody called them liberty ships.
Speaker 1 (11:08):
It's brilliant. Yea.
Speaker 4 (11:11):
Now we're coming up on a break, aren't we a
minute or so?
Speaker 3 (11:15):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (11:16):
Okay, So very quickly eighteen shipyards, many of them brand new,
were building these Liberty ships. Construction time dropped quickly as
workers spotted and suggested time saving adjustments to the manufacturing process.
Construction time dropped from an average construction time dropped to
(11:41):
an average of less than fifty days forty two days.
Most estimate, at one point three liberty ships a day
were getting launched. And before we go to break, hats
off to the women. At the West Coast shipyards, thirty
to fifty of the Liberty ship workers were women. The
(12:03):
Et Coast Shipyard had a larger existing workforce, but even
there women made up about ten percent of the workforce
building the Liberty ships. So somewhere around twenty percent of
Liberty ship workers were women. Soer halfs off to the ways.
Speaker 2 (12:27):
We're going to take a short break. We'll come back
to the third quarter. I hope that you're enjoying what
we're trying to accomplish here. We're trying to give you
a good reason why we won the war and the
peace in what you think, maybe five years, but how
many years would it have been had it not been
the availability of liberty ships. We'll be right back to
(12:50):
We'll be read back our Veterans Voice Radio.
Speaker 5 (12:53):
I'm doctor Tim Anitas at Treasure Coast Dermatology. At Treasure
Coast Dermatology, we believe in the prevention and early detection
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We feel by not trying to do too much, we
(13:15):
can do more for our patients.
Speaker 1 (13:16):
Call Tolfree eight seven seven eight seven zero dirm that's
eight seven seven eight seven zero three three seven six.
Speaker 6 (13:26):
Meet Stephanie Nagel Patients of Florida I Institute. Prior to
coming here, I wur glasses and the fact is I
don't have I don't have any need for glasses. I
probably have better vision than I ever did thanks to
doctor Zudaine and his expertise. He's very good at what
he does.
Speaker 4 (13:46):
Are you ready to experience truly exceptional patient care Florida
I Institute.
Speaker 2 (13:56):
Hey, did you hear the latest about our Florida High Woman? No?
What there's High Women Art Gallery and Vero Beach. Really
where eighteen seventy two Commerce Avenue?
Speaker 1 (14:06):
Wow?
Speaker 3 (14:06):
When's it open? Seven days a week?
Speaker 2 (14:08):
Called nine five four five five seven six two two
six for an appointment any time, No kidding, Just call
for your appointment ninety five four five five seven six
two to six and then go to eighteen seventy.
Speaker 3 (14:20):
Two Commerce Avenue. Wow, that's good news. Haha.
Speaker 1 (14:26):
That's our women, and welcome back to Arbin. And so
it's ready show tad light. But there's the applause.
Speaker 2 (14:32):
Never too late to say thank you God, bless you
vote the effort.
Speaker 3 (14:36):
Uh Rosie the Riveter, Yeah, you're alive.
Speaker 2 (14:39):
You always will be alive in my heart in the
American Arts, Patty.
Speaker 4 (14:47):
Yes, I was waiting for your pen zep All right,
let's rush through this so we get all this there.
Speaker 3 (14:52):
Yeah, we got two.
Speaker 4 (14:54):
Thousand seven and ten liberty ships were constructed. The last
ship laid down, the SS Albert bo. It was laid
down on July eleven and launched on September twenty sixth
nineteen forty five. Astute listeners would say, okay, that was
right after the Japanese surrender. Surrender it was delivered to
(15:15):
the Warshipping Administration on October thirty, nineteen forty five. So
they had built two thousand, seven hundred and ten liberty
ships and five hundred and thirty one of their successors,
the victory ships. So after the war, the liberty ships
were heavily involved in getting displaced Japanese soldiers from places
(15:39):
such as China and Korea back home to their family,
and then they kept Japan fed for a couple of years,
as that nation's agriculture and logistics were covered from the war.
The US had during the war devastated the Japanese merchant fleet,
(16:00):
so we gave that nation one hundred liberty ships to
help it get back to the international trade it depended
upon for survival. We gave wester Germany about ninety liberty
ships as and of course I think anyone who lived
(16:22):
through the nineteen seventies knows that the Japanese took full
advantage of that big help. The liberty ships got them
started with. They did a tremendous job of rebuilding their
international merchant fleet. As the US government sold off liberty ships,
(16:43):
they became the affordable backbone of international shipping after the
devastating losses of cargo and tankerships during the World War
So the international trade that became one of the most
important bricks in building a world of peace. Where the
(17:08):
liberty and Victory ships after the war. So not only
did they help us win the war, they ensured that
we would win the peace as well. And there are
two that's the number two surviving liberty ships, both our museums.
One is in Baltimore and the others in San Francisco.
I had said San Diego earlier, and of course I
(17:33):
want to repeat that the SS American Victory, one of
the victory ships is in Tampa. It is the American
Victory Ship and Museum. Uh, you know, for folks to
go visit and see a bit of this really important,
important history.
Speaker 2 (17:53):
I want to remind everybody by the way, you know,
you have to think about a few things here. Number one,
so you've got private companies owning ships. War starts. America
needs ships. America needs soldiers, so we draft the soldiers,
right so what do we do with the ships?
Speaker 3 (18:13):
We drafted the ships.
Speaker 2 (18:15):
Meaning the America the government, US government paid for those ships.
Speaker 3 (18:19):
Am I correct?
Speaker 4 (18:20):
So far, Patty, that is not something I specifically researched for.
Speaker 3 (18:28):
I understand.
Speaker 2 (18:30):
Okay, well that's pretty much. And then trying to just
simplify it. So now you've got the men and you've
got the ships. You win the war, You've cut down
your bullies. Now you help them up again. And now
these ships that helped enhance and speed up the end
(18:53):
of the war and enhance the peace prospects much quicker.
We helped Germany and Japan back on their feet, and
they have become literally, uh peaceful monsters in manufacturing and
in industry and in maritime. All this because of the bitter,
(19:18):
bitter lesson we learned from World War One. And you
see the word communication, we're back to it. We learned
our lesson.
Speaker 4 (19:29):
So and the Liberty ships literally kept Japan bed for
a few years after the war, like we we they
their agriculture was was devastating, and we we literally kept
them fed. And and I believe you know, I'm a
I was born in sixty seven. I'm a gen Xer.
(19:49):
He was one of those kids watching the Saturday afternoon
Monster Mania, you know shows on local independent television stations.
So I seen every Godzilla movie probably five or six
times because I thought I was watching different movies. I believe,
and I could be wrong, but I believe that the
(20:11):
Godzilla movies really very much told Japan's wartime story in
dealing with the United States. And here's what I mean.
In the movies, Godzilla is a very destructive force, you know,
and when he comes ashore, there ain't no stopping him, right,
But who always comes to defend Japan against bigger threats? Godzilla?
(20:38):
And I know I am dead serious. I think that
the Godzilla in the movies is a It is a
metaphor for the United States in how in how that
it was an unstoppable, destructive force that could come aboard
at any time. But when you really needed to be
(21:01):
saved from a from a you know, global threat, who
could you count on? That's right, Godzilla.
Speaker 2 (21:09):
Time interesting though, you know, talking about those times of
the sixties and seventies, you had similar philosophies and interpretations
of the music, like uh, where where that Soldier's gone?
Puff the Magic Dragon? Peter Paula Mari and so on,
(21:31):
and what was behind the motives behind those songs, whether
they were true or Nazi irrelevant. And going back to
Gulliver's travels Jonathan Swift book The Queen and the Liliputians.
The point is it's always somewhere an analogy that.
Speaker 3 (21:50):
Can be and can be interpreted.
Speaker 2 (21:54):
But then you've got current authors right now, Kyle Hyacon
and who's the other one, his buddy.
Speaker 3 (22:01):
From the Moundave Dave Barry.
Speaker 2 (22:04):
Yeah, they can take the same thing and make Godzilla
in their books, so to speak. So your interpretation merits
a lot of value, Patty, Just so.
Speaker 4 (22:15):
You know, and I want to and I want to
give listeners this as well. Those Liberty ships, I said,
there's only two left. A lot of those Liberty ships
are still out there in service doing good. For example,
forty of the Liberty ships were sunk off of Florida's
(22:38):
coast to help create breeding reaps inter sae. So those
Liberty ships are still out there serving us. Wow. What
an amazing little guy.
Speaker 1 (22:50):
Yeah eighty years later.
Speaker 3 (22:51):
Yeah, Patty, that was first of all, thank you for
part one.
Speaker 2 (22:55):
We'll be back within a few times, give it take
three or four weeks with Part two. But next week
I will also take a moment to reflect about one
of the honorable mentions next week, a soldier World War Two.
Speaker 3 (23:16):
What he went through.
Speaker 2 (23:18):
We will honor him because he just passed away, and
I learned a bitter lesson because I didn't realize why
he was what he was when he died. You have
no idea what I'm talking about, but you will, and
when I get through with it, you will have a
better understanding and respect for our veterans. So God bless
all of you, and all I can tell you is
(23:40):
I am proud to be an American.
Speaker 1 (23:47):
Doctor Hugh Gilmour, the Third Navy, First Responder.
Speaker 3 (23:51):
Wayne Kellen Messer.
Speaker 1 (23:53):
Navy, Stanley Flanders.
Speaker 3 (23:55):
Navy, Robert L.
Speaker 2 (23:57):
Stocker, Army Judge William Dane, Junior Navy.
Speaker 3 (24:01):
Allan Graham Greer Navy.
Speaker 1 (24:05):
William Winfield Cunningham, the Third Navy.
Speaker 3 (24:09):
Gerald Jerry F. Leffardy Navy, Vietnam.
Speaker 1 (24:13):
Doctor Harry ernestz Heinich, the Third Army, Special Forces.
Speaker 2 (24:20):
Doctor Mark Moran, first Responder, and all of our other
fallen heroes. God, I'd love to be able to share
with you our pride in what they have accomplished for
the peace of this not just country, but the world.
God bless all of our fallen heroes, our brothers and sisters.
Thank you for your service. I and we proudly salute you.
(24:45):
Rest in peace forever
Speaker 4 (25:01):
See wh
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